Dear Reader,

I had a fabulous time in Albuquerque at the Romance Writers of America conference seeing old friends and meeting new ones. I can't express how warm and welcoming and generous the community of romance authors is. I feel seen, appreciated, and as if we're all speaking the same language of positivity and support.

I have a small group of friends who are my romance "accountability buddies" whom I met two conferences ago, and all but one of us were able to attend this time. Next year in Portland, OR, I hope we'll all be there!

And the wonderful Shirley Hailstock—author and delightful human being—won the lifetime achievement award. I also met her two conferences ago and it turned out we were both from Buffalo originally!

Home again means work 💪🏻

My lovely coaching and editing clients had to wait a little to get my feedback, and I'm diving in as quickly as I can—but the bandwidth for doing that is limited. I want to give my full attention to writers who have trusted me with their work, so I try to focus on one writer a day.

In addition, I'm working hard on writing the draft of Dangerous Drusilla. My plan is to have the first good draft done by the end of this month. Can I do it? There are ten more days. I think I'll need to write about 1500 words a day to get there, based on my estimate of how long this book will be. It's doable, but only if I have a lot of time over the weekend!

Then I'll have August to revise and edit. The book itself won't be published until early 2027, but I really want to have it finished before the Kickstarter launches. And I want to start book 2!

More about why I'm launching with a Kickstarter

I decided to write a Substack post about my reasons for deciding to launch The Pinkstocking Club and Dangerous Drusilla on Kickstarter, since I'm asked so often.

In a nutshell, the Kickstarter ecosystem gives you a whole new potential audience. Plus, it celebrates human creativity—which is high on my priority list as I work with a wonderful illustrator and slave over the manuscript.

Kickstarter is a bit of an experiment for me. My hope is that doing things that way will build excitement and help readers feel involved—even if I don't end up making my goal.

So please follow my pre-launch page! You are not committing to supporting the project with any money at all. But Kickstarter sometimes chooses to feature projects, and a lot of pre-launch interest really helps.

Keep reading and writing—it's important

Whatever you read for—education, enlightenment, or sheer escape—literature is at the heart of being human. So I'll make a deal with you: You keep reading whatever you like in any form, and I'll keep writing. I think that's a no-lose proposition. And we all need some wins right now.

Wishing everyone peace and tranquility,

Susanne