Fall 2025

A giveaway, and thoughts on a social media break.

Hello, friends!

First, I have a very exciting giveaway to share with you today! I’ve teamed up with Jess Armstrong, Kate Khavari, and Katharine Schellman to give one lucky reader a bundle of our books starring plucky Jazz-Age sleuths.

One lucky winner will receive a physical copy of my own A Deadly Endeavor, The Curse of Penryth Hall, by Jess Armstrong, A Botanist’s Guide to Parties and Poisons, by Kate Khavari, and Last Call at the Nightingale, by Katharine Schellman. Each book is the first in series.

Entering is easy - all you have to do is fill out the linked google form and consent to be added to our mailing lists (if you’re reading this in your inbox, congrats - you’re already on mine!). Contest is open 10/1-10/7 2025.

Towards the end of the summer, I started noticing something interesting amongst my writer friends—more and more of us seemed to be going quiet on social media. I’d still chat with them on DMs and in the group chats, but I found myself scrolling my instagram feed less often (only checking it, really, for the cascade of funny reels my husband sent to me). I was pretty good about staying off of facebook except for the occasional dip into my local buy nothing groups. And threads was like watching a dumpster fire, to be honest - posts I had hoped would get traction withered with no views, when others, like my since-deleted posts on the shocking number of livestreaming adults on our recent Disney trip, where I came to the conclusion that I am not a DisneyPerson. While numerous people jumped in my replies defending “Disney influencers” I found my eyes in danger of rolling out of my head, and I turned to my husband and said, “it’s like people don’t understand that not everything has to be content.”

It was a flippant comment. Offhand. And yet, I head it echoing through my brain almost constantly over the next few weeks. As I sat in my garden, overwhelmed by the number of cherry tomatoes begging to be picked. As I finished yet another book I loved. As I snapped a photo of my books on the shelf at Old Town Books (I posted that one. I do, after all, have books to promote). I thought about it as I scrolled through facebook. And threads. And reddit.

And I finally said enough and deleted the apps from my phone.

So, all of that to say - I’m taking a break from social media. I don’t know for how long, or when I’ll be back to share anything outside of book promotion. I’m still checking things, on occasion, from my browser, but I haven’t even felt the urge to reinstall my apps or enable notifications. It’s become clear that we are fighting with an algorithm for time and energy and attention, and there are other things I’d rather be doing with my time outside of my dayjob, like reading stacks of novels and teaching my kid to ride her bike and tending to my houseplants and taking the dog to the park and having long, philosophical discussions with my husband until we both look at the clock and groan because we’ve stayed up too late, just like we did in college. Like writing a new book.

I know some of you live for Mister updates, so here he is: still goofy, still sweet, and 90% a normal(ish) dog.

So stay tuned - I’ll be using this newsletter more to share my thoughts and my updates in a regular(ish) fashion. I’m trying to commit to a daily writing practice in October, and I’ll be sharing my progress here, in my notes, so as to not spam your inbox.

I’d also love to hear if any of you are re-examining your relationship with social media — have you been drawn back in? Or is it freeing?

Reading: I’m about halfway through Ava Reid’s A Study in Drowning which is haunting and gorgeous, and I just read Elle Jauffret’s Cosplayed to Death, which is the follow up from her Agatha Award nominated Threads of Deception and loved it so much I blurbed it:

Jauffret delivers an absolute riptide of a mystery in COSPLAYED TO DEATH! A clever plot, charming heroine, and sparkling humor take center stage as Claire plunges headfirst into the equally fascinating worlds of cosplay and professional surfing along with her delightful best friend Suggie and her annoyingly handsome roommate Torres. I can’t wait to see what other mysteries await us in Caper Cove!

I’m also currently reading two nonfiction books while I figure out the plot of my WIP - one on the history of the Basque, and the other about the 1916 uprising in Ireland.

Watching: Eric and I decided to escape into 90s tv and are currently deep into Mad About You. The stakes are so low, the writing is hilarious, and it’s just…lovely.

Listening to: The Romantasy playlist Spotify made for me as I draft the new WIP!

That’s all I have for now. Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!