As of mid-July, my debut novel has been out!

BookPage says: "Airrelle of the Maroon Witches is a fantasy bursting at the seams with botanical richness, colorful and textured realms, and a bounty of animal patrons. Readers will be fully immersed."

I haven't been posting online because of the whirlwind of a time I’ve spent promoting it irl!

First I met the Clarion class of 2026 and I was reminded that the future of SFF (and therefore, the future) is in good hands!

At the invitation of my admired UCSD mentor Jac, I gave a talk at UCSD as part of Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers’ Masterclass titled Dancing About Architecture: Embracing Interdisciplinary Inspiration and the Influence of Other Art Mediums.

It was a room of maybe 100 people, so it definitely was a step-up from my one-off classes and TAship days. I would have been satisfied if I inspired even five people. Enough folks came up to me with praise and thanks after the fact that I really do feel like I made a difference. Tetia was right about being thankful for thanks!
My day was made! ☺️

The masterclass was part of Comic-Con Week: where I was on a panel with Kim Bussing (an inspiring reinterpreter of princesses), LeYuen Pham (a powerhouse of illustration!) and Jennifer Lee (an icon responsible for some of my fave Disney films).

I got to meet Becca of Meet Cute and work with my favorite local bookstore, Mysterious Galaxy. Hopefully I made new friends. I definitely got a lot of fun recs, copped a couple of signed books, and did some signing of my own.

I did not get to see Matt Dinniman, sadly. But I did get to meet Chuck Tingle.

That said, my release party is coming up soon on August 8th—this Saturday!

I’m saving up my social energy for that, but that def won’t be the end of the promo tour—and it’s really only the beginning of building local literary ties. Until later!