A Summer I’ll Never Forget (aka I have exciting news!)

Yes, it’s December and I’m writing about summertime, but that’s for many reasons. For one, my summer photography sessions run right into the “fotographer’s fall frenzy” (misspelled for visual alliteration). Two, writing blog posts requires a substantial amount of time- 6-8 hours each- and I rarely have that chunk of time to devote to blogging these days. And three, I got some very exciting news this summer, and I can FINALLY share it!

A little background first!

In the spring of 2020, maybe a month into lockdown, I finished up taxes and photography work and began having mild panic attacks due to the stress of shuddering my business, not knowing where our next roll of TP would come from, and oh yeah, maybe potentially catching a deadly virus. I decided to focus my restless energy into a new project. Enter the story idea I’d been making notes on for ten years and kept saying I’d write when I had time. Welp, I had plenty of time. And writing, to my surprise, was really, really fun.

Summer came, I started doing photography sessions again (This did not help the panic attacks. I was convinced I was either going to pass a deadly disease to my clients or vice versa.), and I finished the first draft of my novel! I decided maybe I should figure out how to publish the thing. With the help of a few friends who knew about the publishing world, I came up with a query letter and started pitching literary agents.

Massive fail. This isn’t one of those stories where I look back and think, man, those agents really lost out. No, those agents 100% knew what they were doing. I queried way too early and my novel was not ready. I stopped after getting around 4 dozen rejections (ouch, y’all. That was so painful!), regrouped, read some writing craft books, joined writing groups, got a couple critique partners, and made a bunch of revisions. All while running my photography business!

Why didn’t I give up? Because my beta readers loved the story! They saw past the clunky writing, forgave my unnecessary prologue, and told me I had something really special. So I kept working on it. Months later, in April 2021, I began querying again, and I got an offer of representation about 6 weeks later. Yay!

From there, life has been a rollercoaster. I stopped having panic attacks (whew!), got vaccinated (all the times), kept shooting, and kept writing! There have been family health scares, kids who need help with schoolwork and friendship drama, a sick dog, and more curve balls along the way. After several more rounds of revisions, and one very close call with a publisher, I made more changes and sent my agent a shiny new version this July.

The news we’ve been waiting for!

On August 28th, my agent called. We spent 20 minutes chatting about life and kids, and all the while, I expect her to segue into a discussion about revisions on another novel I’ve since written. Then she said the words I was beginning to think I’d never hear. I got a book deal! With Simon & Schuster!

Don’t worry! I’m not giving up photography! The deal was wonderful, but not enough to make up for money I’ve invested in a (truly excellent) retoucher to free up time for writing. And I still love photographing your families!

So why am I posting about this here on my photography site, instead of my writing one? Well, I’ve posted about it over there as well, but since I’ve talked about my publishing journey with many photography clients over the past few years, I thought you’d want to hear this news, too!

My debut novel, Soulmatch, will be published in spring 2025, which seems far away, but those of you who come for annual photos know how quickly a year goes by. That’s only one photo shoot + a few months from now! What?!

The Soulmatch Premise

And there’s a photography connection to my story! What if camera technology advances so much that any day now, you could zoom in and make out the edges of someone’s soul? Fast forward 200 years and the government can take your photo and match your soul to your past lives, and you’re required to have your soul identified on 18th birthday. Only your talents, fortunes, and prison sentences pass from life to life. They publish your results for the world to see (and judge).

This novel features a savvy main character, girls supporting girls, and a slow-burn, forbidden romance. It’s perfect for fans of Neal Shusterman (Scythe, Unwind), Scott Westerfeld (Uglies), Marie Lu (Legend, Warcross), Allie Condie (Matched), Adam Silvera (They Both Die at the End), and Emily Suvada (This Mortal Coil).

_{(The book links are Amazon Affiliate links.)}

Support Soulmatch

Think this might be something you’d read? Click “Want to Read” on the Goodreads page! And join the mailing list on my writing website to be the first to see the cover, hear about giveaways, ARCs (advance reader copies) and more! I’ll also share Soulmatch’s now-deleted prologue exclusively to newsletter subscribers in the coming weeks.

If this novel doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, you can still help by telling your friends and family about Soulmatch during your holiday gatherings, as such: “Oh hey, our photographer just got a book deal for her young adult novel, Soulmatch!” Way better than talking about politics and fantasy football, am I right? (wink wink)

Thanks so much for reading about my book deal and checking out my summer photography sessions. If you’d like to book a photo session with me, you can now schedule your session online! I still have a couple January and February dates open!