I am incredibly blessed.
I am blessed to have had great CPs and betas and editors and designers for this book.
I am blessed to have the words of my friend Leah Raeder on this book.
I am blessed to have had the Fantastic Flying Book Club reach out to me to offer to organize me a blog tour.
I am blessed to have had wonderful blog hosts, reviewers, interviewers, and artists make this past week – month, even – a truly beautiful and incredible one.
I am blessed to have amazing readers and fans and friends who’ve supported and advocated for this book in every channel possible.
I am blessed to have gone to Barnes & Noble and looked at the shelves and seen the first romantic, kissy f/f YA I ever have, and see my name on it besides.
I am blessed to have experienced this pride month, this SCOTUS ruling, this enormous outpouring of love and rainbows, and to release my super queer book on its final day.
I am blessed that you’re still reading this post when I’ve gotten sappy as hell. So I’m gonna stop with that, and move on to the logistical stuff.
Under the Lights is officially out today, and if you want to buy it, A) that would be awesome, and B) you can do so here: Amazon | B & N | The Book Depository. For a signed book, you can order at Oblong Books, one of the two places I’ll be doing panels with some other fabulous authors of LGBTQ YA.
Or, if you’d rather try your hand at winning a copy, you can either hit up one of the official blog tour spots to enter to win an annotated ARC (int’l), or check out this macaron-licious review+giveaway being hosted by the lovely Gillian Berry for a chance to win a signed copy (US only).
One last place to buy it: come see me and six other romance authors read scenes from our books at a special RWA edition of Lady Jane’s Salon on July 21st at 7 p.m.! I may or may not be reading a certain kiss aloud 😉
In addition to the blog tour, which has some amazing amazing interviews, dreamcasts, and playlists, here’s where you can find some scattered stuff on both Under the Lights and other books of mine from the last couple of months!
- My dear friend and awesome author of Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Becky Albertalli interviewed me for the Barnes & Noble Teen Blog
- This gorgeous fan art by Sil creates four Vogue covers – one each featuring Josh, Van, Ally, and Liam – and please excuse me while I wallpaper my entire office in it
- She’s a Girl and So Am I – an amazing playlist by Sue at YA Hollywood inspired by Under the Lights
- The ABCs with Vanessa Park from Under the Lights – I contributed to Andi’s super fun series and an ideal accessory, book, and clothing for Van
- Summer of Series: Dahlia Adler Interview and Giveaway – talking about Behind the Scenes and Under the Lights with Lili of Lili’s Reflections, and giving away a copy of Behind the Scenes with its new cover!
- Sophomore Spotlight on…Dahlia Adler – A great series highlighting authors of 2014 debuts with 2015 releases (including my accountabilibuddy, Lindsay Smith!), in which I got to talk about all three of my YAs with Kaitlin of Reading is My Treasure
- Diversity in Books: What it Means and How Bloggers Can Contribute – an interview by the lovely Viv of Beaute de Livres
- Mabuhay! – Wonderful bloggers Alexa and Rachel invited me to talk about writing Filipina-American character Lizzie in Last Will and Testament to help celebrate Philippine Independence Day
- Her Story: Ladies in Literature with Dahlia Adler – I absolutely love this monthlong series created and hosted by Jen of Pop Goes the Reader, which featured some of my absolute favorite author friends. We each talked about a lady in literature who inspired and/or affected us, so go check it out and see who I picked!
- Book and a Beverage Author Edition: Dahlia Adler – this is me taking part in The Book Addicts’ Guide’s supercute series, discussing my books, my writing, and of course, my beverages!
- Making Choices in LGBTQ YA – A post I wrote for Gay YA about the choices we make regarding things like sexual content, self-identification, and more, and why I made the ones I did for Under the Lights.
Also, some cool places Under the Lights has appeared:
- Teen Vogue‘s 30 Young Adult Books for Summer 2015
- Paste‘s 13 of the Best New YA Books in June
- YA Hollywood’s 23 LGBT YA Books You Should be Reading
- School Library Journal‘s What’s New in LGBTQIA+ This Summer
- AfterEllen‘s 5 Lesbian and Bi YA Titles We’re Excited About This Year
So, it’s been some wild times, and I thank everyone so, so much who’s helped me through them and supported this book. Thank you to everyone who’s reviewed it, who’s fallen in love with Josh, Van, and/or Bri, and who’s recommended it. Thank you for kind words, amazing f/f gifs, and tweets of excitement and general wonderfulness. You have made this release an amazing experience, and I am so, so grateful for you all.
If you haven’t yet read Under the Lights but plan to, I hope you enjoy. And remember: