On Chappell Roan, music, and three months!

Tonight I’m coming to you live from Bellevue, Washington, where I’m spending the week working out of my corporate office. It’s not something that I particularly enjoy, but last year I accidentally girl bossed too close to the sun, and now I have responsibilities and presentations and shit.

 

But in happier news…Crossing Bridges has been out in the wild for three months today! I know that I have not done as best as I could have at marketing and promoting, but the good news is there’s no timeframe on reading a book. It’s always going to be there! So if you haven’t read it yet, it’s waiting for you. Both Amazon and Goodreads have it at 4+ stars, which I think is pretty darn good. If you have read it, please consider leaving a rating or review! They are manna for the soul of an author.

 

I can’t yet say if this is true for all books, or if the first one is special, but Quinn and Chloe have stayed with me although I finished their story over a year ago. Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about them as if they are real people…what does their life look like, post-epilogue? If I were ever to return to their world, though I have no plans to do so, where would I pick up?

 

I’m currently working on my second manuscript, and the main character is someone who is mentioned in Crossing Bridges. I have this plan for a very loosely intertwined universe with my books, in that they all exist in the same world and some characters interact with others, but all are standalones. So as I write this new story, I occasionally pause to think about what Quinn and Chloe are doing at this point in the timeline.

 

(I don’t really need to think about it. There are charts. Oh, yes, there are charts. Refer to the first paragraph. Presentations mean charts. The only thing I love more than charts are spreadsheets.)

 

But speaking of the new manuscript—which should be out early next year!!—it’s a departure from Crossing Bridges in numerous ways, although there are a few similarities. Unlike Quinn and Chloe, who were both very secure in their sexuality, this story has a side character who is coming to terms with hers. Not in the typical toaster oven sense, but the storyline is there.

 

Which leads me to my current obsession, and possibly yours. Chappell Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” It’s so good. It’s sooo gooood. Completely obsessed. Because so many (most, perhaps) sapphics can identify with it, right? We’ve either been the “straight” person trying to ignore their feelings, or we’ve been in love with that person. For some unlucky few, maybe both.

 

“You’d have to stop the world to stop the feeling” is the best lyric I’ve heard since “Time and too much don’t belong together like we do.” And the part about waking up as nothing more than his wife? Ugh. I wish I could not identify with this song as much as I do.

 

Music is such an important part of my writing process, not to mention my, you know, existing process. Music inspires me, it moves me, it drowns out the noise in my head and helps me focus. Sometimes I get a story idea or want to change a plotline because a certain song sticks with me.

 

I have approximately eleventy hundred playlists, but the one I want to share with you if you haven’t already listened to it is one I made for Crossing Bridges, featuring none other than Chappell Roan’s “Casual.” It perfectly encapsulates one of the issues that Quinn and Chloe have to overcome in order to get their happy ending. Check it out below. Everything needs a soundtrack, after all. Leave a comment and let me know who would be on your soundtrack!

 

Be kind and show love,

xoxo Chelsey