July 2025 - Cruel Summer
The one with all the updates
So… it’s been about two months since I last sent out a newsletter, and I don’t have an excuse beyond summers are my drowning season, and when it came time to release some weight off my lifeboat, this was one of the things to go.
It’s been like this every year since 2019, for one reason or another… planning a wedding, health issues, birthing twins, moving across the state, owning and operating a seasonal business, and yet it never does get easier. The days are long and blisteringly hot, the bugs are the size of small children, and inevitably, I take stock of the half-done year and feel the pressure to quick make the most of the time we have left.
This year though, I struggle to feel anything but satisfied and hopeful, and I’m very grateful for that.
In the summer of ‘24 my son nearly died, we were recovering slowly from such a massive trauma, and I was finding it difficult to celebrate the acquisition of BOUND BY FURY.
But now, instead of spending the last several weeks in the PICU taking showers in the sink and editor calls from the family room, I’ve spent them back in my hometown at my in laws house.
In stereotypical fashion, I am the person who moved away from where I grew up, only to long for the wooded hills and blooming crape myrtles, the unrelenting sun and the hole in the wall eateries. There is a charm I never appreciated, and a safety that I couldn’t recognize. I yearn for the community that’s already built in here, and the possibility of feeling settled somewhere after so many years adrift.
Hopefully, one day… I’m manifesting.
Anyway, I’ve been furiously line editing the book of my heart.
Line edits, at least for me, are so tedious and painstaking and a little bit tortuous. I’m a reader by ear, and a poet before I ever wrote stories, so I can’t actually understand my book unless I read it out loud. I have to hear the way the words fall. The rhythm and cadence, the flow of dialogue, etc etc etc.
It’s romantic in a way, until you’re hunched over your laptop in a crumb addled nightgown, sequestered in a hotel for two nights in the hopes that seclusion will somehow make space for more words, faster (it does).
So I waffled between pride and frustration, embarrassment and worry, but in the end I turned in a draft I’m really proud of!
After nine grueling months of edits, I truly feel that I’ve grown so much as a writer. And with the book off to copy edits, it’s essentially “done.”
There’s not much more to change now. A few words here and there, continuity issues, small, small, tweaks in the wake of completely rewriting it word for word last fall, and spending days crying over my increasingly lengthy edit letters.
While I won’t lie to you—I still feel an immense pressure and imposter syndrome—I have to also be honest about the fact that I love this book. I genuinely get giddy when I read certain scenes and imagine what readers will think of them.
I have poured my heart and soul into this story. I’ve laced in all the angst and yearning and anger and violent resistance to oppression that I’ve loved in stories long before I had the confidence to pick up my own pen.
And then there’s the hints of support I’m seeing from my publisher.
There are things happening for BOUND BY FURY that I can’t talk about yet. Things that I thought were only possible in my dreams… Things that I’m literally BURSTING to scream about… and I hope you’ll be here to scream with me when the time comes.
There’s a particular sort of necessary pessimism that comes along with being a queer Black debut author. A kind of self-preservation that tries (and fails) to shield you from the inevitable inequality in marketing and publicity, the lack of enthusiasm from the imprint, the likelihood that the systemic oppression within our industry will clip your wings before you even get to fly…
But so far I am humbled and proud to say that there are signs that suggest that my imprint really does believe in this book—in me as an author—and I’m excited to see how those signs play out the closer we get to publication. It is because of these signs (and these secrets) that I sincerely hope you’ll support BOUND BY FURY next summer.
Together, we can help prove that Black, queer books are worth the investment, and hopefully that will trickle down. All that to say, I don’t take these signs lightly, and I am grateful, and hopeful.
I am grateful, and hopeful, and still scared asf.
Remember when I talked about putting so much of my heart and soul in this book? Yeah, that’s still terrifying as hell. But I’m going to do it scared.
I’ve struggled all my life with my self confidence and self worth, I’ve too-often hinged my sense of self off the opinions of others. Do they think I’m smart? Pretty? Do they like me? Do they hate me? Does everyone secretly want me to disappear forever?
Like many adults with mixed heritage who come from low income single parent households, it has felt like again and again and again, I’ve been let down by the people I’ve hinged my worth on. The opinions I’ve let sway how much I do or don’t love myself.
But I’m thirty now. And I’m a mom. And you know what, to be quite fucking honest, I already did it. I already did the thing no one thought I could do. I already proved my worth and value, not only as a human being (with inherent worth simply by existing), but as an author that fought for a seat at the table.
In 2021, I sat my family down and said I was going to write a book. And did.
I told them I was going to get an agent. And did.
I said I would get a six figure book deal. And did.
I said I believed I could get [redacted], and despite all literal odds because my imprint has never done that before for a debut author, I did that, too.
And yet even still, our INHERENT VALUE cannot be tied to our art.
