Every week in the fall of 2017, she came to class with a new handout, chock full of fantastic quotes, excerpts, assignments, and knowledge. By the end of the semester, I had 40 pages of handouts, all of which I scanned and are still saved on my computer to this day.

I remember being particularly floored on the day she introduced our inserts assignment with these quotes:

How freeing! How revelatory for someone who had never formally studied literature or writing! My delight soon morphed to terror when Mako explained the assignment: we were to choose a passage from a novel we’d studied in class, then write an excerpt in the author’s style.

I chose Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad because I absolutely love Egan’s prose, I admired Goon Squad’s structure, and I am a masochist. Why not choose a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel when you know you’ll be forced to read your excerpt in front of the class?

As with most of grad school, I muddled through the assignment, definitely not nailing it but not totally humiliating myself either—which counted as a win in my book. This was one of many endeavors that shaped me into the writer I would become.

Imagine my surprise, five years later, when I received this email from Mako:

So...I taught Darling Rose Gold last week in my Craft and Contemp Lit class, and the students loved it. They were enthralled, tickled, and sooooo impressed. They couldn't get over how great it was. So many questions about you.... And then this past week they turned in inserts, and so I have some imitations of your prose style. I told them that maybe I'd send on some to you and they were horrified and thrilled all at once. Would you be interested in seeing a couple? Just for a laugh? We're workshopping them today.

I was baffled and flattered and a little disoriented. For my entire life, published authors had been untouchable and intimidating in their accomplishments. And now my book had become a teachable text. Students were sitting in the same panic I’d once sat in. I was part of the chain. I was just too close to the growth to observe it as it happened.

To be honest, I still don’t see myself as the kind of writer that students study. I’m uncomfortable even being perceived as comparing myself to Jennifer Egan. I had to resist the urge to insert “somehow” into the previous paragraph. Four books in, I no longer feel like a beginner, but I often feel like that same nervous student. There’s always more to study. There are always elements of my craft I want to improve. The endless pursuit of mastery is both what I love and occasionally loathe about this job. You have to be both wise and dumb enough to keep going.

I guess what I’m trying to say is: keep your head down most of the time, but pick it up once in a while to see how far you’ve come.

Book news

So many updates this month, which is how you know launch is getting close-ish—

First up, check out the final US package for Revenge Plot! I was very involved in revisions to this one, and I’m so happy with how it turned out. I love the typewriter font, the crumpled piece of paper on the spine, and especially the back cover. Typically back covers are devoted to blurbs the book has received, but we wanted to do something different this time. The literary agent definition is the epigraph of the book.

Patton Oswalt knows I exist! In an interview for Kirkus (a trade review organization), he discussed recording the audiobook for Stephen King’s new book and then mentioned Revenge Plot as one of the fall books he’s most looking forward to reading!

I am unwell.

(I’m amused by his description of RP as hilarious… I can only assume as a writer himself, he can relate to the urge of wanting to show up at an industry gatekeeper’s door to demand a second chance. To be clear, RP is very much psychological suspense, although one of my friends who’s read an early copy says “there’s definitely some dry, satirical humor in it,” so do with that what you will.)

The August news I’m most excited about—and bursting at the seams to share with you—has to remain hush hush until November. It’s very good news. :)

In news that I can share, the RP book tour is coming together! We’re still finalizing the schedule, but as of now, we have stops in Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Seattle, Chicago, Columbus (Ohio), and Denver. More details soon!

Book news wouldn’t be complete without another Goodreads giveaway. This time—plot twist—it’s for the ebook of The Hitchcock Hotel, which includes an excerpt of Revenge Plot at the end. The giveaway is running now through September 18 for US residents only.

Enter here

Art pick

I loved this book. Caitlin Mullen makes the Pine Barrens feel like a character in its own right, full of sinkholes, local lore, and an ever-present sense of menace. But what stayed with me most was the way she writes girlhood and young womanhood: with so much empathy and insight. HEATHER is atmospheric, haunting, and beautifully crafted.

If you enjoyed GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore, this should be your next pick.

Line of the month

America, in other words, isn’t illiterate. It’s postliterate.

“The End of Reading Is Here” by Rose Horowitch, The Atlantic

Read it all the way to the end. I’m likely preaching to the choir here, given that you all are readers, but that’s why I think you’ll find this article worth your time.

To books and all that they give us,

Answer here

Thanks! (And you can find me here on Instagram.)

I’ve gotten the impression over the years that many readers think editing a novel mostly consists of someone checking for typos before the book goes to print.

If only!

(Just kidding, I actually love being thoroughly edited. It makes me more confident in the quality of the final story I’m putting in your hands.)

In reality, there are three types of revisions a writer goes through with her publisher.

Developmental edits

Developmental edits are big-picture changes—character, plot, structure, pacing, and so on. This feedback comes from your editor, the person you work with on every book.1 Some authors/editors will discuss the needed revisions over the phone, but I prefer written feedback that I can refer back to as I work, so my editor(s) write me editorial letters, which are organized by topic.

Here are a few examples of developmental edits I made:

• Revenge Plot contains a book within a book—the manuscript that aspiring writer Arnie is trying to get literary agent Claudia to read. Originally those manuscript pages were presented in alternating chapters with the present day action, but my editor suggested grouping them all as a Part II in the middle of the book. The story runs much better this way.

• My editors repeatedly asked me to clarify what each character feared most in a given scene, to improve the emotional stakes.

• They challenged me to think harder about whether a character’s motivation was consistent throughout the book—or whether I was changing his goals simply to preserve twists. Were his actions emotionally believable or shocking for shock’s sake?

• We spent a lot of time discussing when readers should learn certain information, and whether revealing it earlier might actually increase suspense instead of reduce it.

• One critical part of developmental edits was recognizing that suspense isn’t just about hiding information. Sometimes it’s about directing the reader toward the wrong mystery entirely.

Copyedits

Once these big-picture changes are completed to both your and your editor’s satisfaction, the book moves on to copyedits. In my case, that person is a freelancer hired by my publisher. Their job is to identify any timeline mistakes, continuity issues (“Rose Gold says she hates broccoli on p. 83, but then she orders beef and broccoli on p. 310!”), grammatical issues (the number of times my antecedents have been unclear… Lord help the copywriters assigned to me), etc. At this point in the process, we’re still working in a Word doc. One or two rounds of copyedits is typical.

