Shiny, Happy People

According to the Wikipedia page for that R.E.M. song, there was once a rumor that the term “shiny happy people” was inspired by a Chinese government propaganda poster seen after Tiennamen Square massacre. Then R.E.M. was like, “No, this song is about spreading love,” and then in 2024 bassist Mike Mills (because count on a bassist to give you the unadulterated scoop) was like, “Actually we wrote this song for kids?” I assume he also followed this up with, “You all have bad taste and when I play this song I want to vomit in my mouth,” but that was not disclosed in the interview. Or maybe I’m giving R.E.M. too much credit. “Losing my Religion” was about being at a house party where your crush isn’t interested in you. It’s the straight 90s boy version of “Dancing on My Own” by Robyn. 

Nevertheless, the great part about creating art is that it doesn’t matter what you meant, because my musically uncultured ass is going to make up my own meaning and probably my own lyrics. So I prefer to interpret “Shiny Happy People” as a satirical reference to the way we all have to pretend that everything is fine, actually! as we personally bear witness to the slow and inevitable fall of American democracy, accelerating global ecological system collapse, and the unrelenting procession of rom-com movies that don’t have the courage to show people fucking on screen. (Tbh this bread & circus situation is simply not premium for me? I’m just saying, I’d be willing to temporarily forget about a LOT OF SHIT going on in the world right now if I could get down on some really good focaccia bread. Maybe with little olives and rosemary all over it, all crispy and hot out of the oven?? I just know that when I feel that olive oil sluice down my fingers, everything will feel okay, for just a little bit.)

***

I haven’t written a newsletter since July because I didn’t think I had anything worth writing about. And then I was like, wow, Narcissus called from his pond and he said to get the fuck over yourself and write a newsletter. 

Writing Updates

• SPECTRAL HEALING, my Casper the Friendly Ghost retelling featuring Sibylle from Midnight Duet, went on submission at the end of July. “Publishing is moving slowly right now,” everyone reassures me, but I already know the truth is that I’m never getting another publishing contract again and I will die penniless and in obscurity! Just kidding, giving up is for cowards and people with viable career alternatives. I actually do have other cool things in the works and I promise I will publish another book. Like Maxine from What is Love?, my toxic trait is refusing to accept defeat. 

• I had the fascinating experience of watching What is Love? go through the process of acquiring a film agent, getting a director attached, having a slide deck pitched at meetings with production companies, and then getting benched due to lack of interest. This is what happens to 99.9% of book-to-movie adaptations so I’m not surprised, just disappointed in Los Angeles’ utter lack of producers with business savvy, because I know this movie would have been a barnburner. Just think of all the people who love Jeopardy! and the venn diagram overlap of people who love 69ing under a parachute! It’s the classic Hollywood blockbuster formula!!!

Upcoming Events

• Love Y’All Fest 2025 (Decatur, GA, Feb 14-16): I will be attending Love Y’All Fest again in February as Jo Segura’s assistant! I wasn’t invited back as a signing author, but I wanted to go anyway because I had such a good time last year and I miss all my author and reader friends. Let me know if I’ll get to see you there! 

• Unromance Book Release - Conversation Partner w/ Erin Connor (@ Rachel Bloom Books in PDX, Jan. 14th, 7pm) - Anita Kelly introduced me to fellow PDX-area author Erin earlier this year and I was immediately like, “Did we just become best friends?!” because she’s also bi, neurodiverse, tall, and has a giant malamute girl dog. So I’m obviously biased when I say this, but when I read her debut book I realized it’s going to be an instant bestseller and you should all pre-order it!!! My unofficial blurb for this book is: “I can't explain this but if Chappell Roan and a Hallmark Christmas movie made a wholesome, slutty little baby it would be this book.”

Other Cool Things I Did

• In August I had the honor of sitting on panels at my hometown bookstore, Powells, for Romance Bookstore Day along with some of my favorite people. This was particularly satisfying for me on a personal level because Powell’s rejected me like three times in a row when I asked to do my book launches there. Now they invited me! Beg for my favor now, peasants! (If anyone from Powell’s is reading this, I’m totally joking, omg please for the love of god keep stocking my books!!) Anyway, all credit for my invite goes to Katherine Johnson, proprietor of PDX’s new (and only!) romance-first bookstore, Grand Gesture! If you’re ever in town, this place is a must visit. And then you have to tell me you’re in town, so I can meet you there.

