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Booktrope, the publisher who signed me for my first novel, Moonlight and Oranges, the publisher that turned me from “writer” to “author” announced on April 29, 2016 that it would be closing its doors.

This was the publisher that helped teach me what it’s like to professionally edit and revise a manuscript, to collaborate with others in a book’s cover design, how to write the words that on the book’s jacket that invited readers to explore the interior.

Gone.

And along with Booktrope’s demise also goes the viability of all three novels that I published with them.

I cried. I tried to focus on the good things that would survive this collapse, even as my mind crowded with a hundred unanswered questions.

The day after the heartbreaking announcement, I pulled out my stationary and wrote cards to the dear friends that I’d made through y connections in the Booktrope family. These relationships would last. No matter what happened.

I have a new path ahead of me. I’m facing the decisions needed to keep my books available (they go out of print unless I find a way to get them republished). Additionally, I need to settle with the creative teams who came together to make these books. My mind is pretty scattered.

It’s felt like a tragedy. It’s felt like a chance to start fresh.

To say I feel peaceful and optimistic about the future would be somewhat wishful thinking. Right now I feel enveloped in a low-lying fog, fully expecting the sun will break through in due time.

A good thing died in the closing of Booktrope.

I know it wasn’t a perfect publisher, but I don’t regret my (almost) five years with them. I’ve learned and grown so much–and ultimately taken myself seriously as a writer. These are precious gifts.

I’ve forged some cherished friendships among this community. These are priceless.

And so…we move on. I will continue to write. There will be more books to come.

By the by, should you want a copy of one of my books for yourself or to give as a gift, order them before May 31, 2016. Once this date passes, the Booktrope editions of my books will cease to exist.

I hope to make “out of print” an impermanent situation, but until then, these are about to become collector’s items.

So you can go save your copy in a glass case (ha!).