It was a blast to join Andrea of Shelf Love to record this podcast. 

​This weekend, I finished writing acknowledgements which, I have to tell you, feels a lot like giving an Oscar acceptance speech, except that I was wearing sweatpants and Chris Evans was nowhere to be found when I tripped walking up my own stairs.

Still, it’s humbling to thank everyone who supported you during the conception, gestation, and birth of your book baby. Too graphic? Are you trying to decide what the placenta is in this metaphor? Let it go, it’s not that serious (but the life-sustaining placenta for this book would be Diet Coke and Baked Cheetos). There’s a challenge to make the acknowledgements fit the tone of the book—for me, that meant a little touching, a little funny, and a little bit deeper than you thought it would go.

There are a few people I didn’t get to thank, so if you’ll indulge me…

• Thank you to the guy who hit on my friends and I at a bar while we were on vacation. I don’t know your name, but you inspired the hero in How to Fail at Flirting.
• Thank you to the first beta reader who told me no one would read a book about a woman of color professor. Without your jackassery, I wouldn’t have rewritten what is now chapter 1 in a flurry of rage.
• Thank you to our postal carrier who delivered Amazon box after Amazon box of things I could have easily gone to the store to buy. Momming + a demanding full-time job + writing is made just a little easier by having toilet paper and dog food delivered.
• A big shout-out out to teachers at my son’s daycare. They deserve kudos for many, many reasons, but here I thank them for loving my child when I dropped him off, even when I was off work for the day so that I could write.
• Thank you to the Twitterverse. I came to the party late, but Romancelandia on Twitter is a delightful, supportive, funny, and welcoming place to be.
• Finally, thank you to caffeine. Without you I would sleep more and do less. This book came to be because of your constant presence in my life.

​That was a preview, so I hope you’ll make it to the end of HOW TO FAIL AT FLIRTING to read the final cut of the speech. It's not out yet, so I’ll just be here, waiting for Chris Evans to show up.