Real examples:

• In Revenge Plot, I reference J.K. Rowling’s advance on Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone being £1500. The copyeditor fact checks me and finds it was £2500. > I change £1500 to £2500.

• I say a character is making herself “a second mimosa” and receive this note: “To me this means that she was drinking the first one since she prepared it, which was at or after 10:30. Now it’s 2:00 or later, meaning she nursed the first mimosa for maybe 3.5 hours. Is that OK?” > I change the phrasing to “another mimosa.”

• I reference Dean Martin’s song “Let It Snow.” The copyeditor cites more than one source that the song is actually called “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” > I change the song title, even though I don’t think anyone has ever colloquially referred to the song that way. As I type this post, I’m second guessing approving that edit.

• I call something a “carton” of orange juice. The copyeditor says: ““bottle”? Per Merriam-Webster, a carton is “a box or container usually made of cardboard and often of corrugated cardboard” (from the Italian for “pasteboard”).” > I change the wording to “container” because I use “bottle” in the next sentence and don’t want to repeat the word.

• Here’s an example of one I turn down. The copyeditor points out the following are sentence fragments: “Claudia sprints down the hallway. Slips her boots back on. Snatches her parka off the coat peg. Speeds out the door, down the treehouse ladder.” > My fragment use is intentional—I’m trying to speed up the reader’s pace toward the end of the chapter, to make them feel how quickly Claudia is moving. I respond “stet” to this one. (Stet means “let it stand.”)

These are just five examples. There were 430 comments from the copyeditor. This stage is my least favorite one. The work is painstaking and boring—but important! An irritating combo.

Proofread

The final step is proofreading or “first pass pages.” At this stage, my manuscript has been laid out on the page exactly as it will appear when the book is printed. It’s no longer in a Word doc but has been moved to a pdf. Changes are made in Adobe Acrobat. This document arrives in my inbox, and with every new book comes a warning that if the author adjusts more than 10% of the manuscript, they can incur charges for the expense of resetting the type. Publishers tend to get cranky if you try to rewrite your book at this stage of the game. Now is when we’re looking for typos, any remaining grammatical errors, and final sentence tweaks. This is an author’s last chance to make adjustments before the book is printed.

Some examples from Revenge Plot:

I prefer to print the pdf, read it and make edits on paper, then transcribe them into Adobe Acrobat for my publisher. The job takes longer this way, but I catch more on paper than I do on a screen.

In summation

If we look at the three types of edits as a pie chart—I hate math too, this won’t be long—I would estimate 85% of my revision time is spent in developmental edits, 10% is spent on copyedits, and 5% is spent on proofreading. With my second book, I went through seven rounds of developmental edits. Revenge Plot only needed four. Maybe by my tenth book, I’ll get it down to two. A girl can dream!

Book news

We have another Goodreads giveaway on deck for U.S. readers that’s running until August 6th. You can enter by clicking the button beneath the photo. Good luck!

Enter the giveaway here

Art pick

I read this book back in May, adored it, and am only now realizing I haven’t told you about it—because this summer has been chaos, travel-wise.

Lost Lambs is a delightful romp about a family with three daughters struggling to find their footing amid a huge scandal with the local billionaire. Lambs is full of quirky characters. Precocious troublemaker Harper seems to be a reader favorite, and I understand why. Her decisions and thoughts light up the page. That said, I was happy to float around all of the characters’ minds, as they were each well crafted and brought something different to the table.

I’m so drawn to humor in the novels I’ve picked up this year, and Cash delivered both wit and playfulness. Her commitment to the ‘gnat’ pun throughout the entire book—every word spelled ‘n-a-t’ has a “g” before it, e.g. “gnatural,” “carbognated”—was brilliant. Gnats are annoying! They won’t leave you alone! I can’t believe her publisher went along with the experiment.

If you need a story that will make you laugh and a world you’ll never want to leave, look no further.

Line of the month

Ultimately, authors are always stuck outside, pressing their noses to the window like Dickensian orphans.

- “Advances, Early Indicators, and Publisher Investment,” Reddit

Shoutout to my friend for sharing this post, which confirmed one of my long-held publishing suspicions. For my fellow writers, I highly recommend reading.

Until next month,

I was in no way pursuing that dream at the time. I worked for an advertising agency in Chicago, writing TV, print, and digital ads for brands like Coors Light, Capital One, State Farm, and McDonald’s. I spent my free time gallivanting around Chicago, losing too many purses in too many bars. My butt was never in my chair.

Matt looked across the table at me that night and said, “I bet you’ll make it happen.”

I was hooked.

We were married June 24, 2016, in an outdoor ceremony on a ninety-six-degree day, so hot I pulled my dress up to my knees beneath the banquet table while we ate dinner. Six weeks later, we moved from London to Boston so I could attend an MFA program in creative writing and finally take this novel business seriously. Matt already had a job in the UK, but he convinced them to let him work remotely from Boston. For two years he flew back and forth over the Atlantic. He made it work.

In the fall of 2017 I published a short story in Bellevue Literary Review. I can’t remember what I was paid—no more than $100—but it was the first time I’d made money off of my fiction. I was ecstatic.

For Christmas, Matt had three of my short stories printed and bound. I got to see my name on the spine of a book.

We were at a Christmas party in London1 in 2018 when I got the email. It was long and gushing—and from my dream agent. I remember Matt huddling with me in the corner. We grinned like fools at my phone and each other. We had no idea what was to come.

Matt has been by my side at every book launch and consoled me through every setback. He’s taken unboxing videos, come on research trips, searched high and low through airports for magazines and newspapers that mention my books. He keeps the faith when I lose mine. He’s made spreadsheets to help me track my deals, earned the steady paycheck that made a volatile creative career feel survivable2, and generally minimized my need to do any math whatsoever. (Bliss!) He keeps a stack of my novels in the background of his Zoom calls and includes pre-order links to them in his finance newsletter. He stands in the back of the bookstore at my events, just beaming as he watches me.

All this, and I still haven’t dedicated a book to him!

(Yet. I’m waiting for the right one.)

Sometimes I think we met too young, not yet fully formed adults. But here’s the wild thing about meeting your future husband at twenty-three: you get to grow up together. He’s watched me transform from a dweeb with a pipe dream into a dweeb with soon-to-be four published books on shelves.

