even old new york was once new amsterdam

"istanbul (not constantinople)" by tmbg & celebrating friends

This newsletter is mostly about last week and so it would’ve been really, really nice if I’d gotten it out last week . . . but then last week was so busy that I didn’t. It happens!

[To make up for it, there is a GIVEAWAY in this newsletter!!! Stay tuned for more details on that.]

I ended up going to Brooklyn for a few days, a little trip that came together when I saw Rachel Lynn Solomon announce her book tour, saw Florida wasn’t on it (I’m used to this!!! the number of bands I’ve had to travel to Atlanta for!), and thought fuck it. I love Rachel and her newest book, and I love going to NYC, so why not.

First of all, no trip to NYC would be complete with me bragging on myself for figuring out public transportation lol. LISTEN. I am proud when I get it right because I’m haunted by the times I’ve gotten it wrong. Once, many many years ago, I went with my sister and was so pleased that we’d navigated the subway so smoothly that I think I got a little complacent, because right when it mattered MOST, when I was picking the train to take us to the AIRPORT, I . . . completely fucked up. And about 30 minutes in to what was supposed to be a 45-minute ride I had the sinking feeling that I’d fucked up. So when I heard a Scandinavian family politely inquiring of an old woman on the subway about whether the next stop was the right one for [insert tourist attraction, I don’t remember], I got up the nerve to ask my own question.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Is this the right train to JFK?”

I will never, for the rest of my life, forget the look of sheer horror on her face. It turns out, emphatically NO. The opposite of the right train. The train could not have been more wrong. We did make it to the airport and ran all the way to our gate, arriving as the plane was already boarding, and that is the closest I have ever cut it or ever want to cut it again.

Which is all to say, it’s so much easier now because you can just put an address in Google/Apple maps or any number of transport apps and they will tell you exactly how to get from Point A to Point B. But on this trip I took the LIRR from the airport AND I took a bus to get to the Ripped Bodice since it was drizzling, and I’m proud of myself for both of those things because they were new experiences for me. (Not like I’ve never taken a train or a bus before but just, the LIRR and a Brooklyn bus specifically.)

I took this photo through a very smudged window on the LIRR train so I could text my husband like “I really need to clean my glasses, huh?” (He’s always on me about cleaning my glasses more.)

So. My main reason for going was to see Rachel Lynn Solomon at the Ripped Bodice, and the event did not disappoint! I love her new book What Happens in Amsterdam — in fact, let me paste my official blurb for it below, because blurbs can be tough to write and are often (to me) paradoxically tougher to write the more you really love something, so I want to get as much mileage out of this as I can:

Every time I start a new Rachel Lynn Solomon romance, I’m reading greedily, tripping over myself to get to the next part, trying to slow myself down so I can savor it as long as possible. What Happens in Amsterdam delivers everything I’ve come to expect from Rachel: flawed, well-drawn characters; tender, intimate moments of connection; hot, emotional sex scenes; and a thoughtful examination of the world and our place in it. But this book has something extra special about it, too — it’s a love letter to Amsterdam, to the pure sweetness of first love, to the courage it takes to start a new life in a new place or to start over with someone who hurt you once before.

I stand by every word! It was so interesting to hear Rachel talk in person about how the book had come together, how her own experiences becoming an expat in Amsterdam were woven throughout the story, and that over there you have to read apartment listings carefully because an apartment that isn’t “upholstered” doesn’t just mean it comes without furniture, it might mean it comes without things like wiring or a floor. (“Floor” also being a popular Dutch name! another little factoid I learned from Rachel’s event!)

what a night!

It just felt very healing and good to see Rachel again, to be in person among the romance bookish community, to see other friends. Noué Kirwan was there (you already know I’m a huge fan of her personally as well as her books), and one of my favorite moments from this event will always be us singing this week’s song together in front of a somewhat baffled Rachel. (That New York used to be called New Amsterdam was originally going to be one of her trivia questions for the audience, and when she told us that Noué and I burst out with even old New York was once New Amsterdam, why they changed it I can’t say . . . people just liked it better that way! so perfectly you’d have thought we planned it.)

And then I got to chat with Bookstagram Seth in the rainy line outside; met Sophie S. after we happened to sit right next to each other; introduced myself to Rachel’s husband by asking to “shake the hand that once shook Stephan Jenkins’ hand” which I realized only after I said was probably an incredibly weird thing to say. (But also if I find out you’ve met Stephan Jenkins . . . how’s it gonna be when that’s one of the top three things I will now always think about you lol.)

There are also signed copies of all my books at The Ripped Bodice now!

The good times continued when I met up with Kate and Danny Tamberelli (authors of Road Trip Rewind, which is a blast if you haven’t read it yet). I let them pick the coffee shop since they know the area and where we’d be most likely to find open seats, etc. but then I WALKED IN to “Semi-Charmed Life” playing over the speakers and during the course of our time there they played not one, not two, not even three, but FOUR Paramore songs! I was wearing my Paramore hoodie so I megalomaniacally believed it was just for me. But seriously, I didn’t hear that many songs from any one band so . . . who’s to say it wasn’t just for me?

