Sequel Feelings... and a Den of Liars giveaway

Only for newsletter subscribers... cuz y'all are my faves

With every newsletter I’ve sent out this year so far, I’ve been tempted to start off with a “X NUMBER OF DAYS TIL DEN OF LIARS!” countdown, and you know what? I’ve decided I have way less chill than I pretend to, and I’m going to stop pretending to be cooler than I am. As of today, March 28, we are officially at:

95 DAYS UNTIL DEN OF LIARS!

Less than 100. Just baaarely over three months. I basically vascillate between this:

and this:

on the daily. EVERYTHING IS FINE.

So, to distract myself from the pre-pub scaries, I’ve decided to do a giveaway exclusively for YOU—the readers who have supported me most by subscribing! But first, let’s catch up.

What I’ve Been Up To

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen my story post yesterday about all the FEELINGS I was having. Because that’s what I’ve been up to since the last time you got a newsletter from me. I’ve been HAVING FEELINGS.

I got my first round of developmental edits from my editor for the Den of Liars sequel (which, contrary to popular belief, DOES have a title. It’s just a secret. You know, the kind the Liar likes to stockpile in his vault—iykyk ;), and it was kind of a hilarious experience for me.

See, usually when I get an edit letter, no matter how big or small, no matter how harsh or kind, it usually feels like being curb-stomped. It’s the funniest phenomenon, honestly, because I always am very aware of the fact that the book needs revisions (especially if it’s the first round of critiques), and I WANT the brutal critique. I want all the notes. Don’t sugarcoat it, editor. Give it to me straight. I want to know EVERYTHING that is wrong with it so that I can fix it. Revisions are my absolute favorite part of this job. Taking the flaming pile of garbage and turning it into gold is my bread and butter.

(Writing the initial draft on the other hand? Basically three months straight of pulling my hair out wondering whether I should chuck my laptop out the window and go join a convent.)

But in spite of how much I love edit letters and the revisions they spark, somehow, every single time without fail, receiving one knocks me flat for at least a day or two. I’m grateful for the feedback. I love it. But also, it’s like this 20-page list of All The Things I Failed At. Which is hard to get all in one blow. It’s kinda like surgery. You want it, you signed up for it, you know it’ll make things way better in the future, but when you initially wake up, you feel like you’ve been hit by a diesel truck.

This book, however, was a… difficult drafting process, to say the very least. I was up against a new challenge: My other books had all been standalone novels. This was my first time doing a follow-up. One where I had to stick to the rules and conventions of a book I’d already established, had to build on character arcs I’d already crafted, had to stay inside a world I’d already outlined. And I knew that, unlike a standalone, readers would come to this one with Expectations. I couldn’t let down the people who loved Den of Liars.

Drafting this time was so much harder. Typically, before I turn in a draft to my editor, I like to have done 3-4 rounds of revising on my own so it’s a little more cohesive before I send it over. I’ll untangle some of the messier plot points and get to know my own story better. This time, however, thanks to having zero childcare over 2024’s summer on top of all the new hurdles of sequel-writing, the very first draft took me all the way to the night of my deadline, which I stayed up until 5am to finish on time.

I knew it was the messiest thing I’d ever turned in. I felt like a train wreck. I was pretty sure my editor was going to take one look at it and run away screaming and rethinking ever wanting to work with me. I was SO SURE it was utter garbage that I sent it off and, feeling that pit of impostor syndrome yawning wide and hungry in my gut, tried to distract myself immediately with other projects so I wouldn’t have to feel embarrassed by the state of that draft.

actual footage of me running away from all my own words

The Feelings

By the time I got my edit letter last week, I’d spent several months actively avoiding thinking about the draft at all to cope with how rough I believed it to be. To the point of kind of forgetting half of the stuff I even wrote in it? Which actually ended up being THE ABSOLUTE BEST THING I COULD HAVE DONE.

I opened that edit letter, bracing myself for the curb-stomping… and it never came. The critiques did not feel like an assault. They felt… distant. My brain had so thoroughly shut off all thought of that draft that I didn’t even know what the edit letter was talking about half the time. Who the heck is the character she keeps mentioning? What scene is this? Did I write that?