I’m quick to give credit to my agent, editors, and beta readers, to my marketing and publicity team, to my parents and friends. Matt has had a bigger hand than any of them in shaping me into the author and person I’ve become.

I could not have traveled this road without him. I wouldn’t have wanted to.

Book news

Lots of opportunities to win some books or buy them on sale this month!

Goodreads giveaway

If my new book’s November pub date feels a bit too far away, I have good news for you—my publisher is giving away 10 early copies of REVENGE PLOT over on Goodreads. US residents have until 6/30 to enter. Good luck!

Enter the giveaway

Chilly Thrillers for Hot Nights sweepstakes

We’re also running a “Chilly Thrillers for Hot Nights” sweepstakes for the titles pictured above. US residents have until June 30th to enter.

Enter the sweepstakes

Barnes & Noble pre-order promo

Lastly, Barnes & Noble is running a pre-order promotion for their members.

From June 23-26, REVENGE PLOT is 25% off when you use the code PREORDER25 at checkout. Your copy will arrive when the book publishes on November 10.

Psst: Premium Members get 30% off of print books!

Art pick

I recognize the irony in recommending a novel about an affair inside a newsletter dedicated to my husband. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I adored this book—not because it’s plot heavy (it’s not) or because I was rooting for any particular character (maybe this makes me a bad person, but the only thing I was rooting for was the affair to actually happen)—but because a) it’s very funny and b) it delivered countless insights into the experience of being a human. Just when you’re sure there are no fresh ways left to describe marriage, along comes a writer like Erin Somers to deliver bomb after bomb.

Here are a few selections:

He stepped out of his pants. She always found this part of the night erotic. The eroticism of the evening debrief. One of them tended to be undressing during it. Then they sprawled out on clean white sheets to criticize people they knew.

Eliot needed more than a vacation. He needed a nineteenth-century Swiss sanitarium.

He’d hold up a single finger and keep it in the air, continuing to talk. This gesture alone seemed like grounds for divorce.

Eliot had fallen asleep already. His ability to fall asleep quickly was uncanny. It gave the impression of a clean conscience, like a puppy or a child. But of course everyone had regrets. Things ate at him, probably. Remarks he’d made that still bothered him. Choices from the deep past he relived over and over. It was difficult, but one had to try to imagine an inner life for one’s husband.

Do you see what I mean? Now excuse me while I head off to read Somers’ other novel, Stay Up with Hugo Best.

Line(s) of the month

An excerpt from my wedding vows to mark the occasion:

I love your ambition and your fearlessness.

I love that you practiced wearing your wedding band around the house for months before today.

I love that you’re about to move to a city you’ve never stepped foot in, so I can follow my dreams.

I love the way your eyes light up when we talk about our future dog.

I love that you turned my stories into a book, and how much you believe in me.

I promise to believe in you every day.

To making something that lasts,

Revenge Plot didn’t require the deep dive my other books did. It’s about writing and the publishing industry, two subjects I know through years of firsthand experience.

Still, that doesn’t mean no research was required.

While writing Revenge Plot, I got to invent a number of fake book titles and premises that I’ll (probably) never actually write. A female serial killer series called Murder by Severine features heavily in the novel, which meant brainstorming a whole lineup of potential killers alongside the series’ pseudonymous author, Jo Stone.

This involved many disturbing Google searches, from the Speed Freak Killers to the Bradford murders to Issei Sagawa, all of whom are mentioned in Revenge Plot. But the most disturbing individual I came across was Armin Meiwes of Germany, better known as the Rotenburg Cannibal.

He’s known for murdering and cannibalizing Bernd Brandes, a 43-year-old engineer. The facts of the case are pretty gruesome, including castration and both of the men attempting to eat the severed appendage. But what I found craziest about this case?

Meiwes put out ads online, looking for people willing to be killed. And he found them.

A number of men actually volunteered.

Most eventually backed out, but Brandes went through with the deed. He became a voluntary victim.

This was a phrase I’d never heard and led me to a host of thought-provoking, if morbid, questions, which my fictional author explores in the book. Can someone consent to their own murder? Is doing so the equivalent of suicide (which, I’ll remind you, is generally not illegal in the United States)? Was Meiwes committing murder, euthanasia, or something in between?

German courts originally convicted Meiwes of manslaughter and only sentenced him to eight years in prison (!), though he was later retried and convicted of murder with life imprisonment.

These are the kinds of conundrums and side quests that I love about the creative process. When I set out to write a book about an aspiring author and a book agent who won’t give him the time of day, did I think I’d wind up in Germany? Absolutely not. Do I have a lifetime’s worth of tidbits to horrify fellow dinner party guests? YUP.

For those of you who have heard more than enough, not to worry—these topics do not feature heavily in my new book. For those who need every gritty detail, Meiwes’s Wikipedia page is quite thorough. You’ve been warned.

Book news

REVENGE PLOT is now available for request on NetGalley in both the US and UK, which means early readers, booksellers, librarians, and reviewers are officially getting their hands on it! A milestone both terrifying and surreal.

Mercifully, the first few reactions have been lovely.

I’m thinking about getting a tattoo that says “a tiny bit detached from reality.”

Art picks

I know, I know, it’s been all TV/movies with me and not nearly enough books. With the anxiety flare-up, I’ve had a hard time focusing on reading—but I hope to remedy that during my six weeks abroad!2

Anyway, as it says on the poster, Bill Lawrence, the creator of Ted Lasso and Shrinking, is also responsible for Rooster, which I think is better than TL and as good as Shrinking. The characters and story find their feet very quickly, including a host of memorable side players. The health-nut and boundaries-allergic president! The cop who forgets his gun everywhere! Pig Tits! Sunny’s roommate! (Can Robby Hoffman be in everything?) The hot cocoa with peppermint straw callbacks! And then, of course, Steve Carell is the gem he always is. Rooster is just an absolutely delightful, warmhearted, hilarious viewing experience, and I hope it sticks around for a hundred seasons.

Line of the month

Black crow pulling red flesh off the white ribs of a dead fox.

Excerpt from Robert McFarland’s Underland

I read that line years ago and loved its rhythm so much I’ve kept it in a note on my phone ever since.

To the words that inspire us,

P.S. This monthly newsletter will always remain free, but I’ve opened up paid subscriptions for anyone interested in supporting my work and accessing a growing archive of craft/publishing/creative-life posts. No pressure whatsoever, but a handful of older posts are now tucked behind the paywall for subscribers.

