Announcing: A new project!

In between all the planning for the Fourth World 10th anniversary Kickstarter, I’ve been steadily working on a new project. This is a book that I started on back in 2017, have shelved multiple times, yet has continued to niggle away at my brain, refusing to let me abandon it completely. After finishing One World and taking a bit of a writing sabbatical, when I finally felt ready to start writing again, this was the story that insisted on being told.

And now I can finally reveal that my next book, Just Like the First Time, a sapphic time travel romance, will be serialized on Patreon starting in May!

2017: When comics artist Maureen Wilson left California thirteen years ago, she swore she’d never look back. But when her newest graphic novel is adapted into a TV series and her old art teacher invites her back to her hometown for a school visit, against her better judgment Maureen finds herself returning to Weber Point. Little does she expect to be caught in a freak thunderstorm that magically sends her back to 2004… and back into her teenage body.

2004: Now trapped in the past, if she wants to get her old life back, Maureen will have to figure out how to undo the spell that caused her to travel back in time. But the only person who believes her story is Alana, an emo barista whose tough exterior masks a fellow anime-binging, Steps-loving fangirl. Alana knows nothing about witches, magic or curse-breaking, but maybe that’s not what Maureen really needs. Maybe what she needed all along was someone who would see her for who she is on the inside.

Thirteen years ago, Maureen ran away from her past. But now that she’s living it all over again, she might just have a chance at building the future she’s always dreamed of.

13 Going on 30 meets Mean Girls with a paranormal twist in this sapphic time travel novel about finding your people and learning to love who you are.

This is a bit of a different project for me. It’s written for an adult audience rather than YA^[1]No adult content, just probably not a story that will appeal to younger readers—though I could be wrong! 😅, and while it does include time travel and a slight bit of magic, it’s more of a small-stakes “contemporary” (well, for 2017… and 2004…) story than my usual big adventures. Since it’s a different sort of book, I’m taking a different sort of approach to its publication—starting May 1, I’m going to be serializing it on my Patreon!

My goal (as always, pending health) is to have the book completed this year. Since this is still an ongoing project, the serialized chapters have not been edited and may not be in their final form, but they should hopefully be pretty close to it. My goal is to release a chapter a month, but I’m not going to commit to a strict schedule because, you know, health. That said, since I do want to get this done and published this year, hopefully that will be an achievable goal.

If you’re not someone who enjoys reading serially (confession: I’m not! 😂) and you’d prefer to wait for the book to be done before reading so you can download an ePub and read it all in one go, that’s also fine! When the book is finished and fully edited, I will be releasing it as an ebook through Itch.io and Lemon Squeezy, and you can also buy a paperback version direct from me. As with all my books, the final ePub will also be available to my supporters on Patreon.

I am not planning on publishing the book at retailers at this time, since this is a bit of a different kind of story for me and I’d like my retail releases to be focused on young adult, higher-stakes sci-fi and fantasy. But if you’re someone who likes sapphic romances and was a fan of movies like Freaky Friday, 13 Going on 30, or The Princess Diaries, I hope you’ll enjoy this one!