Merry December, Ya Filthy Animals

Hannah Tate's on sale!! New events!! Exclamation points and a thousand twinkly lights!!

For the first time ever, the e-book of HANNAH TATE, BEYOND REPAIR is on sale! From now until December 10th, HANNAH is $4.99 across all e-book platforms—Kindle/Amazon, Barnes & Noble/Nook, and whatever other kinds there are, I guess. Get yourself your very own digital copy, and if you do, please highlight your favorite lines. I own a digital copy of HANNAH in the hopes of flipping through and seeing which lines resonate most with readers, a nifty thing about reading e-books on Kindle, and while there are some in there, there aren’t nearly enough in my humble opinion. :)

Listen, we Christmas’ed hard over the weekend. The house is all aglow, the stockings are hung, and I’m drinking coffee with peppermint mocha oat milk creamer right this very second propped up with peppermint swirl pillows from beneath a cozy blanket on my couch. The blanket looks like a giant tortilla, just to complete your mental picture. I love this time of year, and better yet, I’m currently not on deadline for any books! We have two projects out for consideration with publishers, so please send me good vibes for a continued career in this crazy business because I’m excited about these books, y’all. I can’t say too much about them yet, but I’ll say this: one’s set in New Jersey, and the other one an apocalyptic wasteland, and they’re both romances!

*starry eyes* I love writing.

While I wait for Santa to bring me big ass book deals, I’m getting ready for the launch of my second novel ZOE BRENNAN, FIRST CRUSH! ZOE releases January 21st, so just around the corner! I’m doing some fun stuff to get ready for it, too:

Laura’s Crushing On… This is a new Instagram live series I’m doing where I interview my favorite authors and people about their first crushes. I just did my first one last night with the charming, lovely Julian Winters, and we had a blast discussing Ryan Phillippe from the 1999 glorious slut-fest Cruel Intentions. My plan is to do one live a week through ZOE’s release. My upcoming guests include: Becca Grischow (I’ll Get Back to You), Sarah Adler (Mrs. Nash’s Ashes, Happy Medium), Jeff Zentner (Colton Gentry’s Third Act, Sunrise Nights, The Serpent King, In the Wild Light), Neely Tubati-Alexander (Love Buzz, In a Not So Perfect World), Erin Connor (Unromance), Alexandra Vasti (The Halifax Hellions, Ne’er Duke Well, Earl Crush), Naina Kumar (Say You’ll Be Mine, Flirting with Disaster), Alicia Thompson (The Art of Catching Feelings, Love in the Time of Serial Killers, With Love, From Cold World), and more!!

Live Events

• January 8th: The Purple Couch, Andover, MA: I’ll be in conversation at Jenny Howe’s How to Get a Life in Ten Dates launch!

• January 18th: Blue Cypress Books, New Orleans, LA: Come join me and the lovely Alexandra Vasti as we celebrate a double-launch of our sophomore novels—Alex’s Earl Crush and my Zoe Brennan, First Crush! AKA The CRUSH TOUR!

• January 23rd: Kiss-and-Tale Books, Haddonfield, NJ: Come celebrate at my Philly launch for ZOE BRENNAN!

• January 25th: Doylestown Bookshop, Doylestown, PA: Come hang out with me and Rosie Danan (The Roommate, The Intimacy Experiment, Do Your Worst, Fan Service) to celebrate the launch of ZOE BRENNAN!

• February 8th: Barnes & Noble, Orlando, FL: Join me for a great romance panel with Alexandra Vasti, TJ Alexander, Cat Sebastian, Ambar Cordova, and more!

• February 14-16th: Love Y’all Fest, Decatur, GA: The first Love Y’all was SO FUN, I cannot wait to go back!

• February 18th: Cupboardmaker Books, Harrisburg, PA: Come celebrate the launch of NEVER PLANNED ON YOU by Lindsay Hameroff—I’ll be there to converse and gush!

The events go on, y’all, but I’m tired. Suffice to say, I’ll also be visiting more spots in New Jersey, Apollycon, Queers & Quills in Portland, Pittsburgh, and Milwaukee in the months that follow!

If you’re in the mood to preorder ZOE BRENNAN, FIRST CRUSH right this minute, and you want to get a signed, personalized copy with preorder goodies, please preorder from Doylestown Bookshop—they ship!!

Now, for what I’ve been reading:

The Not-Out-Yet-But-You-Should-Preorder:

Unromance by Erin Connor: Y’all. This is damn near a perfect romcom, and it’s so-so hot. It comes out in January as well, and you will WANT to read this book. The characters are cool and funny, it’s meta about romance in a really satisfying way, and the sexual vibes this book gives off are top notch. It’s a perfect winter read!

Any Trope But You by Victoria Lavine: This book is very funny, very wintery, very hot. If you love the humor in HANNAH TATE, there’s a good chance you will gobble this one right up. Features an epic-hot mountain man, a remote Alaskan retreat, and a struggling romance author.

Earl Crush by Alexandra Vasti: Ok, from the repeated references to Alex in this newsletter, you might have gathered that I’m a wee bit obsessed with Ms. Vasti. I am reading Earl Crush right now, and it is so, so fun so far—the banter and hijinks are top notch, as is the pacing. I truly can’t wait to see these two kiss. Preorder a copy and come see Alex and I at one of our Crush Tour events!

Never Planned on You by Lindsay Hameroff: Lindsay is one funny lady, and this book is no exception! She had me cackling and inspired to draw a unipig. The romance is adorable, too. Can’t wait to gush about this one with Lindsay at her launch in February!

The-Out-Books

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White: This is a murder mystery fantasy that is SO funny and vivid, I freaking love it! It features the most likable main character I’ve read in a long time—up there with Gideon from Gideon the Ninth for me, and y’all know how I feel about Gideon the Ninth (right? Well I adore it!)

One on One by Jamie Harrow: This book is set in a fictionalized version of Villanova, which is pretty close by to Philly! This book was so well done and interesting and smart. I really loved the main character’s job as a videographer that makes hype videos for the college basketball team in particular—so well described and vivid. The romance is swoony, the vibes all fantastic.

What’s Influencing Laura Lately:

Skincare: I’ve become morbidly fascinated with this Clean it Zero Brightening Peeling Gel by Banila Co. You put it on, and it immediately starts pilling on your skin as you rub it in. It’s not the product, though, y’all. IT’S YOUR DEAD SKIN COMING OFF!

I love it.

Comfy Ass Wireless Bra: During the pandemic, I gave up on wired bras forever. Never looking back, baby! This is my favorite one at the moment—I have 3 of them and wear them all the time. Love it!

Plastic Surgery Videos: I don’t know how, but I fell down a rabbit hole of watching people recovering from intense face lifts on TikTok. Like these people look like patched up serial killers wearing other people’s skin immediately after, and some are still recovering 6 months later! I always wonder—how is this person living their everyday life looking like this? Do they not work normal jobs where the expectation is they won’t frighten people?? The stuff surgeons can do these days is wild, and it’s even wilder that people sign up for this. I have trust issues—how are these people letting surgeons saw their faces off to stitch them back on?? I have questions!!

Okay, I’ve got to walk Mr. Peanut Butter now, but if you’ve got good ideas for Christmas gifts, leave them in the comments! The best one I’ve thought of lately? A portable bidet for the pampered asses in your life.

XoXo,
Laura