Become a paid subscriber here

I’m launching a manuscript consulting service.

Over the past few years, lots of writers have reached out to ask if I offer feedback on manuscripts. Until now, the answer has always been no. I’ve been focused on my own projects and haven’t had the capacity to take on more.

That’s starting to change. I’m now opening up 2-3 editorial consulting spots each month.

Here’s the deal: I love story. I love picking them apart and putting them back together—figuring out what’s working, what isn’t, and why. I do this constantly with the books, shows, and movies I love, and with my author friends’ manuscripts when they’re trying to get unstuck.

After four books and six years as a full-time novelist, here’s what I know about the writing process:

At some point, you will hit a wall.

That does not mean the story is doomed or the writing is bad.

At some point, you will lose objectivity.

That does not mean you’re lost.

None of the authors whose books you love have gotten where they are on their own.

Writing is a solo endeavor. Editing is a collaborative one.

This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while, and now feels like the right time—my new book, Revenge Plot, is all about a writer who longs to be published. I’m looking forward to working with fiction writers across the board: aspiring, agented, and fellow authors.

If you’re interested in working together, you can read more about the process and submit an inquiry here:

Learn more & inquire

See you on the page,

And yet, my mental health these past two months… has not… been… ideal.

Read more

Barnes & Noble is running a members-only, 25% off pre-order sale through today (3/26). If you’re a (free!) Rewards member, you can use code PREORDER25 at checkout to get the discount on any format—hardcover, ebook, or audiobook. If the book’s on your TBR, this is the best price you’ll see for a while.

Sadly, it won’t arrive at your front door until it publishes on 11/10—but you will have your purchase locked in, and I will be eternally grateful.

Pre-order Revenge Plot for 25% off

Now onto the main event.

I’ve been hard at work, drafting a new book that I love so much I’m working on it morning, noon, and night. This means I’m spending a lot of time in flow, a state of undistracted deep focus.

After a three-to-five-hour writing session, I’m drained. My brain feels, for lack of a better word, fuzzy. I find this fuzziness irritating, as it takes a while for the fog to clear and my mind to return to its normal function.

What is that fuzziness? I wondered earlier this month. And how do I come out of it faster?

Could I have done some proper research instead of turning to ChatGPT for answers? Sure, but when you’re coming out of a highly concentrated state, the last thing you want to do is… concentrate more.

Read on to better understand your own post-work fuzziness and the best methods to combat it!

What It Feels Like

• Spaced out or mentally foggy

• Sensitive to light or noise

• Mildly irritable or indifferent

• Like time just slipped by in a weird way

• Hard to shift gears into conversation or chores

What Causes It?

1. Cognitive Fatigue

• After extended periods of deep work, your brain’s executive functions (planning, attention, decision-making) get depleted.

• Your prefrontal cortex has been overclocked, managing focus, suppressing distractions, and generating creative solutions. When that load lifts, your brain feels like mush.

2. Flow State Neurochemistry Crash

• While in flow, your brain releases a cocktail of dopamine, norepinephrine, and endorphins—chemicals that enhance focus, motivation, and creativity.

• Coming out of flow is like coming off a high. Your body hasn’t caught up yet, and you may feel spacey, emotionally flat, or overstimulated.

3. Sensory Hangover

• When you've been hyper-focused, your senses have been tuned narrowly to one thing: writing, designing, coding, etc.

• Returning to the "real world" (emails, lights, noises) can be jarring, causing that fuzzy, out-of-it sensation.

4. Glucose and Energy Depletion

• Creative thinking burns through glucose, especially when sustained over hours. If you haven’t eaten or moved, your body may be signaling it’s time to recharge.

How to Recover

• Take a walk (especially outside—sunlight helps reset your brain)

• Eat something nourishing with protein + carbs

• Hydrate (dehydration worsens cognitive fatigue)

• Avoid switching to passive inputs (like scrolling)—give your brain a full reset before engaging again

• Try a sensory shift: shower, music, fresh air

What I learned this month

I found this post from Freddie deBoer—about the policing of mental illness, who’s allowed to be sick and in what ways—enlightening. DeBoer approaches his position through the lens of Kanye West’s behavior, but his scope is much wider:

If there’s one thing I hate in this world, it’s moral convenience - moral judgements people develop because it makes life easier for them, practically or emotionally or socially, rather than because they’re actually correct. … I know it’s trite and cliched to say that social justice politics are like a religion, but in this I find many advocate [sic] of social justice quite like many Christians: they are members of a sect whose holy texts demand constant mercy but they hand out none. In these situations, their religion fails them, or really, they fail it.

—“It’s “Mental Illness Doesn’t Do That” Season Once Again by Freddie deBoer

As a writer, I’m interested in the concept of moral convenience. As a human, deBoer’s essay made me rethink some of my own biases.

I’ve also been mulling over this comment on the piece from user (bolding my own):

Yes. Call it cultural Christianity, or unexamined beliefs, or just plain human nature, but we WANT people to suffer, as long (especially) if we think they deserve it.

Bleak! But thought-provoking! I highly recommend reading the essay. It is well worth your time.

Art pick

Do you all know about this show? Paradise is a speculative drama about Secret Service agent, Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown), investigating the murder of former U.S. President, Cal Bradford (James Marsden). That one-liner really doesn’t do it justice, though. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the pilot has one of the best cliffhangers I’ve ever seen. It’s best watched knowing as little as possible about the show.

The rest of season 1 was just as exceptional, and I’m equally impressed with season 2. I’ve read (wrong, jk) reviews that the second season is unfocused, that it takes us on too many tangents, sweeps us up in characters we’d never even heard of in the first season.

That’s called expanding your world, baby!

What’s not to love about this season? You get Annie! Graceland! The ragtag team of kids! Gary (!!!)! Plus all our faves from the first season.

With the exception of S2, E6 “Jane” (I find Jane’s backstory and motivation pretty implausible) and Gaby’s inability to keep her mouth closed around dangerous people, I think this season has nailed it so far. As of this writing, there’s only the season finale left to air. I, for one, will be on the edge of my seat.

Line of the month

All stories are about wolves. All worth repeating, that is. Anything else is sentimental drivel.

—Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

I came across this quote while reading an early copy of Ashley Winstead’s HOT GIRL MURDER CLUB, out 7/14/26 (and excellent).

I love this quote so much I want to tattoo it on my forehead. Atwood 4 pres.

Off to write about wolves,

Over the years I’ve toyed with different workday setups. Sometimes I’d write first thing, other times I’d work out and shower first. I’ve been doing this long enough to recognize that after three or four hours of unbroken creative effort, my brain is tired. Nay, exhausted.

For a while, I resigned myself to this fate. Three to four hours was the maximum creative output I could hope to wring from a day; the rest of the workday would be spent on less important tasks, like emails, social media, and this newsletter. (No offense.)

Mornings have always been golden for me as far as output goes. But those lost afternoons, they nagged at me. Surely there was a way to put them to better use?

After much tinkering, I figured it out. I wasn’t taking long enough breaks.

An hourlong lunch break was not enough for my brain to gear up for round two of writing. I need closer to two hours if I’m really going to make a sustained second creative effort. Scheduling this long break into the middle of my day took some convincing. Initially I felt lazy, like I was procrastinating. I was wrong.

I needed a mindset shift.

Now I think of my day as a slope:

Morning: Mountains = generative writing, heavy revisions

Afternoon: Hills = more generative writing, edits, brainstorming

Late day: Flats = admin, brand maintenance, closing loops

Using these three simple words—mountains, hills, and flats—makes it easy to categorize the tasks before me and figure out where to slot them into my day. Below is a sample workday with example tasks.

Morning-Suited Tasks (9:00am–11:30am)

Deep creative focus / high-cognitive output:

• Generative novel writing—new pages or heavy rewrites

• Major synopsis or pitch development

• Screenwriting revisions

• Outlining scenes or reworking structure

• Brainstorming new concepts

• Processing complex feedback

Tip: Try to eliminate all distractions during your peak creative window, wherever it falls.

Lunch Reset (11:30am–1:30pm)

Intentional break to mentally and physically reset:

• Work out

• Lunch

• Shower and change clothes (signals psychological reset)

• Walk my dog

• Do nothing at all for 20–30 minutes (this is allowed!1)

Tip: Think of this as the creative intermission—not dead time, but transition time.

Afternoon-Suited Tasks (1:30–4pm)

More creative or brand-building work:

• Second round of generative work, ideally

• Writing blurbs for other authors

• Drafting this newsletter

• Interview prep, Q&As, promotional materials

Admin/Frictionless Tasks (4-6pm)

No creative lift, just logistics:

• Email

• Social media posts

• Updating website

• Calendar planning

Note: The time ranges above are solely for the purpose of this post and wildly inconsistent for me from day to day. Sometimes I have lunch at 11:30, sometimes I eat at 2. I know it’s time to shift to the next phase of the day when my brain starts getting tired. How do I know my brain is getting tired? Usually it feels like I’m rushing through the work or becoming indifferent to the task at hand. Very *not* me, so when it happens, I know I need to step away.

What I learned this month

Should I even be trying to wring more than my typical three to four hours of creative work from the day? Not according to British author and journalist Oliver Burkeman, who wrote Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals back in 2021.

Burkeman posits that instead of trying to optimize our days, we should “ringfence three or four hours of undisturbed focus.” Here he is in more detail:

Stop assuming that the way to make progress on your most important projects is to work for longer. And drop the perfectionistic notion that emails, meetings, digital distractions and other interruptions ought ideally to be whittled away to practically nothing. Just focus on protecting four hours… The other, arguably more important lesson [is]… to give up demanding more of yourself than three or four hours of daily high-quality mental work. … Yes, it’s true we live in a system that demands too much of us, leaves no time for rest, and makes many feel as though their survival depends on working impossible hours. But it’s also true that we’re increasingly the kind of people who don’t want to rest – who get antsy and anxious if we don’t feel we’re being productive.

Hoo boy, that last sentence punched me right in the head. Read the rest of the essay “Three or four hours” on Burkeman’s blog, The Imperfectionist.

Art picks

The Wedding People was one of those rare reads that I knew, ten pages in, would be one of my favorite books of the year. Why? Because of the voice. Some books—like Vladimir, Demon Copperhead, and Victorian Psycho—have such an enthralling voice that you’d read the narrator’s grocery list, as my UK editor once put it. Such is the case here. In Phoebe we have a hilarious, wise, and poignant narrator—a woman down on her luck and planning to end her life. When she accidentally finds herself staying in the same hotel as a wedding group, the group upends her life and her plans. I wanted to underline so many passages in this book. (It was a library rental, so I behaved.) In these pages you’ll find familiar thoughts phrased in novel ways, as well as original thoughts that will force you to stop and consider what you’ve just read. And, of course, the plot, character development, pacing, and twists are all superbly done. Believe the hype.

Line of the month

And maybe that’s it: You do things in the moment for the person you hope you might be two years from now.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

Hope you’re keeping warm,

I’m beyond excited to share that my fourth novel is called REVENGE PLOT, and it’s now available for pre-order! You can read the premise below.

All Arnie Tenderton wants this Christmas—all he’s ever wanted—is to be a published author. For decades he has toiled over one novel after another. Each was missing something. Until now.

He’s finally written his perfect book.

What he needs next is a literary agent, someone who can get his book into publishers’ hands. Not just any agent will do, of course. Arnie wants the best. Arnie wants Claudia Conley.

She already rejected him once, and Arnie has never forgiven her. He could move on. Instead, he finds out where Claudia is spending the holidays: alone in a remote house in the Catskill Mountains. He decides to show up there to make his pitch.

Claudia may try to turn him down again, but this time Arnie won’t take no for an answer.

Because his book is about her.

And he’s not leaving until the story ends the way he wants.

REVENGE PLOT, coming November 10, 2026.

This is a story about a writer who will do anything to get published. I remember that desperation to prove myself when I was starting out. The big swings, the silent promises, the unending anxiety.

What if I’m not good enough?

That question is on my characters’ minds. It’s been on mine, too. I still recall the particular panic that comes with wanting something very badly, the moment I understood wanting wasn’t enough.

I couldn’t have written this book when I was living inside that fear. I needed distance—and confidence—to examine the line between persistence and obsession, how easily the latter passes for the former.

