Hey, babes
Long time no see! This newsletter will be a long one, so hang tight. You may already know I’m wordy as fuck. I’ve got a lot to catch you up on, so this will be no exception.
These past weeks have been a haze of activity, chaos, and joy. In August I decided to take an indefinite social media break—right now, I’m still holding to that, and focusing my attention to the community I have here instead. I’ll be back on IG and FB eventually, but I have some work I’m laying down toward my goals and protecting my peace, and focusing on what I have going on right in front of me.
What’s been up? Well, some book-world shit, of course, and some travel, as you may have come to expect from me.
August 15 and September 17 were the best days of my life so far, I have to say. From the way those days started to the way they ended, they were full of the people I loved, delicious food, and incredibly positive energy. I’ll get into August later, but I want to tell you first about my trip to Salem, MA, and the biggest book signing I’ve attended in years.
Getting Witchy With It Highlights—Road trip, Besties, Books
One month following the first best day of my life, I was blessed with an opportunity I’ve waited quite some time for. Getting Witchy With It is a two-day signing event in Salem, MA that took place on Sept 16 and 17 this year at the Boston Peabody Marriott. For many reasons, I almost gave up on this signing, but for the support and love from my best friends.
Needless to say, I’m so glad I didn’t.
A late night flight brought us into St. Louis to meet with my book wife
to drive across the country and attend GWWI ‘23. With a whole mess of luggage after months of preparation, my little and I got in at midnight and we all crashed. We hit the road later than anticipated the next day (because of course). Our best-laid plans went awry in the most fabulous ways as we traveled 1100 miles with the truck loaded down with books, camping gear, and our niblets.I discovered Sheetz. Do you know what Sheetz is? A haven for weary travelers looking for affordable fuel, good coffee, and breakfast burritos made to order. Sheetz, please come to the PNW.
We decided to cut our 3-day trek down to one and a half after deciding we wanted to wake up on the beach in Salem on Friday instead of sleeping in New York and driving in during the afternoon. We arrived Friday at 2:30am to our camp site at Winter Island Park ($38/night, right on the beach with the most amazing sunrise views, 100% recommend), set up the tent, and everyone but me crashed.
I do not sleep well away from home. I might doze in fits and starts, but it’s rare I catch more than 3 hours at a time when I’m not sleeping in my own bed. I laid down at 4am after a shower at the campgrounds bath house and let my mind rest. Eventually, I passed out.
First thing we did when we were all awake again was take the niblets to the beach. My godson had never seen the ocean before this trip, so this was an unbelievably beautiful moment. He’s a beach baby, for sure. We let them collect rocks and shells. I reminded them to thank the sea for her gifts. Kat and I watched the kids dance on the rocks and stuck our toes in the sand.
For lunch, we stopped at the Gulu Gulu cafe and had lox on croissants (they were out of bagels… and I was inspired to find an alternative to lox on sourdough). It was positively decadent. Are you getting the vibe that I love food? I don’t think I can make it more obvious.
Salem is beautiful. The houses, the witchy shops, all of it speaks to me. I will have to be dragged out of Hex every time I visit and I’m lucky to have come away with only a few items. The people are so kind and were very patient with the kids while they were being kids.
The signing. Ah, the signing.
Sept 16 (Saturday) at GWWI was chaos, but it was the delightful kind, though it played merry havoc on my anxiety and the kiddos quickly got overwhelmed. I only stopped a moment to say hello to some of my author friends and a few of the other professionals attending before we had to skedaddle.
The Witches Ball later that night was a blast for the kids—they made an impression dancing the night away in their outfits. I am less inclined to enjoy crowds and loud noise, but we stuck it out so the littles could party. There was pizza, cake, and the Cupid Shuffle in which my child nearly knocked over several dancers and laid down on the dance floor to nap after dancing (face down, little butt high in the air) to Baby Shark.
Sept 17, my signing day, was less chaotic, thankfully. I’m an introvert, but I can force start the extrovert button and jam that isht down until the event is done. We got set up—totally missed the author photo beforehand. And then the doors opened, and we got to spend the afternoon meeting new readers and old, and hopefully making an impression. Thank you to everyone who stopped by and made our day brighter with friendly conversation, enthusiasm, and positive energy.
Our niblets did an amazing job assisting us with handing out swag and repping BMRMC.
I got to have a conversation with cover models Robert Kelly and Katie Marie—I’ve been to several signings where they were in attendance, but had never spoken to them. They’re pretty rad, and I look forward to running into them again. I recommend checking them out on Instagram at (@robert_kelly_fitness) and (@fitkm).
But did I get photos with them? Nope. Of course not. Because it’s me.
Dante Dellamore (on IG at @dellamoredante) was the event photographer, and he got plenty of shots of the event as well as of the kids enjoying themselves throughout the day. I caught up to say hello at the very end of the signing weekend, and snagged an awesome print.
Best of all this weekend was getting to spend time with the beautiful and divine Mercy DeSimone (@mercydesimoneauthor) and bookstagrammer and lovely soul Debra Phiri (@pandoradragonnanny). You are two of my favorite people, and I’m so grateful that book world connected us.
Heading back from Salem was its own chaos, full of chickens and goats.
Yes. You read that right.
On the way back we used Hipcamp to find a campsite on a farm in central Ohio. 10/10 recommend. I cooked tortellini and italian sausage in the dutch oven over the fire and we roasted marshmallows. The kids got to pet goats and farm puppies. I was swarmed by a horde of chickens. I love both chickens and goats, and getting to hang out with them without having to clean up after them is always a treat (you cannot imagine the amount of goat poop).
We finished off the trip with a couple days to wind down before coming home to Seattle. We retrieved Toby the cat and Quinn the dog (who is easily as big as any adult labrador retriever I’ve ever owned, already, at 6 months old).
Now it’s all about settling back into our day to day lives until the next adventure.
I suppose I should tell you…
I published another book. You know, that thing I’m supposed to do as an author? Cage went live on August 30, the prequel of the Iron Mountain Pride Motorcycle Club series.
Cage takes place in small-town Montana in the year 1990. Small town shifter girl Dawn Miller doesn’t wanna be tied down to her small town shifter boy fated mate, Erik Rowles, and runs away to go to college in Colorado. When Dawn is forced to return a decade later with her young son in tow to find sanctuary from her violent ex, she finds out that small town boy is a very fine man now… and he still wants her.
I’ve been told that Cage is all the growly and possessive man you could ever want, all the 1990s nostalgia you could ever need, and the best ending I have ever written.
Huge, massive shout-out to Sara (@larksliterarynest) and Maycee (@queenbeereviews) for your work beta reading this book to make it everything it could be. You are the reason I keep doing the publishing thing instead of stashing my work away on a drive somewhere to rot.
You can snag your copy of Cage at books2read.com/cage-imp. Meanwhile, I’m working on book two (officially, book one, taking place in 2023) of IMPMC, Axel. Updates to follow.
That’s all for now, babes.
I’ve got so much more I could tell you, but I’m getting back to real life and back to the page. I’ll be hitting you up again soon with more news and stories, and I hope you know how deeply appreciated you are.
Thanks for coming on this ride with me.
XOXO,
Mariah
So glad your trip was amazing, you both deserve it! Hopefully I can tag along next year! Thanks for the shout out.. I am so honored you’re letting me be apart of your journey! Live you so much friend!
We had such a good time on our road trip! My little can't wait for the next one, he wants to go to all the places with Auntie Riah. 💜💜💜