Delilah S. Dawson: Cover Reveal (Plus Five Writing Tips From It Will Only Hurt for a Moment)

[Delilah is not merely one of my BFFs in this life, and not only someone whose posts here from time to time are quite popular, but also, she’s someone who wrote this very excellent book that you should most definitely check out — but first, cover reveal + writing tips from The Delilah Her Own Self –]

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1. Write what you know. For example, I now know that getting roofied SUUUUUUUCKS.

Back in 2019, my husband and I went to one of our favorite fine dining restaurants in Tampa. I ordered a drink, and someone (not my waitress), brought me a different drink because they were apparently out of some of the ingredients of what I’d ordered. No problem! I’m easy! It was a fancy restaurant with a great bar! I like adventures!

I did not like this adventure.

Because someone put something in that drink, and I blacked out while appearing fully functional, lost eight hours of my life, and woke up on the shower floor covered in puke with RACCOON BLOOD ZOMBIE EYES from the power of all my yarking. That experience heavily informs this book, but I’m not going to tell you why because [spoilers]. I will tell you this: You might think getting roofied is something that only happens to young party girls who leave their drinks sitting on the tables of clubs while they figure out how to pee in a jumpsuit, but if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone. There are sociopaths out there, and they do not care if you’re in your forties with your spouse eating $40 scallops.

Does that make you mad?

Then you’ll like this book.

2. It’s okay to write from spit.

No. Spite. Write from SPITE.

I have an art degree and have dabbled in every artistic medium that doesn’t involve—

Well, no, I have used live fish as an artistic medium, so I guess that’s ALL OF THEM.

But while I was taking my umpteenth pottery class, I was reading a book that started with a potter in a pottery studio, and the book got every. Single. Thing. Wrong.

I threw the book across the room.

I mean, take a pottery class, or ask your artsy friend to do a quick read-through, or just watch a YouTube video. There’s no excuse for getting pottery SO WRONG. And that was part of the genesis of this book:

I wanted to write about a potter who knew about the pottery studio.

And a calligrapher and a fiber artist and a stained-glass artist and a sculptor—

So, yeah. It’s okay to be powered by spite. Or spit. That’s your personal business.

3. Go out and get some XP.

By which I mean EXPERIENCE.

See, I’ve done tons of different artistic media, but when I wrote It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, I’d never been to a retreat. Not an artists’ retreat, not a writers’ retreat; I had never retreated at all! And as mentioned before, I like to know that if I’m writing about an experience, I’m getting it right, because I don’t want you to throw my books across the room.

I mean, at least not until the end, and then only because I’ve blown your mind.

That’s totally fine.

Anyway, I needed to go to a retreat, stat. But I couldn’t find an artists’ or writers’ retreat during the right time frame, so I ended up going to a Spiritual Renewal retreat for women, which advertised yoga, meditation, reiki, sound healing, past life regression, and dance parties. I was open with the people there about my motives, but I am always up for healing, so I did my best to take part with an open heart—except for the dance parties, because there’s only so much time you can dance in a room with eleven other women while monks chant from a portable speaker. I studied how the retreat center was laid out, went on hikes, peeked in the kitchen, and even burned myself with tea while gazing off into the mountains.

It left a bitchin’ scar.

4. Do your research, even when it makes you want to pull out your own hair.

It Will Only Hurt for a Moment takes place now, but parts of the book hearken back to an earlier time when women could be sent to an insane asylum for, oh, say, reading novels, talking back, or being in love with someone too poor. My main reference for this phenomenon was the book The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore, which chronicles the life of Elizabeth Packard, a nineteenth century wife and mother whose husband had her committed to an insane asylum to put her in her place. But Elizabeth, of course, was sane, as were many of her fellow inmates, and she dedicated her life to fighting for her freedom—and theirs. This book was one of the most infuriating things I’ve ever read, and it certainly helped fuel the fire of female rage that leads to my own novel’s cathartic end.

5. Do something audacious.

This book cover is undoubtedly gorgeous. It’s by one of my favorite cover mavens, Regina Flath, who also did the covers for my books Hit and Servants of the Storm. But as we learned once I started printing swag, the hardcover art disappears when it’s thumbnail-sized. Seriously, it just becomes a gray smudge. Thus, we’re spicing it up for the paperback with some brighter colors that will hopefully grab the eye from the bookstore shelves.

I’ve also been told this version is giving Wicked, which works.

There is a lot of defiance in this book, after all.

Point is, sometimes you’re chugging along while writing, and you’re not quite sure what happens next, and that’s a great time to do something unexpected and shake things up. What Lucas finds at the bonfire? I didn’t know that was going to happen. He just wandered off into the woods and screamed, and then I started the next chapter and had to figure out why. What Sarah finds in her cabin? Same thing. It’s a fun challenge, to figure out what will make sense narratively while also surprising both the author and the reader.

6. Rebel.

Yeah, it’s always five things around here, but I’m giving you six because the very nature of art is rebellion.

I hope you’ll pick up a copy of the paperback on July 1, or, heck, just preorder it now as a gift for yourself then. Or, if this listicle (a horrid word, that) is quite simply too enticing, it’s available immediately as a hardcover, e-book, or audiobook, and I bet your local indie bookseller or bookshop.org would be delighted to procure a copy.

Delilah S. Dawson: Website | Bluesky | Instagram

It Will Only Hurt For A Moment: Bookshop.org | Publisher Website