If your ambition has ever outpaced your talent, this book is for you. If your single-mindedness occasionally scares you, this one is for you. If you’re curious where book ideas come from, I’ve tried to demonstrate that process on the page. If you wonder what it feels like to be an author, I’m showing you as honestly as I can.

And if you don’t give a fig about the publishing industry or writing process—if you’re here for the twists and danger—not to worry. I’ve got carving knives and handcuffs and exposed tendons.

I hope you love this new book. These three characters contain more of me than any I’ve written before. Although I’ve never driven my car into a tree to gain access to a stranger’s home. Yet.

US readers can pre-order the book on Bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, and Amazon. (The rest of the retailer links are coming soon.)

UK readers, you get the book two weeks earlier (!), on 10/29/26. You can pre-order REVENGE PLOT from the retailer of your choice here.

Canadian readers, your links are coming soon!

I’ll be back in your inboxes at the end of the month with our normally scheduled programming.

2025 was my most prolific writing year to date.

I finished the first draft of Book 4, then wrote drafts two, three, and four as edits came in—draft four being the one that was accepted. (More announcements on Book 4 soon!) I developed an initial version of Book 5: a 14-page synopsis, a 22-slide deck, and the first fifty pages. My editors didn’t love it, so I came up with a new idea. I developed a second Book 5, then abandoned it when it came time to write. I pitched a project to an audiobook company; it was rejected. I pitched a second project, then dropped it and turned it into a screenplay—writing 46 pages before scrapping that too. I developed and wrote a first draft of a sitcom pilot. I revised a biopic feature to a third draft. I reimagined one of the abandoned Book 5 ideas as a TV pilot and wrote a complete first draft. I briefly considered revising an older pilot from 2024, then decided against it. Finally, I came up with a third idea for Book 5—and this one stuck. I wrote a two-page synopsis, jacket copy, and the first 55 pages, proofreading them right up until the day before Christmas break.

I squeezed an enormous amount of work into 2025. I’m not sure how many words I wrote last year. Hundreds of thousands, easily.

My mantra for 2026 is simple: slow down.

Last year’s output sometimes came at the cost of quality—and especially enjoyment. This year, I want to work on one project at a time. I want to wander off the path. I want to read books that might not be “useful” to my writing without feeling guilty about it. I want to shift my research—reading and watching—to the afternoons, so my evenings can return to being about pleasure reading.

Of the thirty-four books I read last year, twenty were for author blurbs or research. I want to tip that scale back toward reading for fun.

In 2026, I want to sell and write my fifth book. I want to get a film manager. I want to make a regular practice of writing poetry—maybe the first thirty minutes of each workday. I’ve also designed a yearlong director deep dive, focusing on a different filmmaker each month. January is Paul Thomas Anderson. One Battle After Another is the first of his films I’ve seen; by the time you read this, I’ll have watched most of his filmography.

In 2026, I’m craving input-driven creation instead of output-driven production.

Last year was: finish, revise, pitch, optimize, ship, pivot, ship again. This year I’m asking:

What happens if I let ideas ripen instead of forcing them?

What happens if pleasure, curiosity, and education count as legitimate work inputs?

What happens if ambition isn’t my sole engine?

I was raised in meritocracy logic. I’ve succeeded inside meritocracy logic. Loosening my grip on that logic feels uncomfortable—like cheating, or backsliding. It’s hard to rid myself of the belief that ambition is moral, that slowing down is lazy. The long list at the beginning of this post isn’t meant as a brag to you all; it comes from a persistent need to prove to myself that I’m working hard enough. I often feel like I’m not.

I’ve been a full-time novelist for seven years now (!!!)—long enough to trust that I can keep this career going, short enough to still lack many big-picture answers. But I suspect the art that stays with me—the work I carry for weeks or months—doesn’t come from rushing. I suspect the artists I admire most aren’t driven by back-breaking arbitrary deadlines.

I want to be more like them. That will require rewiring, discomfort.

Hurrying comes naturally to me. Slowing down will be the work.

What I learned this month

I had not heard of wild births, nor the Free Birth Society, until I stumbled across an investigation by the Guardian. I’ve never given birth, am not a doctor, etc., but this concept seems like… a pretty bad idea. Here are the first few paragraphs:

As Esau Lopez was asphyxiated for the first 17 minutes of his life on Earth, the atmosphere in the room remained serene, even ecstatic. Acoustic music crooned from a speaker in a modest two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of Pennsylvania. “You are a queen,” murmured one of three friends in the room.

Only Esau’s mother, Gabrielle Lopez, felt something was wrong. She was pushing hard, but her son would not be born. “Can you help [him] out?” she asked, as Esau crowned. “Baby is coming,” the friend replied. Four minutes later, Lopez asked again, “Can you grab [him]?” Another friend murmured, “Baby is safe.” Six minutes passed. Again, Lopez asked, “Can you grab [him]?”

Lopez could not see the cord wrapped around her son’s neck, nor the bubbles blowing from his mouth. She did not know that his shoulder was grinding against her pubic bone, like a tire spinning on gravel. But “deep down”, she says, “I knew he was stuck.”

Read the rest of the Guardian article here.

Art picks

The Big Swiss by Jen Beagin: This book has complicated my conviction that stories with aimless protagonists are not for me. Turns out if your main character is funny, she will captivate me for three hundred pages. Reminded me of a long talk with my best friend. A++

The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden: Sexy and heartbreaking and moving and proof that literary fiction can be plotty and have twists! A++

Line of the month

Before bed each night, I’ve been working my way through the poetry anthology Staying Alive: Unreal Poems for Unreal Times, edited by Neil Astley. I suspect this won’t be my last line of the month pulled from the collection.

I have been a witch, clothed in rags

and shrieking. I have borrowed

the wings of angels and given them back:

a poor fit

Excerpt from “Anne Sexton’s Last Letter to God” by Tracey Herd

Witchily yours,

Instead, I turn now to a safer, cozier topic.

One of my most beloved pastimes is to wander through independent bookstores, taking photos of the covers and titles that catch my eye. One of my least beloved pastimes is resisting the urge to buy said books. I already have two shelves of purchased novels at home, and so I’ve had to put myself on another sad little buying freeze until I catch up again.

Maybe, in these dwindling days of 2025, you’re looking for something to read. Maybe you have no plans other than to spend these days on your couch, reading an entire book, cover to cover, without stopping. What a dream! I can help. Below are the books that caught my eye this year.

