Hi Friend! It’s been a while. Thank you for joining me on this virtual coffee date.
Today’s Drink Special: Thank You for Sharing Pre-order Campaign!!
If you pre-order from your local independent bookstore or from a big retailer, submit your receipt or screenshot here, and you’ll receive a signed bookplate that you can stick on the title page as well as this gorgeous art print by Tyler Mishá!!
I’ve been sitting on this bad boy for quite some time now and I am SO excited to finally share it with you. I’m truly obsessed with Tyler’s work and getting to see her bring one of my favorite scenes to life was so magical. If you’ve read the book already, you’ll recognize this shot. If not, it’s a little gelt (Jewish version of Easter egg - CORRECTION: apparently I came up with this in a conversation with Ava Wilder) for when you do!
As a reminder, you can get signed & personalized copies by ordering from my local indie, Third Place Books, here. If you do this, the art print will be included—no need to submit your receipt!
I’ll also post about this on social media tomorrow, but you, my dearest Katz Café subscribers, get to hear it first.
Good Ol’ Black Coffee (trying this out as a section for me to talk about stuff that’s not necessarily an ~announcement~ but may still be of interest)
Early last month, I turned in my first draft of book 2!! I’m an underwriter, so I knew it was about 7-10k words below were it really needed to be, but I also knew I needed some time away and other sets of eyes to tell me what was missing. (Side note: a lot of people are underwriters in that they leave bits blank and fill them in later - I wish that could be me, but I just can’t move on if that’s the case. This means that after a first draft, the text that IS there is pretty clean, there just inevitably needs to be more text to pull everything together. I digress) Because my editor, Vicki, is a speed demon (compliment), she got back to me with her notes early last week and we came up with a revision plan.
So, that’s what I’m doing now! It’s basically drafting part II: I’m not rearranging or cutting what’s already there, I’m just adding three additional chapters. I originally pitched four, but when I got into the nitty gritty of what purpose they’d serve and where they’d go, I realized I don’t actually need one of them. I can’t tell you too much yet, but there’ll be more on what the book is about later this year. It’s good to have something to focus on other than just release anxiety (less than 6 weeks!!).
One last thing - Thank You for Sharing got a starred trade review from Library Journal, which is an incredible honor. If you’d like, you can read the review here.
A Biscotti with Your Coffee
Books: Recently, I have been unbelievably fortunate to read several amazing books early. I am becoming very obnoxious because people IRL ask me what I’m reading and I have to be like “uhh…it comes out in 8-12 months 😬.” I feel like shouting these out when you can’t even pre-order some of them yet is not a good use of space. Instead, I’ll shout out two books that came out this Tuesday: The Art of Scandal by Regina Black and With Love, from Cold World by Alicia Thompson. These are two of my top romances of the year and perhaps of all time.
Music: On a flight recently I finally listened through the entirety of The Age of Pleasure (Janelle Monáe’s most recent album) and I loved it so much. It’s very atmospheric and pure fun. The title is perfect - it’s just about enjoyment. And it’s so queer. Like SO queer. I could make the argument that silly sexy queer Black joy, especially right now, is subversive and is therefore poignant in its silliness. But also we can like stuff that’s just fun and nothing else!!! JANELLE I LOVE U!!
Mwah,
Rachel Runya Katz
you didn’t steal gelt, you came up with it! (also can’t wait to have this print in my possession!!!!)