Anyway. It was a nice trip, and really rejuvenating to see so many people. I’m looking forward to another book event tomorrow (/today, I guess, when you’re reading this!) in Orlando to celebrate Susan Lee’s new YA The Romance Rivalry, which I also blurbed:

I adore Susan Lee and her breezy, fun, vulnerable, and deeply heartfelt books. The Romance Rivalry is Susan at the absolute top of her trope-mastery game, delivering a love letter to the romance genre and all those big, messy feelings of falling in love for the first time. Aiden and Irene are so cute together it almost makes me SICK, but luckily Susan has the cure and it’s this beautiful story of two people who think they’re opposites attract but have more in common than they know.

Do I feel self-conscious now that I’ve included two blurbs in one newsletter that they both contain the phrase “love letter” in them? Yes! But also, NO, because a) I only have about 85 English words available to me in my brain at any given time; and b) RLS’ book *is* such a love letter to Amsterdam and Susan’s book *is* such a love letter to the romance genre and the tropes we all know and love. I stand by both!

Susan has also been SAVING MY ASS lately and she doesn’t even know it, because my laptop is maybe at the end of its life (it’s a 2013 MacBook Pro, if that gives you an idea) and my “c” button has just completely stopped working. I was copying and pasting “c” from other words into new words to get around it (and I can’t even CTRL+C because . . . well, yeah. Don’t get me started on how capital “C” is also a completely new letter.). That’s how I wrote some of this newsletter while I was traveling!

But when I’m at home I use the custom keyboard Susan very kindly made me to celebrate my baseball book, and it’s amazing. It makes such a satisfying typing noise that the first time I used it my daughter came out of her room because she thought someone was making popcorn but like, continuously making popcorn at rapid speed for ten minutes straight (I type really fast, which I know I’ve NEVER bragged about here, I’m too humble, but now this keyboard does all my bragging for me.)

my keyboard while drafting this very newsletter, feels like when celebs wear shirts of themselves and then shirts of themselves wearing shirts of themselves

I also got to hang out with KT Hoffman a lot, which he already mentioned in his newsletter in one of the best descriptions of myself I’ve honestly ever seen: “we got to watch a bunch of movies, including This Is Spinal Tap and A Cinderella Story, which probably gives away that the friend was Alicia Thompson, because who else occupies the middle of that Venn diagram QUITE so thoroughly?” THAT IS THE EXACT VENN DIAGRAM I MOST WANT TO LIVE IN THE MIDDLE OF. And I’m always beyond fucking excited when I know I can drop any Spinal Tap reference I want into a chat from then on, because if I only know 85 English words at least 75 of them are Spinal Tap quotes. (In Never Been Shipped, ElectricOh!’s old label rep being named Ian is a nod to Spinal Tap, as is Roberta “Bobbi” Dresser, named for the “hostess with the mostest” Bobbi Flekman, played by Fran Drescher.)

While I was there I handcrafted a quick meme after I was told I could help myself to anything in the fridge except Sarah’s Dr. Pepper, which I was welcome to have but would have to replace to make sure there was never a gap in coverage:

(I usually don’t drink soda but WOULDN’T YOU KNOW IT, when I got home from this trip I read a book that mentioned Dr. Pepper in such a loving, beautiful way that I was hit with the wildest craving I’ve ever had in my life, and my husband drove to three different gas stations just to bring me home a Tall Boy of the stuff lol. The universe wanted me to have a Dr. Pepper, and it hit! It was incredible! 23 flavors!)

Also, I promised a GIVEAWAY and I’m sorry I’ve been rambling about a bunch of different shit before I even got to it but! I will give away a signed copy of Susan Lee’s The Romance Rivalry and a signed copy of Rachel Lynn Solomon’s What Happens in Amsterdam to ONE lucky person who comments on this newsletter with what they feel like they could write a “love letter” to in a book. (Or if you’re an author, what you DID write a love letter to in a book!)

I do have to disclose that WHIA is made out to Alicia . . . but then Rachel added “or not” when I told her actually this copy was for a giveaway lol. So a very special inscription. Maybe I’ll ask Susan to do the same at her event.

The last piece of big news I wanted to share before I wrapped things up with my usual “please preorder my book, I’m not begging per se but pub day is coming up and let’s just say I’m starting to sweat” and “here’s where you can come see me on tour, if you’re in the area and so inclined” type stuff:

I’m off Duolingo.

This is a big deal (to me!!!) because as you may know I was RIDE OR DIE for Duolingo. I was working on an 868 day streak. I did 30+ minutes a day of sheer grind to stay in Diamond League’s good graces. I took Friends Quests so seriously *I* was the footsteps in the sand and I’d carry anyone who paired with me (sometimes whether they wanted me to or not, them being like “I’ve got this, I’d also like to earn some XP toward our shared goal please, ow, put me down.”) I was starting to WRITE A LITTLE DUOLINGO FLIRTATION into a manuscript because I was like, fuck it, this would be fun.

