The First Stepping Stone!

It's the second day of spring. My yard is the only one on the block covered in crocuses, and it's warm enough that Pennsylvania folks will start walking around in shorts: a sweltering 42 degrees. I think it's as good a day as any to take the writing journey I've been tenderly holding close to my heart and let it get a little sun. Lord knows it's been a long winter.

To do that, to take the interesting morsels of my own process and air them like clean laundry, this blog will be updated every now and again — as the spirit moves me or when there's news to tell.

But first: Hi, I'm Tessa! Or Tess, for the sake of this self-publishing gig. I'm a Pennsylvania native with an inability to leave small towns and write short stories. I got my "writing start" the way all respectable writers do — first, by writing original stories on my parents' Windows 95 desktop computer, and then, by writing fanfiction. Both of these things usually never past one chapter. I'm serious, I thought I was cursed to never get past page one.

The nice thing about fanfiction is that it's like learning how to write with your training wheels on. Some mastermind somewhere created a whole world, a cast of characters, and circumstances that you can just play around with as much as you want. It's an excellent way to learn the craft, to hone it and perfect it, to develop a writing style that is uniquely your own. This is why from the age of 12 (two and ten!!!), I avidly write and read fanfiction.

(If you've come here from the AWAE family, then welcome! Wish I could get you a cup of tea or something. It's so good of you to have stuck around.)

But there comes a certain point when the characters stuck in your own mind start pestering you to be let out. Thus, it's with warm delight that I introduce Kit & Basie, the first short novel in the Tales from Long Lily series.

Kit & Basie follows Basie Yeats, an immortal man who is ready to leave his hometown for good after the death of his mother. When a quiet outsider (Kit Elliot, light of my heart, love of my soul) moves into the Yeats family house, Basie finds maybe he has a reason to stay, after all. It’s a short, cozy novel about love, belonging, and home.

Originally, Tales from Long Lily was meant to be a collection of four short stories, one for each season. It then became increasingly apparent that I am incapable of writing fleshed out work that is under 100 pages. But sometimes, stories just demand to be told the way they want to be told. As for the other stories that were meant to be Book 1's neighbor, you can expect all those characters to get their own books with cameos from some familiar faces.

It would be so lovely to give you all the nity gritty details about how this book came together, but the honest truth is that I wrote the first draft of this book feverish with covid after a trip to Virginia. My writer's soul was full, but also delirious. I don't remember much of it. Maybe when ARC copies ship out, I'll talk more about the revision process!

I expect Kit & Basie to release sometime in summer or fall of 2023. This will be my first time self-publishing a book, so I'm discovering the timeline as I go. If you were wondering, yes, I am thoroughly daunted, but I'm enjoying the ride. Wish me luck!!

If any of this interests you at all, then I encourage you to sign up for my newsletter. I'll only be sending emails lovingly and sparingly with the highlights of information that you need. I'm talking final release dates, cover releases (which are my favorite!), and information about ARC copies. I want to do something special for my Anne ARC readers, so stay tuned for that.

Here's to a sunny day!

~Tess