[Image: cartoon drawing of the top part of a round, off-white face, with only panicked brown eyes showing]

Today is my last official day as an unpublished romance author. I've just now realized that.

I'm feeling all the expected feelings, plus some unexpected ones, plus some things I haven't quite identified yet.  I'm excited, nervous, giddy, slightly nauseous, hopeful, anxious, stressed, distracted, happy, proud... You name it.

Yesterday was good. I very much enjoyed participating in the Bookstore Romance Day virtual panel celebrating plus-size protagonists; it was lovely to meet fellow authors Danielle Jackson, Jenny L. Howe, Amanda Cinelli and April Asher to talk about the responsibilities and challenges of writing love stories for characters who were for many years erased from romance. Katie Garaby of Parnassus Books was a wonderful host and asked great questions. That panel was recorded and will, I believe, be posted on YouTube at some point, if you missed it and would still like to catch the discussion.

TOMORROW (Tues. Aug. 22, 2023), however, there will be no blending-into-a-panel for me! I'll be flying mostly solo, with the help of Annie from Magers & Quinn Booksellers in Minneapolis.
I hope if you can you will join us for this virtual event tomorrow night;  I'll do a short reading from "Curves for Days" and then chat with Annie of M&Q about writing the book and then there will be an audience Q&A.
The event is free and will last approximately one hour. It starts at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, etc. Please join me/us! Register here for access.

I'll try not to be QUITE as wild-eyed as I am today, but honestly? No promises.

Here we are, one week out from the release of my debut, "Curves for Days."
I am feeling the most peculiar combination of feelings... hope, angst, enjoyment, excitement, mischief, accomplishment, worry, imposter syndrome, pride, and a desire to retreat to a wilderness cave.
But I've been doing some fun stuff, such as an author interview with Emily Downey of the Baking Up Good Reads blog. She asked really interesting, thoughtful questions and it was a joy to respond to them. You can see the interview and a brief review of the book here. She's planning to make a recommendation for a yummy baked good to pair with "Curves for Days," so I'm looking forward to seeing what she suggests!
I've just looked over Book 2 (July's story) in what will be its book format, which is exciting. Also exciting is that we're coming up with a great title and cover for that one and I'm really tickled with what I'm pretty sure we've chosen! But I'll have to share that later.
I'm on a deadline to submit Book 3 at the end of this month, so that's what my hands are full with this week.
Finally, I'm pulling myself back up on the wagon after falling off into review spaces. I know better, it makes me miserable, and I don't know why it's such a struggle to stay away! I'm just going to have to do a DuoLingo lesson or play another game of Sudoku or something when I find myself wanting to check one of the review sites. Or take a walk. Yeah, I should take a walk.
I hope you're well and up to lots of fun stuff yourself. Take care. <3

...named "Curves for Days" on its Best Books of the Month list! 
You can see the full list here
or see their buy link here.

Thank you so much, kobo! I'm thrilled and honored. <3 

[Image below: Against a shade-of-purple prism background, the cover of "Curves for Days" by Laura Moher shows a youngish fat white woman with curly dark hair, standing in a garden and looking back over her shoulder at the viewer. The caption reads "One of Kobo's Best of the Month," followed by the Rakuten kobo logo.]

Well, here was a source of much squealing in MY house today!
Apple Books chose "Curves for Days" as one of "3 Debuts we Love" for August!  This is a great honor. Thank you, Apple Books!

[Image: 3 book covers ("I Will Greet the Sun Again" by Khashayar J Khabushani, "Curves for Days" by Laura Moher, and "Small Town Sins" by Ken Jaworowski) against a green background, with the heading "3 Debuts We Love"]

As you might have seen from the graphic on the Home page, another honor came in this week: a starred review from Booklist! 
I can't describe how it feels to work so hard on this story--to write it and rethink it and rewrite it again and again--and get helpful input from first readers and my wonderful agent Sara Megibow and my equally wonderful editor Deb Werksman and her Sourcebooks team and rewrite it another couple of times until finally it makes it into the hands of outside readers, and then have at least some of them appreciate it enough to write such lovely things.
My first book baby has flown into some loving hands! 
Here's a snippet from the review (or you can read the full review here):
"It is lovely to see two people who have issues with body size discover that the other’s perceptions can be different than expected while they try to navigate a relationship they never thought could happen. Readers of this heartfelt debut will hope for more from Moher."