Instead of curling up into the fetal position and rethinking all of my life choices, I sort of looked up at the wall with this dazed expression and then burst into unhinged laughter. Was this real life?

I dove back into my draft. Reread it from beginning to end (mostly to remind myself who the heck that character was she kept mentioning in the edit letter) so I could dig my hands in and get to work on revisions. (Spoiler alert: I figured out who he was. Hello, figment of past-me’s imagination. I’ve never heard of you.)

I finished that reread yesterday, and I was bowled over by just how Not A Flaming Pile of Garbage it was. I laughed out loud at multiple points. At around page 350, I broke down sobbing and did not stop through the final 75 pages. Full-on ugly-crying, complete with hiccupping gasps. And not because I hated it.

Because I didn’t.

I was so proud of them. Lola, the Liar, and the Thief. The challenges they overcame. The family they forged between the three of them. The crap they pulled through.

But even more than that, I was so proud of myself.

This draft was beautiful. Sure, it needs a hell of a revision, and I’m already putting together a major overhaul outline to that end, but… the bones of this book are there. And they’re not terrible. Far from it, actually.

So often in this business, authors find themselves seeing only the flaws in their work and in their abilities. It seems the more I learn about writing and books, the more I become aware of the flaws in my work and the weaknesses I need to overcome. It’s really easy to get bogged down by all of the 1-star reviews and the drama about which bookstore might not be stocking my books and the intense impostor syndrome that whispers to me over and over that I’m not good enough have never been good enough never will be good enough.

But yesterday, I got to the end of that draft with tears and snot running down my face, hiccup-sobbing because I was so damn proud of myself. And I think something about the space I gave the book, the break I took from it, made it possible for me to come back to the draft not with the eyes of the author who sees only the flaws in her work and all the ways she doesn’t measure up, but as a reader might. One who fell hard for these characters and their messy, heart-wrenching lives.

At the end of A Forgery of Roses, Myra said, “I’ve spent my whole life striving for perfection, running myself into the ground searching for how to make things right, how to control every outcome, every moment. But maybe perfection does not mean there aren’t things we wish were different… Because no matter how many paintbrushes I might use or which colors I might blend, I could never capture this moment. This moment that a past me might have found flawed. This moment that is so unutterably flawless.”

This draft is imperfect, but it is flawless in that imperfection, and that is something I’m finding pretty special.

And I just wanted to share that. <3

Giveaways!

To that end, I want to make sure everyone who might one day want to read that sequel (once it is thoroughly revised of course ;) has an opportunity to win an early copy of Den of Liars, and right now, there are THREE WAYS to do that!

FIRST

If you haven’t seen the MASSIVE giveaway going on over on Instagram right now that I and 16 other authors are hosting, head on over there for a chance to win SEVENTEEN upcoming books releasing this spring/early summer, including mine! It is an international giveaway, which means that ALL OF YOU should be able to enter!

jessicaolson123

A post shared by @jessicaolson123

SECOND

Goodreads has launched a second giveaway for physical ARCs of Den of Liars! This isn’t the same giveaway I talked about in my last newsletter—it’s a brand-new one they just opened in March. Twenty copies are up for grabs this time, so make sure you’ve entered! This one is US only.

THIRD

I want to run a giveaway exclusively for YOU, my lovely subscribers. As a thank-you for following along and supporting me here, I’m giving away a digital e-ARC to one of you! All you have to do is like and comment on this post (see icons at the top and bottom of this post!) And for a bonus 5 entries, substack users can restack this post (by clicking the little image with the two arrows in a circle) with a note about why you’re excited for Den of Liars!

The giveaway will close one week from today, so on April 4, 2025, at 11:59pm ET. The winner will be contacted the following day via email to provide the email address to which they’d like the eARC sent.

Thank you SO MUCH for following along! And keep your eyes HERE because I *miiiiiiiight* be revealing the UK cover of Den of Liars exclusively to my subscribers FIRST before it is revealed publicly to the world. Maybe. Who knows. It could happen. Possibly ;)

Talk soon!