Reading During the Pandemic

Hi everyone. A lot of you are reading this during the COVID-19 pandemic while sheltering in place in your homes. That’s where I am with my husband. Both of us have some health issues that put us in the higher risk category. We also have people in our family who are immunocompromised. Like you, we are taking this very seriously.

I hope most of you are safe. Some of you probably know people who are sick or are helping those who are. Some of you are trying to do your job from home or figuring out how to live after losing employment. By the time this is all over, some of you may have even lost people you love.

We don’t know how this will all end yet, but I do know that it will change us as a society in ways we can’t predict. One thing that’s changing for me right now is a small thing compared to people’s lives. But it is my livelihood and important to me, and if you’re reading this, it’s probably important to you, too: books and where to get them. You probably already know that libraries and brick-and-mortar bookstores have shuttered in most locations. We can all hope that most of this will be temporary, but of course we don’t know yet. We’ve stepped off a cliff and are in freefall, unsure how far down we’ll go before we stop and what the damage will be when we get there. Maybe we’ll land in a pool of water, and it won’t be too bad. (Okay, probably not, but I’m trying to be hopeful, okay?) My point is, we just don’t know yet what’s on the bottom yet, and that’s $!&*%! scary. I know. I’m scared, too.

So, yeah…that’s a lot of glum. Here’s one more piece of glum, then we’ll get on to the brighter stuff, I promise. My next YA contemporary book, CHASING LUCKY, was due to come out May 5th.  Due to the pandemic, my publisher has moved the release to the fall: November 10th. I know! That’s…a lot of extra time to wait. But maybe it will be just the thing you need when all of this is ebbing—a bright spot and a happy ending. A light at the end of the tunnel. So I know this may be disappointing right now, but maybe I hope you understand.

But right now, I’m going to focus on where readers can find books during this crisis. Here are some ways you can support CHASING LUCKY, and all my books:

• Order directly through your local indie bookstores that are still mailing out or offering home delivery or curbside pickup.
• Order online through Bookshop.org, an online bookstore that is kind of a new indie alternative to Amazon that gives affiliate money back to indie bookstores. Chasing Lucky comes out November 10th. You can pre-order it from Bookshop.org and they’ll ship it to you when it comes out.
• You can also pre-order it from Target.
• If there are any Barnes and Nobles or Books-a-Millions open, doing the curbside pickup or delivery, by all means, get it there, too. I support all bookstores!
• While you may not be able to walk into a library, you can still check out e-books from your library through Overdrive and the Libby app.
• Do you like to listen to books? Libro.FM has audiobooks, and their affiliate program means that money goes to your local indie bookstores!
• Lastly, the big AMZ… As I’m writing this, one of the fastest, most accessible ways for a lot of people to get books has been through Amazon—for good or bad—but I believe (could be wrong) they are not prioritizing books over essentials right now. That could change, and your mileage may vary. (Amazon also owns Book Depository, who will ship for free worldwide, but it may take awhile, and there are extra restrictions due too the pandemic. Just FYI.)

If you can’t afford to buy a book now, I totally understand. You can help support authors by leaving reviews for books you’ve read on places like Goodreads. That helps a lot, actually.

I promised you good news, right? An official announcement will be made soon, but if you can keep a secret… Can you? Okay, here goes: I just signed another contract with my publisher, Simon & Schuster! SHHHH! SECRET. I know you have questions now. What genre of book will this be? What’s it about? Etc. I’ll be sharing more details about this on social media very soon! And that’s not all! Because for those of you who like collecting ALL THE EDITIONS, I have other good news coming, and as soon as I can share it with you, I will. Stay tuned!

Readers, we’re going to make it through this—not all of us, and not in the same way we were before. But we will. And books will be there on the other side. They’re here now, too, if you need them to get you through dark days. Stories remind us why it’s important to hang on. I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again:

I wrote them for you.

For us.

We’re all in this together.

Thank you for reading.