That’s All I Know by Elisa Levi: Nineteen-year-old Little Lea lives in a rural town where life ends at the edge of the forest. When a stranger loses his dog on the first day after the end of the world, Little Lea warns him not to follow it into the forest, that people who enter never come out. Over a shared joint, she tells him about the burning in her gut, winding a tale of loss, desire, and conspiracies. Little Lea sees the world through backcountry eyes that distrust the outsiders who come but who also get to leave. When she isn’t working at her mother’s grocery store, she cares for her empty-headed younger sister, Nora, who only cries when she’s in pain. Meanwhile, her friend Catalina does nothing but cry. Little Lea wants Javier to love her, and she doesn’t want Marco, who leaves weed and his best potatoes on her doorstep. As the town prepares for their end-of-the-world festival, she faces her intensifying desire to leave, that burning that unsettles her life—she wants to be useful somewhere else, even if it means being unloved, unwanted, unable to return. That’s all she knows.

Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin: Paris, 2019. An apartment in Belleville. Following a miscarriage and a breakdown, Anna, a psychoanalyst, finds herself unable to return to work. Instead, she obsesses over a kitchen renovation and befriends a new neighbor—a younger woman called Clémentine who has just moved into the building and is part of a radical feminist collective. Paris, 1972. The same apartment in Belleville. Florence and Henry are renovating their kitchen. She is finishing her degree in psychology, dropping into feminist activities, and devotedly attending the groundbreaking, infamous seminars held by the renowned analyst Jacques Lacan. She is hoping to conceive their first child, though Henry isn’t sure he’s ready for fatherhood. Two couples, fifty years apart, face the challenges of marriage, fidelity, and pregnancy. They inhabit this same small space in separate but similar times—times charged with political upheaval and intellectual controversy.

The Lost Girls of Autism by Gina Rippon: The history of autism is male. It is time for women and girls to enter the spotlight. When autistic girls meet clinicians, they are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression, personality disorders – or receive no diagnosis at all. Autism’s ‘male spotlight’ means we are only now starting to redress this profound injustice. Renowned brain scientist Gina Rippon delves into the emerging science of female autism, asking why it has been systematically ignored for so long. Generations of researchers, convinced autism was a male problem, simply didn’t bother looking for it in women. But it is now becoming increasingly clear that many autistic women and girls do not fit the traditional, male, model of autism. Instead, they camouflage and mask, hiding their autistic traits to accommodate a society that shuns them.

Everyone I Know is Dying by Emily Slapper: When she’s having sex with her boss, Iris likes to have the lights on so he can see how much younger she is than his wife. She likes watching her colleagues eat unhealthy lunches at their desk while her stomach aches with emptiness. She likes coasting at work knowing she’s going to land a big promotion anyway. So why when it arrives does she find herself sprawled on her hallway floor, crying uncontrollably? Why, instead of a sense of triumph, does a crippling depression threaten to overwhelm her? Why does the support and stability of her family and friends feel so suffocating? And why, torn between her flatmate George – good, kind, reliable George – and cold, indifferent Patrick, does she only seem capable of making choices that cause her pain?

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time. She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machines,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But with an appetite for discovery, a seven-a-day cigarette habit, and the support of a charming and chaotic cast of fellow expats, he soon adjusts. Over the next year, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a horrifically uncomfortable roommate dynamic, evolves into something much deeper. By the time the true shape of the Ministry’s project comes to light, the bridge has fallen haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences she never could have imagined. Forced to confront the choices that brought them together, the bridge must finally reckon with how—and whether she believes—what she does next can change the future.

Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga: In present-day New York City, an Albanian interpreter reluctantly agrees to work with Alfred, a Kosovar torture survivor, during his therapy sessions. Despite her husband’s cautions, she soon becomes entangled in her clients’ struggles: Alfred’s nightmares stir up her own buried memories, and an impulsive attempt to help a Kurdish poet leads to a risky encounter and a reckless plan. As ill-fated decisions stack up, jeopardizing the nameless narrator’s marriage and mental health, she takes a spontaneous trip to reunite with her mother in Albania, where her life in the United States is put into stark relief. When she returns to face the consequences of her actions, she must question what is real and what is not.

Brat by Gabriel Smith: We meet our ill-tempered protagonist—the titular “brat”—at a low moment, but not yet at rock bottom. Gabriel is mourning the death of his father as well as a recent breakup and struggling to finish writing his second book. Alone and aimless, he agrees to move back into his parents’ house to clear it out for sale. In fragments and figments, Gabriel takes us on a surreal journey into the mysteries of the family home, where he finds unfinished manuscripts written by his parents that seem to mutate every time he picks them up and a bizarre home video that hints at long-buried secrets. Strange people and figures emerge—perhaps directly from the novel’s embedded fictions—but despite his compromised state, Gabriel is determined to try to make sense of these hauntings.

Weird Fucks by Lynne Tillman: A young woman drifts through dimly lit bars and rented rooms, reporting from the erogenous zones of New York and Europe. Encountering increasingly bizarre sexual situations, she turns her curious, comic, and fierce eye onto the contemporary world of sex and desire. The men of this world evade and simper, they prey, preen, and fall hopelessly in love. In the narrator’s deadpan portraits, we see young women indulging their freedom through hope and disappointment, and young men wearing various guises of masculinity.

Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake: Thayer Wren, the brilliant CEO of Wrenfare Magitech and so-called father of modern technology, is dead. Any one of his three telepathically and electrokinetically gifted children would be a plausible inheritor to the Wrenfare throne. Or at least, so they like to think. Meredith, textbook accomplished eldest daughter and the head of her own groundbreaking biotech company, has recently cured mental illness. You’re welcome! If only her father’s fortune wasn’t her last hope for keeping her journalist ex-boyfriend from exposing what she really is: a total fraud. Arthur, second-youngest congressman in history, fights the good fight every day of his life. And yet, his wife might be leaving him, and he’s losing his re-election campaign. But his dead father’s approval in the form of a seat on the Wrenfare throne might just turn his sinking ship around. Eilidh, once the world’s most famous ballerina, has spent the last five years as a run-of-the-mill marketing executive at her father’s company after a life-altering injury put an end to her prodigious career. She might be lacking in accolades compared to her siblings, but if her father left her everything, it would finally validate her worth—by confirming she’d been his favorite all along. On the pipeline of gifted kid to clinically depressed adult, nobody wins—but which Wren will come out on top?

