HMCN Annotated Read Through (Part 2) (Patreon)

I've been enjoying looking up the other covers of HMCN for this. The one you're looking at here was the ARC, or Advance Reader Copy that was sent out to librarians, booksellers, and so forth prepublication. I loved this cover a whole heck of a lot. Unfortunately, at the time, B&N didn't like illustrated covers on YA books and told us that if we didn't change the cover, they wouldn't stock it. Since I was a debut author, we decided not to fight it, which I regret a little bit, especially since B&N forgot to order HMC,N for the first month. 

Publication day was really stressful because of that as I was fielding calls from friends and family saying they couldn't find my book. My mom had come to visit and we'd planned to hit a few of my local B&Ns and then go to my local indie bookstore to have lunch and celebrate. As you might of guessed, this didn't go well. By the time I got to my local bookstore I was starting to melt down and was two seconds away from crying. I'm not much of a cryer generally, but your first publication day is a big deal, you know? I'd sold the book two years before and I'd been waiting to finally see it on the shelf. It's the dream.

I called my agent  to figure out what happened with B&N and then checked my local indie and didn't see the book on the new release table or on the shelf. At this point, my friend Erica had met up with us, took one look at me, and took over. (One thing I really appreciate about my friends, and especially Erica, is how they handle rough situations.) Erica tracked down Rene, who is now the head of the kid's department at that bookstore and a friend, to ask about my book. Rene took one look at my face and said, "Is it your book?" When I told her yes, she kindly told me that she hadn't brought it out to the table yet, but they had it and I could sign it.

I may have then vomited up the story of my awful day to explain why I was a bit of a wreck. Rene asked why I didn't come there first, since it was my local bookstore and all. I told her we wanted to do it last because honestly, that bookstore--Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park--was special to me. I'd worked in the attached bakery when I first moved over to Seattle. I'd met my husband there. I'd hung out there a lot. (And later, I worked there.) So all ended up well, except for the whole "B&N forgetting to order my book" thing. 

Still, covers change frequently, so I always try to not get too attached. 

Alright, and on to the annotation! I'd planned to post this on Friday. Instead, I got to take my kid to urgent care. Again. Last week, it was for hives. (Did you know that is a Covid symptom? Because it is. He doesn't have Covid and we have no idea what caused the hives.) This time it was for something completely different and now he's on two antibiotics. My husband also went to urgent care last week, getting him two different doctor referrals. Oh, and my crown fell out and my mom and her MRI on her knee and I AM NOT SURPRISED I ENDED UP WITH A THREE DAY HEADACHE IS WHAT I'M SAYING.

So all of that screwed my schedule a bit.

Chapter 6--lots of Brid's backstory here, which was fun. And speaking of forgetting stuff, I forgot Bran had a bow. Brid has swords, too, and besides both of these things be attached to fey/faerie/fairy how ever you want to spell it culture, I can't remember specifically why I was so dead set on both of these things. I think I had a plan for them? Hopefully it will come back to me.

Chapter 7--We see the Tongue & Buckle, the name of which was a hint at what kind of creature Aengus is. Any guesses? I think I give more clues later on. There's also a line in here about no one having milk delivery any more, which is a total lie, because I get my milk delivered from Smith Farms. 

This is our first glimpse of the council as well, made up of a witch, a vampire, a satyr, a fury, Aengus, Brannoc, and Douglas. (I really miss Brannoc.) 

Chapter 8--as far as I know, Woodland Park Zoo has never had an actual panda. (It has a red panda, but those are more raccoon than bears.) However, Sam's issue with the tiny tiger cage was something that bothered me as a kid. I didn't get to go to that zoo very often as a kid, because it was an hour long ferry ride away. The tiger enclosure is much bigger now, which is great, but it's still not ideal. I mean, ideally, they could all be in the wild. So Sam got his zoo issues from me.

Fun fact about Sam's last name, LaCroix. I never pronounced it right in my head. I was actually shocked the first time I heard it said aloud at a book event and I realized that I'd not been thinking of it right and giving it a French pronunciation despite the fact that I picked it from a list of French Canadian names...SO OF COURSE IT HAD A FRENCH PRONUNCIATION. *trombone noise* I can miss really obvious things sometimes.

The line that Sam say about the news "They just don't make any good episodes of it anymore" was stolen directly from my husband. We were watching the news and they were broadcasting about a large construction crane that may or may not have had someone on it that shouldn't have been there, but they weren't sure. It was a slow news day, I guess. 

I miss slow news days. 

9--Ramon brings his mom's food to Sam saying she never feels like he gets enough to eat. This is modeled from something my grandmother used to do. I could have a plate HEAPING with food and she would always make a face and worry loudly about me not getting enough to eat...just because I didn't have meat on my plate. It took my grandma a long time to wrap her head around the whole vegetarian thing. Which, with her upbringing and going through the Great Depression and all, I'm positive the concept that someone wouldn't eat meat when it was readily available was foreign to her. She always tried, though. It took a long time to get her past the idea that even if she only put in "enough meat for seasoning" I couldn't eat it. 

My grandma: "Why doesn't AJ like seasoning?"

My mom: "She likes seasoning, she just doesn't want to eat meat."

Grandma: "I just don't understand why she doesn't want any seasoning..."

My mom: *sighs*

*end scene*

Oh, also in this chapter, Brooke gets her bowling bag! The bowling bag was actually my agent's idea. (We usually do a few rounds of editing together before we send the book to the editor.) Originally I was going to put Brooke's head in a box like Jambi from Pee Wee's Playhouse, but the bowling bag was a much better idea.

Ballard is a real neighborhood in Seattle--my husband works in Ballard, actually. It's full of all kinds of cool stuff that I almost never get to because it really is a pain to get to Ballard. You hit all the traffic.

Chapter 10--James! When I first made up James, I don't think I realized how central he was going to be, but I just instantly loved the persnickety guy. And of course I clearly love things that change into other things. Ha!

Barring more ridiculous medical emergencies, I'll post more chapters soon!

-Lish