The Art of Scandal is officially one month old! Thank you to everyone who has read, requested, reviewed, and shouted about my first book. The experience is indescribable, and I'm still wrapping my brain around my thoughts. But the predominant emotion I felt for most of August was joy: Joy that something I worked so hard on was finally out in the world. Joy that so many people were happy for me. Joy to meet so many people I've spoken to online for years in person for the first time. Joy about the fact that I get to do it again in a few years, armed with all the knowledge I've collected this first time around.
If you've already read the book or are considering adding it to your reading list, here are a few book club resources you may find helpful: A discussion guide, a Q&A, and my personal favorite thing, a Spotify playlist curated by me.
Music is a huge part of my writing process, and it has a major influence on the mood of whatever I'm working on. With The Art of Scandal, I wanted the entire book to have a forbidden, sexy vibe, so I listened to a lot of Sabrina Claudio, Jessie Reyez, and Beyonce on repeat. There's also plenty of righteous rage anthems included as well. Hope you enjoy it!
I was so lucky to have amazing launch events with WordsWorth Books, Tubby and Coos in conversation with Talia Hibbert, East City Book Shop in conversation with Tracey Livesay, The Ripped Bodice with Anita Kelly, Jessica Joyce, and Alicia Thompson, and Women and Children First in conversation with Shirlene Obuobi. All of it was capped off by Steamy Lit Con which was just as amazing as it looked in everyone’s pictures.
We all came back to an inspiring call to action from Nikki Payne, Adrianna Herrera, and Nisha Sharma to read 23 books by BIPOC authors before the end of the year and talk about those books via reviews, recommendations, etc. You can read more about the initiative on their website here.
I'm currently reading All the Black Girls Are Activists by Ebony Janice Moore and I feel like this is the exact book I needed at this exact moment. It’s a collection of essays that “center a fourth wave of Womanism, dreaming, the pursuit of softness, ancestral reverence, and radical wholeness as tools of liberation.” Moore talks about Black women being known only for our resistance, not our living, and this resonated with me so much as someone who writes about Black women living, striving, failing, and winning, all while ultimately finding love. I’ll write a full review on Instagram when I’ve finished, but I already know this is one I’m going to want to keep on my shelf.
What Am I Doing Now? (aka, The Return of My Writing Craft Section)
The initial flood of debut activities is fading and I'm turning back to storytelling, only with much more knowledge and experience of what goes into producing a book. I'd like to recapture the same energy and passion I had while creating The Art of Scandal, but realistically, I know that I was a different writer then. This a different book. Art is a time capsule that captures the season of its creation, and for me, it's a much more reflective, thoughtful moment about who I am as a writer and what type of stories I really want to tell. I have no doubt that will ultimately be reflected in this next book.
I initially planned to do a synopsis and that turned into a detailed outline. Then I decided to revise my outline and ended up working on a zero draft instead. If you’ve never heard of a zero draft, it’s something between an outline and a true first draft of your book. Everyone does them differently, but mine reads like I’m sitting across from a friend, telling them what happens in my book, scene by scene. Every now and then I’ll pause to add character thoughts or motivations and a piece of dialogue if it occurs to me. I think of this stage as my storytelling stage, where I can piece together the story shape in a way that excites me. Knowing a story’s shape frees me up to focus on execution.
As I dive deeper into writing my goal is to send a more thoughts about the process along the way. And of course, I’ll share any The Art of Scandal news and keep you updated on things I’m reading, listening to, or watching.