I can finally share my big news!
The young adult psychological suspense manuscript I’ve talked about FOR YEARS — mostly on social media — is going to be a book! I first wrote The Other Me in 2018-19, polished it again in 2022, and it can be in your hands in February 2025.
How I got here
During my sabbatical last year, I spent a lot of time thinking about what I want for myself as a writer and an author. (imo, writer = someone who writes, author = someone who’s published their writing.) The one thing that’s hung over my head for the last couple years is what I want to do with my tenth manuscript. It’s the best book I’ve ever written and for a long time I was afraid to publish it myself because it’s so big. Not big as in page count, but big as in the topics and themes. It’s heavy. It’s dark. I went places with my main character that I haven’t before.
Why so far away?
Around the time when I made the decision to publish this book, I was also coming up with my 50th Bucket List, and publishing around my 50th birthday seemed like a really nice way to kick off the next decade of my life. Or the second HALF of my life, as I keep thinking about it.
What the heck is TQUEE?
The working title has been The Other Me (TOM) since I first got the idea, but there are a lot of books with that title. After much thought, many texts with writing friends, and some very helpful google searches that prevented me from naming my character after an 0nlyfans lady (YES), from this point on TOM will be known as TQUEE, aka:
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The Quiet Unraveling of Eve Ellaway
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I love the previous title but this just feels so right. I did try hard to make it work so the acronym spelled QUOTE or SQUEE, but we can’t get everything we want.
Tell me more!
This is nowhere near finalized, but here is the current book description:
All Eve Ellaway wants is to escape to college, start a life of her own, and finally sever the connection to her twin sister Gen who disappeared when they were babies. Because while the rest of the world moved on from the kidnapping, Gen’s still very much alive at home.
Most families would grieve their missing child. Some families might create a shrine for their lost daughter. But the Ellaways are not most families.
Every night, Eve pretends to be Gen to protect her mother’s delicate grasp on reality. Eve’s forced to divide her life, her stories, and her dreams so there’s enough to make up two people to maintain her father’s lie — and ease his guilt over Gen’s disappearance — and sacrifice the last threads of her identity and any hope for a normal future.
As the lies propping up Eve’s life start to crumble, she no longer knows what she wants. But Gen does, and she’s ready to take it.
Early readers liked it. A lot:
So we have to just sit here and wait until next year?
No! I’m dusting off my street team, Hoo’s Crew, because I have a lot of big things planned as part of this launch. In addition to reading advanced copies (ARCs) at the beginning of 2025, I’ll need help:
- hyping my upcoming Kickstarter campaign that’s coming in October
- spreading the word about TQUEE on social media
- sharing on newsletters or blogs if you have those things
- writing a review of the ARC
I know that’s a lot, but I also know I can’t do this without the help of my friends, loved ones, and readers! If you’d like to join the Crew, you can sign up here:
I want to be on Hoo’s Crew!
You can also join the Facebook group.
If that sounds like a bit much but you still want to know what’s going on, you can subscribe to my regular newsletter, Hoo’s Letter.
Sign me up for Hoo’s Letter
Goodreads and Bookbub are other reader spaces where you can follow me. I don’t post things directly to those sites, but they send emails when the book launches and if there’s a giveaway or sale, so it’s another useful way to keep track of Eve.
And if you want to do something RIGHT NOW, you can:
- share this post with a reader you think would be interested
- add TQUEE to your Want to Read list on Goodreads
Phew! It feels so good to share!
Are you as excited as I am?!?
