A Love Letter to Sharing Your World with Strangers
What book signings have taught me about hope, magic, and showing up anyway.
There's a moment, right before a signing begins, that I don't think I'll ever stop feeling.
The table is set. My mom and I have arranged everything just so — and it's always just so, regardless of whether we have a six-foot table or a cozy little corner. She's my setup partner. I direct, she helps, and somewhere in that quiet back-and-forth my nervous system settles just enough. Having her there is its own kind of magic. My neurodivergent brain appreciates the familiar warmth of someone who knows exactly how to help me feel like myself before the doors open.
📷 by Michelle Guerrero at Noley’s Bookstore in Payson, AZ
And then... the doors open.
And I feel it. The rush of it. Anxious and excited and deeply, profoundly uncertain. Impostor syndrome sitting right beside wonder, the way it always does.
The Quiet Courage of Setting Up a Table
Nobody tells you, when you write your first book, that one day you'll be sitting across a table from strangers holding something you made in the quiet of your own imagination. That you'll watch them pick it up, turn it over, read the back cover — and that your whole nervous system will hold its breath waiting to see what they feel.
I still feel it every time. That flutter of what if they don't get it right, alongside what if they do.
I've learned to match people's energy when they approach. Not because I'm performing, but because I genuinely don't want to be the overly enthusiastic writer who overwhelms someone who was just casually curious. I want them to feel welcomed into the world, not swept up in my feelings about it. So I breathe. I smile. I follow their lead.
And then, sometimes... a spark of hope catches.
A Lantern in a Dark-Lit Wood
When Lost in Time came out, and then The Secrets of Starlight Lake, something started happening that I hadn't let myself expect.
Returning readers. People who had read The Christmas Witch and come back — sometimes with a friend in tow, sometimes with their own worn copy tucked under their arm. I'd watch them lean over to someone new and say you have to read this series and I would feel something shift in my chest that I still don't have a perfect word for.
I carry a lot of wounding around my work. Old doubts that don't dissolve just because a book gets published. Impostor syndrome is a quiet, persistent companion, and some days it's louder than others. But those moments — a returning reader, a stranger whose eyes light up, someone who found their way back — they're like lanterns in a dark-lit wood.
Proof that the light is real. That it reached someone. That it stayed.
Calan Mai & the Birthday I've Been Waiting For
This May, something is happening that feels less like an event and more like a sign.
I'll be a selected Author vendor at Calan Mai — a bookish, fantasy, music festival, Renaissance faire, and ball all wrapped into one glorious, enchanted weekend. And if that alone weren't enough to make my whole creative heart sing... it falls over my birthday. May 30th.
I've had my eye on this event since it first appeared on my radar. The moment I heard about it, something in me went oh, this is mine. A gathering of people who already speak the language of magic and story and seasonal wonder… who show up in costume and buy handmade things and dance and listen to live music and believe in the beauty of it all. That's my people. That's always been my people.
A world between the pages. 🌿 These dioramas are handcrafted by Martina (my mom) and me — and every single one is a little portal into The Christmas Witch. A portion of sales goes toward funding our film, and they're available at every book event we do.
My mom and I spent time crafting custom bookish fantasy jewelry and other handmade items for the event — creating together the way we always do, finding the magic in the making. And I'll be there when one of my favorite bands, Melrose Avenue, takes the stage. (Again… because once is never enough.)
I've always felt aligned with the seasons, with the old rhythms and the turning of the wheel. Calan Mai — May Day — is a celebration of that very thing. Flowering. Abundance. The world in full bloom.
It feels right to be sharing Amberlight Valley there, in that space, in that season, on the threshold of another year of my life.
What I Hope You Walk Away With
If you find your way to my table at Calan Mai — or at any signing, any festival, any cozy little corner where I've set up my books and my heart — I don't need you to buy anything.
I just want you to feel something.
A flicker. A warmth. A quiet reminder that the worlds inside stories are real in the ways that matter most… the ways that make you feel less alone, more alive, more like yourself.
I want you to walk away with a little bit of Amberlight Valley's glow... and maybe, somewhere in that glow, feel inspired to follow your own magick too.
Calan Mai takes place May 29–31, 2026. Come find me at my Author vendor table — I'll be the one with the handmade jewelry, the signed books, and my heart on the table right alongside them.
And if it's my birthday when you visit? Well. That just makes the magic sweeter. ✨
🕯️ Wander into Amberlight and beyond—sign up for updates, secrets, and the occasional enchanted surprise.