Publishing isn’t a meritocracy yadda yadda… My therapist has her work cut out for her because there’s a part of me that still worries endlessly about how the book will be received, about whether or not I will somehow, impossibly, rid myself of this existential dread that’s been following me all my life.
It can be shed from the lifeboat, too.
Looking forward, I am forcing myself to face the reality that my dreams are coming true, social anxiety or not, by attending the 2025 LAMBDA Emerging Writers virtual retreat at the beginning of next month! I’m so excited to work with Aiden Thomas and the rest of the YA cohort on the first pages of an extremely exciting new project I’ve been playing with in the background.
I’m not quite sure when to expect copy edits in my inbox, but those are coming within a few weeks I think.
After that, promo on my socials will start to ramp up as we head towards the cover reveal which should be happening this fall (guys it’s GORGEOUS), and from there I have to start working on book two!!
Talk about scared…
I don’t know about you, but I’ve never written a sequel before!! And I’m nervous and overwhelmed and excited. I love these characters so much and I love this world. I want so badly to bring my own spin on classic YA paranormal romance series where the world and lore and magic get increasingly complex and expansive with each installment. I’m so stoked to be able to add more characters and twists and turns, more yearning, more romance, more complicated queer found family dynamics.
I’m also hopeful that I’ll be at Yallfest this November (not sponsored by my imprint lol), and Bookcon in the spring (help me manifest being sent by my publisher pleaseeeee).
We’ll also be talking to a few foreign rights and film/TV people as we complete copy edits which is scareciting! So many cool things are on the horizon!!
Now that we’ve got the updates out of the way, please enjoy this snippet from the line edited version of BOUND BY FURY (which means it’s still subject to change so don’t get too attached!)
If you enjoyed that, please consider adding BOUND BY FURY on Goodreads!
Legendborn meets Ace of Spades in Mystic Falls in this YA Dark Academia Contemporary Fantasy!
Perched atop a small Appalachian town called Earnest, Black Mountain Academy looms in the background of every memory worth having. Creaky, old, and haunted by the town’s insidious past, sixteen-year-old Harper is sure BMA has the answers she’s looking for about her new rage-induced powers.
But when the truth about a missing student parallels her life in more ways than one, what Harper finds is more sinister than she ever imagined.
One hundred years ago, twelve Black women were lynched. Now, Harper must uncover her connection to the women, the land, and the two boys she hoped to never see again, or face the same impossible ending as the girl before her.
Ancient magic, vengeful ancestors, and Kai Matsoukas—her childhood best friend turned disgustingly hot mortal enemy. The closer she gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes: if Harper wants to survive BMA she’ll have to do two things first. Kill Kai Matsoukas and transform into something she never knew existed.
A prophecy incarnate.
Content Corner
Watch:
As you can probably tell, I gobbled up this season of Love Island. Not gonna lie, up until episode 21, I wasn’t really feeling it. But now I am an enlisted soldier protecting the gilded shores of NicOlandia Nation and I’ll sink with this ship if it comes to it.
Read:
I don’t always have the most time to read, but recently
JULIE CHAN IS DEAD by Liann Zhang
“In this razor-sharp, diabolical debut thriller, a young woman steps into her deceased twin’s influencer life, only to discover dark secrets hidden behind her social media façade.”
and
WHEN DEVILS SING by Xan Kaur
“Four unlikely allies in a small town investigate a local teen's disappearance, and what they discover festering at the core of their community is far more sinister and ancient than they could’ve ever imagined. For fans of She is a Haunting, True Detective, Mexican Gothic, and Midsommar.”
have been incredible on audio!
Julie Chan is Dead was everything I wanted out of an influencer thriller. A truly unlikeable main character and a sinister cast that took the plot to a place I couldn’t stop running toward, even if it killed me.
When Devils Sing is the perfect modern southern gothic. I could feel the sticky humidity like a second skin, could hear the twang, the sickly sweet southern hospitality masking an insidious, deeply dark past. From the first few pages I knew this book had it. That amorphous thing that compels you to read and read until you’ve unraveled all the intricacies
I’m currently reading and enjoying Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis and A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury.
Listen:
I’m still majorly into everything Lizzie McAlpine puts out, but Spring into Summer has had me in a choke hold for weeks now alongside Savannah by Jensen McRae. I’ve also been obsessed with the off-kilter musical stylings of Lexa Gates, specifically Rotten to the Core, and of course, the Sinners soundtrack has been essential when working on my secret project!
Thank you to everyone who is excited about BOUND BY FURY! Every new add on Goodreads or mention online means the absolute world to me!
As always, please feel free to reply to this email with questions, concerns, or your undying love and admiration!
And please let me know in the comments, what is YOUR favorite book two in a fantasy series? I’ve got some research to do!
Until next time!
With love, light, and liberation for all,
XOXO,
Noelle Monét
she/they
I’ve been following you for a while because your book sounds so good and I’m wondering if this series is going to be a duology or longer? Can’t wait for next year… or if I can get an ARC :)