Honey, I rose up from the dead

I do it all the time 🦂

Hi there.

One of my most vivid childhood memories is of gently roasting in the captain’s chair of the family car as we headed to dinner on a summer evening. As we zoomed down the road to Peter Piper Pizza, I was doing the math on what years I would turn 18, 21, 30, and so on, and all of them felt so far away. Back then, time seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace—each school year was a small eternity, summer seemed to last forever, and birthdays couldn’t come soon enough. Now that I’m older, time seems to fly by faster and faster with each passing year¹ —and if you’re wondering, Alex, is this your excuse for why you haven’t sent out a newsletter SINCE FEBRUARY? The answer is yes…

But also no.

The truth is, I’ve been in a weird state of flux for the last few months when it comes to my work as an author. Every time I’ve thought about sitting down to write an update (or, you know, the Italy adventure recap I just… never got around to, hah), I’ve struggled to articulate my thoughts or just haven’t had the energy to try. I got to do some fun travel in April (to TLA, North Texas Teen Book Festival, and YALLWest) which was the best kind of mood booster for me, and misery-inducing for Tenny (who just turned nine a few days ago and seems even more dependent on routines now that he’s an older gentleman). I fully expected to be able to give you guys an update on my post-MIRROR project by now, but… it’s changed.

That’s right—the book I started writing, got about 40k words into, the one I lowkey told a bunch of readers about, the one I was SO SURE was coming next… is now on the back burner, possibly forever. The most telling thing to me was that I felt some relief about closing the door on it. I’d been sending myself in circles debating whether or not the idea was strong enough, if you guys would even want it, if it was too late in coming—I was so stressed my hair started falling out! It certainly doesn’t help that the industry/market feels weirder than ever.

I’ve worked on more proposals in the past year than I’ve created in all of the years of my career combined, which took me on a real journey of emotional highs and lows. I have tormented my author pals with said proposals, picked their brains on what the right next step is, and solicited their feedback on sample pages and summaries, all in search of some feeling of certainty.

It’s taken me years to realize that’s the thing I’ve been striving toward: certainty. (Why yes, I am an enneagram type 6, thank you for asking. 😂) Unfortunately, I’ve picked a career for myself that requires me to not only ride the uneven waves of the market, reader tastes, and utterly demonic algorithms, but to accept the mysterious workings of creativity and inspiration. As Amie said to me recently, now is the time for me to work on building up a better tolerance for uncertainty and listening to my heart about what to work on next.

And I have been working—I’m in the middle of fine-tuning (You guessed it!) a proposal and sample pages that I’m really in love with, in part because the project feels like such a departure for me. It validated this growing sense I’ve had recently that I need some kind of big reset in my author life to reclaim some of the joy it’s been lacking. The scary thing, of course, is that I’d had this vision of how I thought my ✨Author Brand✨ would pan out, and this involves abandoning that plan and genuinely surrendering to something new. More uncertainty!

My very Piscean motto I frequently repeat to myself is: I am a fish and there’s no water I can’t swim through. But lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about my ascendant, Scorpio. (A lot of my astrology-inclined readers and friends are surprised to discover this because I am so utterly devoid of anything resembling edge. 💀)

One of Scorpio’s ruling planets is Pluto, which, to really boil it down, deals with transformation. Put another way, cycles of death and rebirth. Nearly all Millennials (those born in 1983-1995) have their Pluto in Scorpio, but for me, I also have it in my first house of self, and it’s my rising sign. So this aspect of death/rebirth is very present in my life, and I can see how it’s also played out in my career, and how it’s come for me again.

To that end, I think I’m going to adopt a new motto, courtesy of our queen, Taylor Swift:

(Reputation is her most Scorpionic album, and I would be 0% surprised to find out she’s a Scorpio rising!!)

If you’re going through a similar cycle in your work or life, know that you aren’t alone and that as scary as it can be to start over, or try something entirely new, there’s a lot of power in that, too. It’s hard, but so necessary.

Whatever this next project turns out to be (and I have fingers and toes crossed it’s the one I’m working on now), I hope you guys will come along for the latest rebirth. 😂❤️ The story is a bit lighter, and more romantic(!), than what I’ve worked on in the past, though as Isabel recently told me, the moment she got to the part with a graphic description of blood crusted on a person’s face, she knew it was an Alex Bracken book.

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THE MIRROR OF BEASTS Stuff You Should Know About

PRE-ORDER THIS BEAUTY FROM: Bookshop | Amazon | Barnes & Noble signed edition | Books-a-Million | Target | Walmart | Chapters/Indigo | Booktopia (Aus) | Dymocks (Aus) | Whitcoulls (NZ) | Mighty Ape (NZ) | Waterstones (UK) | WH Smith (UK) | Amazon UK

Thing #1: You may have seen this on Instagram, but I am finally ready to share the pre-order gift you’ll receive if you pre-order MIRROR through one of my two local indie bookstores!

These coins play an important role in the duology (👀 👀 👀) and I’m SO thrilled with how these turned out! If you’d like one, pre-order a copy through Changing Hands (US shipping only) or The Poisoned Pen (US and International shipping available), and if you’d like the copies signed and personalized, please indicate that in the order notes!

I have a limited number of these coins and they’ll be given out on a first come, first served basis—in order to receive yours, please forward your order confirmation email to mirrorofbeastspreorders@gmail.com!

Thing #2: If you’re based in the US, don’t forget to submit to get your FREE(!) SILVER IN THE BONE jacket with the new cover art. Per the website, these will likely ship out around the time the book releases at the end of July, into August.

Thing #3: I WILL be doing some events this summer—I should be able to share those dates and locations in the next newsletter, which I swear will arrive in a reasonable amount of time.

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RECENTLY…

Reading: Alas, most of my reading over the last month has been dedicated to research I can’t talk about yet! But I did decide to treat myself to a re-read of Lisa Kleypas’s Ravenels series (and a bonus re-read of Devil in Winter—every time I see someone say they don’t like blonde male love interests I’m convinced it’s because they’ve never met St. Vincent)

Watching: I somehow got sucked into two separate documentaries about space travel disasters on streaming this past week, because apparently I wanted to cry?? I started with Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight and then moved on (and back in time) to Challenger. These tragedies are linked not just by human ambition, but also internal failures at NASA due to dysfunctional management and risk assessment. I also watched the first half of the new Bridgerton season! Multiple times! And I’m so mad they didn’t release all of the episodes at once!!

Listening: To the surprise of no one, I’m still listening to The Tortured Poets Department and now have an updated top ten ranking:

1. The Tortured Poets Department

2. So Long, London

3. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

4. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

5. The Black Dog

6. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus

7. The Prophecy

8. Down Bad

9. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

You guys have to tell me your top 10 and if it’s changed as you’ve listened to the album more!

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That’s all for now! As I mentioned before, I should be back soon with an update on my upcoming events, as well as some sneak peeks for MIRROR! I hope you guys are having a wonderful start to your summer!

1. There’s some fascinating science behind this change in our perception of how quickly time is passing.