Author friends.

When you first start out, it feels like you’ll never find your people. It feels like everyone else in publishing (at least, the ones with a presence on social media) already have their safe little island of friends and support, and it’s hard to imagine ever breaking into that. I even wrote in to a popular publishing podcast once, asking the proverbial pub-noob question: HOW do you find your people? Their answer was essentially to be patient, be kind, be collaborative, put yourself out there.

Y’all, that works. It’s not the fastest way to do things, but like any relationship, you get what you give.

Today’s #2022debuts prompt is about these author friends, and what a great opportunity to brag about them it is! Jennifer Cox will forever and always be my first friend in Romancelandia, after we met on the #PitchWars forum. Then I met Ingrid Pierce via​ the​ All The Kissing ​group ​on Facebook, and ​she eventually brought ​me ​into an existing critique group with Alexandra Kiley, Maggie North, and Sarah Burnard. Thank goodness for them.

Months later, after weeks of platonic flirtation via Twitter, we made a romance-Voltron group with Jessica Joyce, Livia Barb, Risa Edwards, and Sarah T. Dubb, and whew, it’s been a fun ride. I’m sharing snippets here from their work. Follow them! Read them! They’re going to be​ participating in a debut author prompt party before you know it.

I would LOVE to make more author friends. Let’s chat!​ My DMs on Twitter and Instagram are always open.