And I knew Duolingo wasn’t perfect in a lot of ways, but then when they announced they’d laid a bunch of people off and were almost gleefully leaning into AI, I was like FUCK THAT. Can I just say, I do not need AI to be my friend. There are already more people I’d like to be friends with than there are hours in the day. I do not need AI to create art. There is enough art in the world created by human people to last me a thousand lifetimes; there is more being created every single day and I value the effort and talent behind that creation. I do not need to consult AI with questions about the world because I do not trust its answers. Wrecking the environment and stealing people’s work and costing people’s jobs and for what. No, gracias. Nosotros hemos creado un monstruo y el monstruo lleva nuestra cara.

So I think I might try Mango for my language learning now, because it’s free through my local library, but we’ll see.

The best place to preorder Never Been Shipped — if you want to! — is my local indie Tombolo Books, I will personalize your book in any way you want, a doodle, a song lyric, a message, just put your request in the Comments section of your order! (You can also order any of my other books at the same time and I’d sign and personalize them! Just saying!)

You can also catch me on tour, which I’ve posted here before but which just had a NEW date added where I will be in conversation with Ali Hazelwood (😱😱😱) in Austin, TX on July 10!

• Tuesday, June 10 at 7:00pm - Tombolo Books in St. Petersburg, FL - in conversation with Rachel Knox

• Wednesday, June 11 at 7:00pm - All the Tropes in Atlanta, GA - in conversation with Kate Goldbeck

• Thursday, June 12 at 6:30pm - A Novel Romance in Louisville, KY - in conversation with Xio Axelrod

• Friday, June 13 at 6:00pm - The Novel Neighbor in St. Louis, MO - in conversation with KT Hoffman

• Tuesday, June 17 at 6:00pm - Book + Bottle in St. Petersburg, FL

• Thursday, June 26 at 6:30pm - The Gilded Page in Tarpon Springs, FL - in conversation with Ivy Fairbanks

• Thursday, July 10 at 7:00pm - Flutter Romance Bookstore in Austin, TX - in conversation with Ali Hazelwood

• Thursday, July 17 at 7:00pm - New Romantics in Orlando, FL - a JOINT event with Ashley Poston [this event is sold out, sorry!]

• Wednesday, July 30 at 6:30pm - Parnassus Books in Nashville, TN - a JOINT event with Regina Black

Currently reading . . . I know I’ve mentioned this book before, but it’s literally a thousand pages long so yes, I’m still working on the biography of Sylvia Plath. It’s January 1963 in the book so things are pretty tense — I’ll probably finish tomorrow (/today), since I only have a few chapters left. And you know, there was a time when this would’ve stressed me out, being so “behind” in my reading, but I’ve been really enjoying this shift. I’m trying to practice intuitive reading a bit more. Like read what want I want when I want and not make homework out of it.

watching . . . Well, we’ve done it!!!! My family finished LOST!!!! (A rewatch for me and my husband, a first time through for the kids.) Already the memes in the group chat are on point. A story I don’t know if I’ve told here: the day after the election, my husband and were driving home from North Carolina, where we’d gone up to canvass and phone bank with the Harris campaign. The vibes on the drive home were, as you might imagine, extremely off. We were both just so depressed. At one point we stopped to grab coffee and as I was heading out of the building toward the car I saw my husband and this guy talking VERY animatedly. Hand gestures, they were clearly raising their voices, body language leaning in, everything. At the time, my husband had two stickers on his car — one for LOST, and one for the Harris campaign, and so I was like ohhh shit okay here we go. Is this guy on our side or what. Visually, I just really couldn’t tell. Then I opened the door and walked outside and it turns out they were just very passionately discussing the LOST finale and how other people didn’t UNDERSTAND the true GENIUS of the show lol. It was so incongruous.

listening to . . . I finished Needful Things on audio and have now started Say Nothing, which I felt like rereading via audio after watching the show based on the book.

Musically, I’ve been kind of all over the place. Moses and Hayley released a song together and it’s great. Avril and Simple Plan released a song together and it’s . . . a song. I’m not trying to be incendiary here but tell me how this is any better than Rebecca Black’s “Friday” which we as a society dragged her for. (I am a “Friday” apologist, maybe one day when I’m brave I’ll write a newsletter all about that.)

Anyway. I really enjoyed listening to music while walking around the streets of Brooklyn. Imagine me syncing my steps to the beats in the 1975’s “Somebody Else” in the night Gowanus Canal picture; and then imagine me starting up Weezer’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End in the day Gowanus Canal picture. Ain’t got nobody . . . ain’t got no one to really love me. My son and I make fun of that line because we’re like, haven’t you been married a long time, Rivers? You wish someone was there when you get home from work? You mean like your WIFE¹?

1. I recognize that the singer is not always the “speaker,” it’s just fun to riff.