  

Personal Updates

• My fiance finally moved into my place, which was only delayed for logistical reasons and not romantic ones, but I gotta say that it sure is nice to be marrying a morning person. By the time I drag myself out of bed, he’s already made coffee, fed & taken out the dogs, and put a bagel in the toaster for me. I don’t know what I thought romance was before this, but I'm confident this is the echelon. He also goes to the grocery store and vacuums the house… for fun. What a sick little freak! I’m so lucky. I found my own Teddy Ferguson, even though I wrote that character before I met Jason. For the first 36 years of my life I regularly moped about my objectively bad luck and even worse taste in partners, but the universe is forgiven now. 

Hey kids, do you like reading BOOKS?

In other news, I have had the honor and privilege of blurbing many good books that have both inspired and intimidated me. A non-exhaustive list:

• Whenever You’re Ready by Rachel Runya Katz - first of all, my blurb for this book is on the back cover of the US edition and the front(!!!) cover of the UK edition, which is fucking RAD as hell! But it’s not about me, let’s talk about Rachel’s second book, the rom-com-traum of your angsty, horny, sapphic dreams. Two best friends who are secretly OBSESSED with each other decide to go on a Southern-Jewish history road trip to celebrate the life of their recently deceased third BFF. Don’t let the heavy background context or Rachel’s lyrical prose fool you; this book is also wryly funny and gratuitously sexy. I read this on a plane and I have never been so aware of how hot and sweaty planes are??? Omg she’s straddling her to apply eyeliner just like in that meme??? STOP I’m extra gay now. :)

  

• The Odds of Getting Even by Amanda Sellet - The hero is a golden retriever SNAKE SCIENTIST and the heroine is a black cat resort employee and Amanda’s voice is so funny that I felt personally threatened, actually. I wrote that in my blurb but I guess her publisher didn’t want that kind of honesty on the cover so they edited that part out. Here’s the unedited version: “The Odds of Getting Even froths with whip-smart, voice-y humor and over-the-top fun. Amanda Sellet--who takes the comedy part of rom-com seriously--bravely answers the question that has hounded philosophers for millennia: what if Forgetting Sarah Marshall took place at a beer-sponsored music festival in Deadwood? I broke my e-reader by highlighting every other line in this book and I'm upset that Amanda is funnier than I am. If you like black cat heroines and golden retriever nerds, vaguely implausible plots grounded in self-aware realism, and making fun of rich people, then this book is for you. 10/10 snakes agree that this rom-com is hiss-terically funny."

• Second Tide’s the Charm by Chandra Blumberg - I love sharks and I love marine biologists and Chandra is also an amazing human so naturally I begged and pleaded for an ARC of this book when I met her in person at Spring Fling. My blurb: "Chandra does what she does best in SECOND TIDE'S THE CHARM--delivering witty writing, nuanced characters, heartwarming romance, and maximum nerdiness in this absolute gem of a summer romance. Heroine Hope can't stop talking about sharks, and I can't stop talking about this book!"

• Fan Service by Rosie Danan - Look, I love all of Rosie’s books. But this one is hands-down my favorite. She levels up with each book and this one was basically written FOR ME and my personal favorite catnip interests. It is one of my favorite romcoms, period. I cannot express enough how flawless this book is. It gave me a mortal crisis because even though Rosie is my friend, I’m also a huge fan, so how am I ever going to act cool around her ever again?? My blurb (part of which is ALSO on the back cover!!!): "Rosie wrote this book specifically for me and my interests and I am obsessed! Goth heroine? Check. Tortured himbo hero? Check. Bonkers premise? Double check. Horny suffering? There's no check mark big enough. Absolutely flawless rom-com by every definition of the genre--an absolute must-read! If this book is not an instant bestseller I will stage a dramatically emotional and very confused protest the likes of which my cat has never seen." 

• Steel my Heart by Nellie Wilson - like all of Nellie’s books, this book is unapologetically queer and neurodiverse and smart and steamy. She writes such vividly real characters that you don’t want to let them go afterward. Nellie doesn’t do bonkers plots; her books are so firmly grounded in reality, with every detail so meticulously researched (for fun! She was a contestant on Jeopardy!), that you always set the book down feeling like, “This kind of love is real and it could happen to me.” Her books are true comfort reads. They’re genuine cashmere sweaters with extra long sleeves you can pull down over your fingers. You can also read these books when you’re really high and still follow the plot and I mean that as a compliment. Here’s my blurb: "In STEEL MY HEART, Nellie Wilson gifts readers a love letter to Appalachia, to second chances with first loves, to neurodiverse heroines, and to finding your authentic self. If you love gentle romances that are as steamy as they are smart, you won't want to miss this one.”

