How To Find A Princess is Now Available!
How To Find A Princess is Now Available!
Insert pun about finding the princess at your local bookstore here.
How To Find A Princess
How To Find A Princess is finally here!
First, I’d just like to thank everyone who has liked, boosted, and shared posts about the book’s release, and those who have reached out to tell me how much they loved Bez and Makeda’s story. It makes me so happy to know that the story is bringing people joy and warmth, and it is one of those things that truly reminds me of how lucky I am to have such amazing readers. I know this section of the newsletter is usually “Alyssa’s Emo Journal” and not “Alyssa’s Earnest Journal” so I will just pretend I never said this later, but I wanted to take a minute to acknowledge just how much I appreciate all of you. Thank you!!
Release Week Roundup
Here are a few How To Find A Princess Related things:
I talked with Frolic about How To Find A Princess and writing royals! Click here to read the interview.
How To Find A Princess got a wonderful review in the New York Times! Check it out here!
“The book is a bitingly funny, scathing rebuke to the emptiness of royal pageantry, and Cole makes virtuoso use of the familiar rhythms of a romance arc.”
HTFAP also kicked off Jezebel’s summer series of romance excerpts! You can read a bit of the book here.
My friend Rebekah (thee Weatherspoon) mentioned a few weeks back how much it would have meant to her seeing this cover on shelves when she was younger, and I’ve spent a lot of time this week thrilled about the fact that my queer clinch cover with two Black women is chillin’ on the shelves of indie bookstores and big box retailers alike. If you happen to pass it in Target (where, thanks to shelving, the next person you meet in heaven is apparently Beznaria Chetchevaliere) or Walmart (or anywhere really), please feel free to take a pic and send my way!
I’ve been making HTFAP related TikToks and sharing them on IG. Here’s my most ambitious one so far, celebrating release week with a Reluctant/Runaway royals fashion montage!
Anime!!! Recommendations
Mashiro No Oto / Those Snow White Notes
(1st season in progress)
Okay, I never thought I would be so emotionally invested in a show about a high school band playing a singular instrument (the shamisen), but I am so obsessed with this show that I pulled my dusty banjo (which isn’t the same as a shamisen but has a very similar sound) out of storage and have started practicing again. If you enjoy explorations of personal creativity, music, team competitions, and people coming together to create something beautiful, you’ll probably enjoy this show.
Yuru Camp/Laid-Back Camp
(2 completed seasons)
Girls talking about camping. Buying camping materials. Cooking at camp sites. Staring at Mout Fuji. Figuring out when they can go camping again. This is what I guess I would call “special interest slice-of-life,” wherein the characters are communally super into a specific thing and watching them explore and enjoy their interest in said specific thing is extremely relaxing. I also now know how to build camp fires, differences in tent set-ups and sleeping bags, etc., so it’s a great way to learn camping skills!
Super Cub
(1st season in progress)
Another “special interest slice of life” but this time about girls who love motorcycles. Our heroine is a lonely girl who, on a whim, buys a Honda Super Cub and falls in love with it, leading to friendship and adventure! And I now know how lots of things about motorcycle safety and upkeep!
Randomness Roundup
I mean, it’s a bird who riffs as its human plays electric guitar. The bird is also named Tico, and though my Tico sings every night when it’s time for dinner, it’s not quite as cool as this:
Stephanie St. Clair, Harlem’s ‘Numbers Queen,’ Dominated the Gambling Underground and Made Millions - Interesting piece on Stephanie St. Claire, a fascinating historical figure (who inspired one of the characters in my novella Let Us Dream)!
What’s up with that helicopter on Mars? There’s a lot going on on Earth (too much), but there are also robots up on Mars, exploring. This article explains what’s up with the Ingenuity helicopter that became the first aircraft to fly there.
In other space news, there’s a French astronaut on the International space station who shares great photos of Earth and bits of everyday life on the station (in English and French), if that kind of thing interests you:
Hobbit home vibes. As someone who often says I will one day become a hermit in a cave, these German cave-houses have my attention.
