What's Getting Us Through April
Hello from chilly New England!
Spring is trying. Sort of. The grass is green and there are daffodils. But there was also a dusting snow on those daffodils, so it’s a work in progress. The geese are back, though, so I wake up every morning to loud honking from the pond across the street.
Writing News
Romance news: This month I turned in the manuscript for New York Legends #3! This book is for DeLuca, the goalie pal of Merritt’s and Tremaine’s. Can’t wait for you to read it next year! First you’re getting BIG STICK ENERGY on June 30th, though!
Thriller news: I saw a draft of the cover for BAD GIRLS MAKE GOOD LIARS, and it’s cool! Can’t wait until it’s final, so I can show you! This book also has a finalized launch date of February 2, 2027. That means preorder links will turn up in the next few weeks.
It also means that I’m doing some preliminary plotting for an unnamed thriller for 2028…
Publishing News
Hachette / Forever has put together a fun preorder campaign for my paperbacks! You can preorder a signed book at one of three retailers. They made a web page for it and everything.
What I’m Reading
I enjoyed Once in a Blue Moon by Kristan Higgins as part of my Kobo+ subscription. The author calls it a novella, but I found it close to book length, and so charming! I’ve missed her writing.
Also on Kobo+ I found Finding the One by Kristen Ashley. The Scottish hero is yummy! I loved the way Ms. Ashley let absolutely everything go wrong for the heroine in this book. There’s an old chestnut of writing advice that says “put your character up in a tree and throw rocks at her,” but it’s hard to do. The upside in romance is that it’s so rewarding when everything works out at the end.
What I’m Watching
We loved Prodigal Daughter, the new Taylor Tomlinson comedy special on Netflix. She thanks viewers, at the end, for tuning in for “all the God stuff and the gay stuff,” and honestly she’s funny about God and a delight about her LGBTQ journey. We’re here for it. Also, I’m fascinated that she filmed this in my grandmother’s beautiful stone church in Grand Rapids Michigan. It’s a very accepting church, unlike many others in that town. If I knew Ms. Tomlinson, I’d ask her how that came to be!
Petty Indulgence of the Month
Olive and June quick dry nail polish. It really does dry quickly (important for my short attention span) and I use a color called “Baroque” which is a sheer and shimmery pink. That means that when it starts to chip, you can’t see the imperfections very easily. This should honestly be my whole motto for life. “Things always start to chip, so we’re just gonna smile through it.”
I also use the quick dry top coat (gold bottle) because it does seem to make things last longer.
Music Video of the Month
When I went to Australia last month, my lovely friend Sarah Mayberry sat me down to watch K-Pop Demon Hunters with her. We had a great time but Golden was lodged in my brain for weeks. And then this past week my husband and I went to see Jake Shimabukuro in concert. Honest to God, I actually said to myself, “okay, now I’ll have a newer song stuck in my head. Let’s do this.”
You see where this is going, right? The fantastic Mr. Shimabukuro played Golden at his concert. Here’s a YouTube version of same. I love how he loops his own playing and then plays over it. So great! I regret nothing.
Enjoy it! Until we meet again,
🩷 Sarina