Well, it’s happening, folks! With THE GREAT TREE OF IRIS coming out in just 2.5 short months on 10/21 (!), we finally have a cover reveal! But first, a quick summary of this newsletter.

1. Welcome and ARC Readers

2. Cover reveal and a behind-the-scenes of the process

3. New Character Art

4. Book Party reminder

5. What media I’m consuming

6. Princess Bride GIFs appropriately sprinkled throughout

First, I want to give a big warm welcome to the new ARC readers here, who have been signing up to receive an early copy of the book (in ebook form). I’m so glad you’re here and in community with me🙂. For those who are not familiar, many authors give out Advanced Reader Copies (ARCs) hoping that folks will review and hype up their book! Early reviews around the release date on social media, Goodreads, and Storygraph, etc., help give a new book a boost (especially for a debut author like me).

And reviewing on AMAZON helps a TON once the book is out. THANK YOU for leaving a review for your indie authors!

HERE IS THE ARC FORM if you’d like to read an early copy of the book and help me get to 100 signups (we’re a quarter of the way there in the first week!)

BTW if ARCs are not your jam or you have no idea what I’m talking about—no problem at all! Preorders (of ebook and paperback), Goodreads/Storygraph link, etc. all coming very soon - more below.

Drumroll please… we have a cover! And scroll for the whole reveal and more deets!

This is the stunning front cover of THE GREAT TREE OF IRIS, designed with care by Kim Cavrak (@spiritofebullience). We’ve been working together for months on this design, and I’m so excited to finally be able to share it!

We all know the phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” but let’s be honest—many people do (I absolutely do). And I knew from the beginning I wanted the cover to be magical and epic. It had to have the healing tree on the cover. In the end, we added two lunalis (the messenger birds in my book, who have guiding gemstones). For early readers, the one flying by the letters is Vai!

I wanted bisexual (pink/purple/blue) lighting, because my main character is bi and it IS the best color scheme (I’m biased) (okay, when I first read that I didn’t mean it as a pun but I can’t unsee it now).

Also, if you look carefully, the sunflowers are magical and they are breaking apart. A big plot point!

_{BUT WAIT. THERE’S MORE. Are you ready?}

I asked for the back cover to depict my second favorite scene, which is a dragon and a phoenix flying away together (I can’t wait for y’all to read that part!🤗). And of course, the sunflowers needed to wrap around the whole thing, because how cool! I can’t wait to see that book spine on my shelf (how about you?)!

I am SO excited to see the full wrap in person and hold it in my hands (probably within the next two weeks—I’ll definitely do an unboxing on Instagram!)

For those of you who are familiar with epic fantasy covers these days, many of them have a darker background, and tend to have objects (swords, crowns, etc.) But I didn’t go in that direction. Perhaps that could hurt me, because people might not associate the bright cover with epic fantasy. But even though the story has end-of-world stakes, the romances are cozy, and the story boils down to finding joy and love in other people.

So, in that sense, I think the color scheme of the color is just right (I’m thrilled with how it came out – thank you, Kim). Plus, it’s exactly what the healthy Great Tree is supposed to look like in the good times (you’ll see when you read the book).

We played around with a lot of versions of the front cover details. Adding the two lunalis/birds and the magical swirls really made the whole thing come to life, imho. We tried a version of the front cover where Lia and Rory, our main couple, reach out to each other in front of the tree, and even though romance sells and I love the drawing to pieces, the cover with people was reading a bit too YA/young adult. There’s nothing WRONG with that, of course, but it’s not a YA book.

All in all, the cover is here and I’ve just finished reading through the book for the final time (SOB), so it’s almost time to order my author proof copy and post it everywhere. And now I can finally show people: THIS is MY BOOK. This is the cover, and I hope you love it as much as I do (and if you order the paperback, you’re gonna get to see this beautiful work in your hands, and the spine! Oh my god. The SPINE).

What’s your favorite part of the cover? Hit “reply” and let me know 😃 

-You’re invited! If you’re local to New Jersey USA, I hope you can join me for a book release party! More coming soon, but for now, save the date for 1 pm on Saturday 10/25/25, just 4 days after TGTOI releases. We’ll have giveaways, an author talk/reading/Q&A, book signing, and doughnuts (in honor of Hippa the dragon). This event is open to the public, and I hope you can come celebrate!

(I mean, please come?) 😊 SAVE THE DATE!

-There’s moooooar character art coming next time! How about a romantic lantern festival?

-PREORDER INCENTIVES: In the next newsletter (there will likely be a second one for August because there’s so much happening), I should have news about where you can preorder THE GREAT TREE OF IRIS before it comes out on October 21. I am doing a special preorder of signed paperbacks, including a hand-stamped sunflower, stickers, bookmarks, and possibly character art. More coming, so keep an eye out you’re interested!

Watching: Honestly? Not much. I just got back from an amazing visit with my sister, and we basically had a 1.5 week-long slumber party, in which we worked remotely, went in the hot tub, ate good food, took an outdoor yoga class, and made time to watch Wicked (my third time). I think folks should be more impressed about how calm I’ve been waiting for Part 2 to come out (one month after my book, btw! Screech!)

Listening: “The Subway” by Chappell Roan of course. And “Picture You,” because those are the vibes for my WIP Pirate Princess book. I know, very sapphic of me. 💅

Crafting: Not much lately. Hoping to get back to my sewing machine this coming weekend.

Reading: Definitely on a quick pause here because I had to do a final read-through of TGTOI and it took some time. I finally started A Restless Truth by Freya Marske on my flight home, and so far, I’m loving it.

I have barely even been WRITING, and I’m hoping to carve out some more consistent time for my developmental edits of Pirate Princess soon, after this cover reveal and preorders are finally up.

I hope you enjoyed the cover reveal and pretty soon, the book will be available to read, too! 🤓

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