Does it feel like October to you?!

still stuck in August but not in a good way

August—the actual month—was great! Sunshine pool time summer glory. August, the dragging mood, is not really doing much for me. But I did read some good stuff! And there’s a contest to win one of those books way way way down at the end of this missive.

I ALSO watched the first four episodes of The Chicken Sisters on Hallmark Plus and they just got better and better. It’s like—I don’t know how to describe it. Definitely a departure for Hallmark if only because it’s so much more focused on women and relationships (and as a sideline, male friendships!) than romance. It’s Gilmore Girls meets Fried Green Tomatoes and the cast is truly wonderful. I know how it turns out and I’m STILL all caught up in watching it unfold. It’s worth another subscription channel for sure (plus it’s HALLMARK MOVIE SEASON and they’re putting their best stuff in there).

Here’s a question: do you like knowing what books are coming, or would you rather I hold fire until a book is out? Because I just read something I KNOW you’re going to love but not until spring, sadly. I wrote a glowing blurb for it. Just to give you an idea, the original blurb draft was something like “I hate this book so much because I should be sleeping and now I’m not.”

The book is Jane and Dan at the End of the World by Colleen Oakley. Here’s the pitch:

Jane and Dan have been married for nineteen years, but Jane isn’t sure they’re going to make it to twenty. The mother of two feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under five hundred copies. Worse? She’s pretty sure Dan is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce.

But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Jane is shocked—and not just because she’s in a hostage situation the likes of which she’s only seen in the movies. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of her failed book. Even Dan (who Jane wasn’t sure even read her book) admits it’s eerily familiar.

Which means Dan and Jane are the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it. This wasn’t what Jane was thinking of when she said “’til death do us part” all those years ago, but if they can survive this, maybe they can survive anything—even marriage.

It’s a fast-moving, gloriously honest and surprisingly grounded JOY. I honestly think you should press “pre-order now” because March, kids… March is a terrible month. You will need this book.

But meanwhile what do you need NOW? Well first off, you need Playing the Witch Card.

After all it IS October, even if it doesn’t feel like it. (and maybe it does for you! I want that for you. If you like October.) Therefore you should be reading something with fun fall feels and I guarantee that reluctant witch Flair, whose family Tarot cards have used her own bakery against her lured her back into reading—with cookies, so unfair—and whose flaky mother has enchanted her awful ex and who is desperately trying to keep it all from her magic-obsessed teenage daughter, will provide them even before the real trouble shows up in her Halloween-loving small town.

And I KNOW you haven’t all bought it. How? Because that’s what I do. I write and I know things. And I find this hurtful, because you would like it, so BUY ONE. If you think you don’t like witches you can still be my friend as long as you give it to someone who does. Or try it! Flair doesn’t like witches either and she has WAY more reason than you.

What else should you read? Well, if I haven’t persuaded you to read The Scandalous Confessions of Lydia Bennet, Witch yet, you haven’t been listening. And in case you were wondering what paper book I finally took on my travels last week, it was Fang Fiction.

Both are a whole heck of a lot of fun, so much so that I’m going to give away a copy of EACH to one subscriber who does two things: comments on this email to tell me you want one AND gets a friend to sign up for my lovely book recs. (Just tell me you did it, I’ll believe you.) I’m also doing a version of this giveaway over on Instagram as soon as I get around to it, but it’s two DIFFERENT giveaways because you are my people and should get your own. But if you want to do that one too, it will show up on my Instagram….sometime soon when I get around to it.

Whew! That’s my idea of a short email jotted down before I go work out. I’m not good at short. There is so much to say!