• Unromance by Erin Connor - I already raved about how this book will be an instant bestseller and it’s true, but here’s my blurb: “Erin's writing is so fresh, so funny, and so skilled, that if you told me she was Nora Ephron reborn as a millennial, I would believe you. UNROMANCE makes familiar conventions feel brand new again in this lovingly self-aware send-up of the genre--even the most jaded readers will be inspired to dash through the airport and dramatically declare their love to this book. Fans of Ava Wilder won't want to miss this very fun, very steamy rom-com!" 

• Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura - Last but not least, Jo has a new book out in January!! I didn’t actually blurb this book (or maybe I did?? I don’t remember???) but that’s not because I don’t love it! As most of you probably know, Jo is one of my two ride-or-die crit partners so I beta-read Temple very early on and I’m emotionally attached to Miri and Rafa’s story as if they were my godchildren. My real (unofficial) godchild is Henrik, Jo’s dog, and he thinks you should pre-order this book!! 

I won’t lie to you: I know my blurbs are brilliant. I didn’t know I was so good at writing blurbs until I started doing them. Sometimes, blurbing feels like a burden because I rarely have time to read, but it’s such a precious thing to have someone trust me with an ARC of their book and I love being a hype woman for books and authors I believe in. That said, when I finally finished my blurb queue last month, I was ECSTATIC because I’ve had so many books on my tbr that I’d been dying to read. Here are a few that I finally got to read (or listen to on audiobook) that I’d also recommend:

• The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson

• The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren

• The Art of Scandal by Regina Blackj

And finally, my friend Jasmine Silvera’s third book in her Tooth & Spell werewolves-meet-witches series is out today!! Get Charming Dawn for all your soft bad boi werewolf needs.

Final Thoughts:

It’s been hard to either read or write ever since the election. Even though I describe myself as an optimistic pessimist (plan for and expect the worst, hope for the best anyway despite all logic and reason), I still struggle with the grief of accepting that things will get worse before they get better–but for so many people and animals on this earth, there will not be a “better.” We’re in a worst-case scenario for climate change, and the world we leave behind for future generations will not be the same world we grew up in. How do we appreciate what we have in the present without it being tainted by that knowledge? How do we keep trying when it feels like Bad Things are inevitable?

I don’t have the perfect, poignant answer. All I know is that it feels wrong to give up. I believe that we have a duty to do our best to make the world a better place, even if it’s just our tiny corner of it. I find it’s easier to get out of bed in the morning if I focus on the things I can impact. I’m not responsible for fixing everything. But I can try to be a better person today than I was yesterday. I can put kindness into the world, even when the world feels like a void. I can be a little braver than yesterday and take one step outside my comfort zone, and then another tomorrow, and then another the day after, until my zone expands to encompass things I never thought I’d have the courage to do. What else is there, besides giving up? (Which, as previously established, I don’t do.)

And maybe there’s a chance things will turn out okay in the end. Why else would we read romance if we didn’t secretly believe that? The one thing humanity has going for it is that we’re incredibly lucky. There’s nowhere else in the vast universe (that we know of) where life exists. If that isn’t a point in favor of believing in impossible odds, then I don’t know what is. 

You’re still reading?

Joke’s on you, because now I’m going to ask you for gifts!

I turn 38 on December 2nd, which is also Britney Spears’ birthday–what’s up fellow Sagittarius cats! My evergreen Birthday Paradox is that I don’t like being the center of attention but birthdays have always been important to me because I think everyone deserves to have a day when they feel special and loved. So now I will use my birthday privilege to ask that you please do something nice for someone you love that you weren’t already going to do. Or email a politician (they all have comment boxes on their websites) to take action on something you care about. Or donate $5 to a cause that matters to you. Or text someone you haven’t spoken to in a while. Anything that costs you at least 5 minutes of time and effort that puts a little bit of good out in the world.

That’s what I want for my birthday! I’m a sentimental bitch like that.

And if you’re looking for me that weekend—don’t. I’ll be doing MDMA in a rental cabin that has a hot tub overlooking a river full of otters. See ya later, los lagartos!!!