It’s finally happening! After more than a decade of writing, I can finally answer the dreaded “Oh, you write novels? Where can I buy your book?”
At your local bookstore! That’s where! Jaguars and Other Game, my gender-flipped, Three-Musketeers-style adventure set in 1809 Rio de Janeiro, is available for pre-order from any local bookstore. (Shout out to my indie, Charis Books!) Or if you prefer, buy digital copies from Amazon or Barnes&Noble! Grab a signed first edition directly from Orange Blossom Publishing!
I have inwardly cringed at the “Can I buy your book?” for years. Writers constantly share memes “If you write, you’re a writer,” but let’s be honest. If you constantly talk aloud to yourself without an audience, you’re not an actor. You’re the person at the coffee shop no one sits near. And a writer without readers is a prolific diary keeper with delusions of grandeur. An author requires an audience.
Of course, we’re always warned to be careful what you wish for. Once your book is out in the world, it’s fair game for readers to interpret, critique, review and judge. Despite desperately wanting people to read my book, I was also terrified of people reading my book. I carried around a knot in my stomach from the moment my publisher uploaded Jaguars for early reviews on NetGalley until the first review came in 48 hours later. 5 stars. From a stranger. This person was under no familial obligation or threat of causing a super awkward PTA meeting. They could trash my book without consequence to themselves, and they gave my book 5 stars.
I know you’re not supposed to read reviews. It’s the one piece of advice all authors give to debuts. Don’t read your reviews. But…who actually does that? Who possesses the stone-cold, borderline sociopathic indifference to others’ opinions required to avoid reviews? When you take your kid to a doctor, you don’t leave the check-up without hearing some feedback. This is my book baby. I love it, but maybe I’m delusional. Honestly, after line edits I have no perspective whatsoever where Jaguars is concerned. I need a second opinion. I want to know what readers think.
Currently, they think it’s a 4.9 out of 5 stars!
I even got 5 stars from a librarian! *screaming* Take that agent lady who read an early query and said for Americans to read a book set in Portugal it would “have to be exceptional, and this is not it.” (Also, Rio de Janeiro is not in Portugal.)
This is very stream of consciousness post is to say, I’m an author. My debut novel, Jaguars and Other Game, is available for pre-order through your local indie bookstore, Amazon, Barnes&Noble and directly from Orange Blossom Publishing. You can get signed first editions from Orange Blossom. Check-out early reviews on Goodreads then order your own copy and see for yourself. Jaguars and Other Game comes out on November 22! I hope you love it!
