Pub Day

Top Five is officially on the shelves.

On this morning, June 3, 2025, the day my fourth adult novel, Top Five, enters the world, I am feeling all the feels. And I mean all—everything from anticipation to zany. Will this book land the way I want it to? The way early readers are telling me it will? Will it flop? When will I get my first one-star review? Will I cry? Will Top Five make any best-seller lists? Will it exceed the successes of my last novel Summer on Butterfly Bay? Will I capture the eye of a big-time publisher? Am I just a fauthor (fake/author and yes imposter syndrome is real)? Will I write another book? That’s a lot of processing prior to my second cup of coffee. Taking a page from Quinn Sheridan, Top Five’s main character who relies on lists to sooth her spiraling nerves, I decided to write a top five list of my own.

Top Five Things I Did Before Releasing Top Five

1. I wrote a Top Five first draft. This was 2021 and it came in at 40,000 words. Nine drafts and four years later, and with the love of my editors, and the help of lots of arc readers, cover artist, cover designers. bookstagrammers, friends, fellow authors, and family, we are hitting the road on my book tour, with my final version. As an indie author, it’s important to note I am my own publisher, idea woman, publicist, social media guru, event planner, and these are all roles I have learned on the fly and relationships I have cultivated on my own. It’s fun. And a ton of work.

2. Tested muffins so I could share the perfect recipe with you for the carrot muffin that lives in the book. Yes, I took one for the team and ate football sized muffins, quite like Quinn, to land on the best. The carrot muffin from Marigolds, a shop in Summit, NJ, reminiscent of General from Top Five, was the winner and chef Mary Cummins was kind enough to share the recipe with me. It’s in the book.

3. Worked with my cover artist Katrina Eugenia so she could paint the house on Runnabelle River in Belle Creek, NY and bring my vision to life. She nailed it. Don’t you want to spend an afternoon on that stone patio? (Or maybe even a summer).

4. I designed bookmarks, stickers and special Top Five Journals for my pre-pub, book mail. You know, SWAG. Stuff we all get, while trying to make if fun and useful too.

5. And finally, for those attending my launch tonight at Thunder Road Books in Spring Lake, NJ, I created a unique tea-towel with the logo from Belle Creek’s sundries shop, The General, and tied it up with twine and a muffin recipe card.

Today’s the day it all comes together. I hope you love it. I hope it resonates. I hope it finds its place in the world. I hope all these things, but at the end of the day, my biggest reminder is, I enjoyed the entire process. I am a life-long maker of things, happiest when I am writing and designing with my pencils and pens and stickers and tape and markers and rulers and post-its and highlighters and staplers and stuff. Of course, someone like me owns their own paper-cutter! When I am making books and all the accouterments, I am happy. It is good to be happy and purposeful.

With no further ado, I bring you Top Five. If you’ve read it, let me know. If you’re going to read it, let me know. If you hate it, keep it to yourself. Just kidding. Let me know. I need to hear it all. But I hope you find at least one quote that speaks to you. Read my last No Bad Books post and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I hope you get your hands on a copy of Top Five today!

Judy

P.S. TOP FIVE is out today And check out my other swoony books.