If you’ve been following along in the newsletter, you’ll have heard me talking about this for the past few months, but if you’re just tuning in now… I wrote a new book! It’s the start of a new series about a witch who gets more than she bargained for when she summons a demon to be her date for the dance, and I am super in love with it!
It’s easy to get caught up in feeling like there are certain ways books are “supposed” to go, or at least it is for me. And I don’t mean “supposed to” as in actually be satisfying stories, but more like… having physical action and bad guys and stuff I don’t really care about writing. Because what I like to write is slice-of-life stuff with some magic elements thrown in. (Which should surprise literally no one who’s ever read anything I’ve written, lol.) So that’s what I did with this book. Well, with these books, because I’m a good chunk of the way through book 2 already.
And it turns out that not forcing in stuff you’re not really excited about makes a huge difference. And maybe reading this book won’t feel any different to you guys, because if you’re here for my characters and my sense of humor, then that’s what you’ll be getting, but to me, writing only the parts I liked and leaving out the parts I didn’t was game changing. That’s not to say I don’t love my other books, but I feel like the parts I love writing–character interactions and interpersonal drama, plus a bunch of embarrassing moments–sometimes get eclipsed by the parts I don’t love writing–action, bad guys, etc.–because I felt like that was how they were “supposed” to go. But it turns out they don’t have to go that way at all, and I’m a lot happier only doing the stuff I like instead of the stuff I don’t. Who knew?
Anyway, Demon in My Dorm Room is available now on Kindle and in Kindle Unlimited. Scroll down to see the gorgeous cover and to read the blurb:
I just wanted a date for the dance and now I have to live with a demon??!
I’m Isabel Green, and I didn’t mean to summon a demon. Well, okay, I did, but only because I was desperate for a date to the Brixton Academy Annual Fall Ball. (It’s a long story.) But I didn’t expect to get stuck with him. Worse, the summoning spell won’t let us get very far apart from each other, so now he’s living in my dorm, where I’m definitely not supposed to have boys over. Especially ones who are secretly demons. And not so secretly jerks. Okay, that part’s not actually prohibited by school rules, but it probably should be. I mean, why couldn’t I get stuck with a nice demon instead of one who constantly gets on my nerves?!
Now he’s going to all my classes with me, he’s seen all my deep dark secrets (well, a shrine to my ex, but whatever), and if I can’t find a way to unsummon him, like, pronto, he’s going to completely ruin my life. Oh, and on top of all that, my magic’s getting even wonkier than it already was. Except when I’m casting forbidden black magic, and then it works a little too well. So, that’s a thing. And if I can’t figure out why this is happening to me, or why my parents are keeping secrets about our ancestry—thanks for that, guys—well, let’s just say that having a snarky demon on my hands is going to be the least of my worries.