My Book is an Amazon First Reads Pick!

Or Three Days till the Asteroid

We are three days away from an election so consequential, so dread-inducing, so edge-of-the-cliff unimaginable that I’m steeped in a mental bath that’s part numbness, part hysteria. Will the post-Tuesday world be irrevocably altered? How will I attend anything as normal as my dentist appointment on Thursday? A poetry reading on Friday? And a week from now—next Sunday—what color will the sky be by then? Will there even be a sky? I mean—of course there will be, but it all feels so wildly shaky. We’re like the dinosaurs just before the asteroid hit.

Except that the dinosaurs couldn’t access CNN or the Weather Channel or Fox News and go, “You guys, there’s an asteroid coming. Should we like shelter in the basement, or move to Canada or something?” or “Who saw the new Velociraptor/Siena poll? Asteroid’s way ahead of the margins.” The dinos had no warning that things were going to change. Yes, I am exaggerating the impact of Tuesday. There are certain events in history far more catastrophic and momentous than the 2024 presidential election—Pompeii for one. Hiroshima. But those things, like the asteroid—if in fact there was an asteroid and not an alien spaceship—were a complete and utter surprise to the people they happened to. This election is as predictable as chocolate-bottomed candy corn disappearing first from the variety pack. We know it’s coming. We’ve had time to—not prepare exactly, but at least panic. We’ve been freaking out for at least 2 years while still living our lives, and I imagine that will continue. The freaking out part, but also the living. It is possible to do both, which is how I console myself. Both/and. Two truths. We can rage and sob and break things and still work, care for our families, write.

Indeed, I write these words alongside my steaming mug of doom with a nice little dollop of hope, trying to make sense of all the coinciding global, national, and personal news.

Shifting to the latter, since this is, after all, an author newsletter, I should mention that I am (as I put it in my Facebook post) beyond thrilled to announce that MIRROR ME was selected as an AMAZON FIRST READS release for the month of November!

The official publication date is December 1st, but (here, you can imagine me putting on my hard-sell announcer’s voice) if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can choose MIRROR ME as your free book and start it today! If you are inspired, please write a review, post that on Goodreads and Amazon. Recommend the book to friends. I don’t understand exactly how the First Reads thing works, but there is an algorithm involved that helps the book succeed even when it’s free for a month. This happened for EMBERS ON THE WIND, my debut novel (also still available for purchase wherever you buy books!) and it’s a huge honor, because each month, they choose only nine books.

Here is the Amazon Editor's Note describing the book. (Different from the blurb on the cover):

Have you ever wondered what happens in the moments you don’t remember? Eddie Asher, the desperate man at the center of Mirror Me, has big questions—mainly, did he kill someone?

Adopted at birth, Eddie has never been sure of himself. He was raised in a loving, if somewhat fractured family, and the whereabouts of his birth family elude him. But as memories of a life he didn’t live start to make him question his reality, he embarks on a search for the truth that takes him deep inside himself to reveal that the disturbing voice inside his head may know more than he thought possible.

Lisa Williamson Rosenberg’s story of identity and family is a chilling journey into the darkest corners of the mind. Full of family secrets and fragmented memories that will keep you guessing, Mirror Me is a suspenseful and intricately layered page turner in the vein of The Silent Patient.

So, that happened. Which is pretty cool. I keep reminding myself that, no matter the results of the election, life will continue. Good things will still happen. There will still be a sky. With a very low likelihood of asteroids. Or alien spaceships.

Wishing you moments of clarity and hope this week.