First off, a little housekeeping. If you’re one of my regular newsletter subscribers, you’ll notice the change in format here. That’s because last week I received an email from Kit, the platform I used for my newsletter, informing me that their pricing would be going up. It was going to start costing me nearly 900.00 US dollars a year to keep my small list going.
Which is really just not in the ol writing budget right now. So I exported my subscribers, cancelled with Kit, and moved my list over to my WordPress site. Having said that, if you do not wish to stay on my subscriber list, there should be an unsubscribe button at the end of this letter. I’ll be sad to see you go, but I also completely understand…we’re all pretty bombarded these days, and the last thing I ever want to do is annoy a potential reader!
Writing:
Now onto more fun topics. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself, but I feel like my writing mojo has returned. I’ve been getting new scenes written, and Her Name Was Lola is shaping up. This one publishes January 27th, 2026, and you can preorder your copy here. I’ve been thinking about releasing a few sneak peeks in the coming weeks, so stay tuned if you’d like to get a better sense of this new book.
After my typical mid-book writing slump, where I doubt not only myself, this current book, and everything I’ve ever written going back to the second grade, I can honestly say that I’m feeling the excitement for the story again. Just yesterday, I wrote a scene I wasn’t expecting! One of my main characters did something out of the blue, and yet was so on track for him–disturbing and darkly delightful to my psych/writer brain. I loved it. This is why I like to have only a loose plot in hand while I’m writing. It gives me the opportunity to follow unexplored territory…just so long as I don’t leave the mountain entirely and get lost in an unrelated desert!
One thing that may be helping with my current productivity is that I’ve completely rearranged my office space (again). I always struggle with this room because there are two French doors you can see in the photo below, and also a door that is positioned behind the camera. It has made positioning my giant desk a struggle…until now! I recently stumbled across this lovely YouTube channel by Jon Hutman, who is a Hollywood production designer. I was basically binge-watching all his current content when I got to the one where he breaks down the set design for Under the Tuscan Sun (who doesn’t love that fricken movie?!) Anyway, in that video, he explains the setup for the main character’s office in the villa. The room is small, and the large desk is at an angle facing the window…light bulb!! So I thought I’d give the unconventional positioning a try in my unconventionally laid-out office, and I’m actually thrilled with how the space flows now. There is plenty of room for both my writing desk and my filming table, plus the dogs’ giant papasan chair! Everyone is happy.
Reading:
I just started reading The Unraveling of Julia by Lisa Scottoline. This one released in July of this year and has been sitting on my list waiting for me to have a minute’s rest from all the life chaos that has been swirling around me these past few months. Everything about this description is right up my alley.
From the publisher:
Lately, Julia Pritzker is beginning to think she’s cursed. She’s lost her adoptive parents, then her husband is murdered. When she realizes that her horoscope essentially foretold his death, she begins to spiral. She fears her fate is written in the stars, not held in her own hands.
Then a letter arrives out of the blue, informing her that she has inherited a Tuscan villa and vineyard—but her benefactor is a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. Julia has no information about her biological family, so she wonders if Rossi could be a blood relative. Bewildered, she heads to Tuscany for answers.
There, Julia is horrified to discover that Rossi was a paranoid recluse who believed herself to be a descendant of Duchess Caterina Sforza, a legendary Renaissance ruler. Stunned by her uncanny resemblance to Rossi, and even to Caterina, Julia is further unnerved when she unearths eerie parallels between them, including an obsession with astrology.
Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed, and strange things begin to happen. Not even a chance meeting with a handsome Florentine can ease her troubled mind. When events turn deadly, Julia’s harrowing struggle becomes a search for her identity, a race to save her sanity, and ultimately, a question of her very survival.
Injury
And as luck would have it, I have plenty of time today to dive into this book because I managed to pull a back muscle yesterday afternoon while doing kettlebell swings in my basement. So it’s just me, my book, and my heating pad, lying on the couch all day with the three dogs and two cats. No, I wasn’t paying very good attention to my form–so that’s why I hurt myself.
Anything to have a whole afternoon lying prone with a good book, I suppose.
Aside from all that, I have a new planner video up on YouTube, if you’re into that sort of thing. I discuss my transition from using A5 rings to a bullet journal and share my current setup in an Archer and Olive dot-grid notebook.
Until next time, all my best.