Loca by Alejandro Heredia: It’s 1999, and best friends Sal and Charo are striving to hold on to their dreams in a New York determined to grind them down. Sal is a book-loving science nerd trying to grow beyond his dead-end job in a new city, but he’s held back by tragic memories from his past in Santo Domingo. Free-spirited Charo is surprised to find herself a mother at twenty-five, partnered with a controlling man, working at the same supermarket for years, her world shrunk to the very domesticity she thought she’d escaped in her old country. When Sal finds love at a gay club one night, both his and Charo’s worlds unexpectedly open up to a vibrant social circle that pushes them to reckon with what they owe to their own selves, pasts, futures, and, always, each other.

In Tongues by Thomas Grattan: It’s 2001, and twenty-four-year-old Gordon—handsome, sensitive, and eager for direction—takes a bus from Minnesota to New York City because it’s the only place for a young gay man to go. As he begins to settle into the city’s punishing rhythm, he gets a job walking rich Manhattanites’ dogs. But it isn’t until he stumbles into the West Village brownstone of two of his clients, the powerful gallery owners Philip and Nicola, that Gordon learns how much the world has hidden from him—and what he’s capable of doing in order to get it for himself. A lush, heart-quickening novel about family and art, sex and class, and the terror of self-discovery, Thomas Grattan’s In Tongues chronicles Gordon’s perilous pursuit of belonging from the Midwest to New York and, later, to Europe and Mexico City. As he floats further into Philip and Nicola’s exclusive universe, and as lines blur between employee, muse, lover, and mentor, Gordon’s charm, manipulations, and growing ambition begin to escape his own control, in turn threatening to unravel the lives, and lies, of those around him.

Lush by Rochelle Dowden-Lord: Four wine experts, each at a crucial point in their lives, arrive at a French vineyard estate for an unforgettable experience—but not the kind they expected. Avery gave up her hard-won but exploitative sommelier job to come, while wine prodigy Cosmo is trying to disguise that his life is in freefall. The chemistry between the pair is unmistakable, but so are the signs of danger. Millionaire Sonny owns a tacky wine brand and can’t help aggravating Cosmo, while caustic magazine writer Maëlys hovers with her pen poised. It seems at first that these four have little in common except for their love of wine and their belief in its transformative power. But, as the quartet awaits the penultimate night of the trip, when they will taste the only bottle of one of the rarest wines in the world, it becomes clear that each of them grapples with a private crisis. Each projects their ultimate hopes and fears onto the contents of this bottle, a bottle rendered divine by age and scarcity.

Television for Women by Danit Brown: Estie isn’t sure she likes being eight months pregnant. She isn’t even sure she likes her husband anymore, especially after he hid that he’s been fired from his job. Hello parenthood! Goodbye life as Estie imagined it! Now, she’s stranded and bloated and alone. Her cat is not a people person, and on top of it all, her best friend has been ignoring her calls ever since Estie told her about the baby. After Estie gives birth, she begins to suspect that all the stories she’s been told about motherhood might not be true. Having a child does not “complete” her. And that mythical connection with her baby? Well, she’s still waiting. In fact, Estie fears she is destined to end up like her own mother—divorced and crying in the bathroom while her daughter stands outside the door and wonders if she’s okay.

Among Friends by Hal Ebbott: It’s an autumn weekend at a comfortable New York country house where two deeply intertwined families have gathered to mark the host’s fifty-second birthday. Together, the group forms an enviable portrait of middle age. The wives and husbands have been friends for over thirty years, their teenage daughters have grown up together, and the dinners, games, and rituals forming their days all reflect the rich bonds between them. This weekend, however, something is different. An unforeseen curdling of envy and resentment will erupt in an unspeakable act, the aftermath of which exposes treacherous fault lines upon which they have long dwelt.

Food Person by Adam Roberts: Isabella Pasternack is a food person. She revels in the beauty of a perfectly cooked egg, she daydreams about her first meal at Chez Panisse, and every inch of her tiny apartment teems with cookbooks, from Prune to Cooking by Hand to Roast Chicken and Other Stories. What Isabella is not, unfortunately, is a gainfully employed person. In the wake of a disastrous live-streamed soufflé demonstration, Isabella is summarily fired from her job at a digital food magazine and must quickly find a way to keep herself in buckwheat and anchovy paste. When offered the opportunity to ghostwrite a cookbook for Molly Babcock, the once-beloved television actress now mired in scandal, Isabella warily accepts. Unfortunately, Molly quickly proves herself to be a nightmare collaborator: hungover, flaky, shallow, and—worst of all—indifferent to food. But between Molly’s bizarre late-night texts, goofy confessions, and impromptu road trips, Isabella reluctantly begins to see Molly’s charms. Can Isabella corral Molly out of the gossip rags and into the kitchen? Can she find the key to Molly’s heart and stomach? Or will Isabella’s devotion to her culinary idols and Molly’s monstrous ego send the entire cookbook—and both of their careers—up in flames?

Sky Daddy by Kate Folk: Linda is doing her best to lead a life that would appear normal to the casual observer. Weekdays, she earns $20 an hour moderating comments for a video-sharing platform, then rides the bus home to the windowless garage she rents on the outskirts of San Francisco. But on the last Friday of each month, she indulges her true passion, taking BART to SFO for a round-trip flight to a regional hub. The destination is irrelevant, because each trip means a new date with a handsome stranger—a stranger whose intelligent windscreens, sleek fuselages, and powerful engines make Linda feel a way that no human ever could. . . . Linda knows that she can’t tell anyone she’s sexually obsessed with planes. Nor can she reveal her belief that it’s her destiny to “marry” one of her suitors, uniting with her soulmate plane for eternity. But when an opportunity arises to hasten her dream of eternal partnership, and the carefully balanced elements of her life begin to spin out of control, she must choose between maintaining the trappings of normalcy and launching herself headlong toward the love she’s always dreamed of.

Creep by Emma van Straaten: Alice and Tom are made for each other. Deeply connected, they share a flat in London, go to galleries together, enjoy the same books and wine. They even share a toothbrush. It’s all picture perfect. Except Alice and Tom have never met. Alice has been cleaning Tom’s apartment every Wednesday for a year. With every smudge wiped from his coffee cup, every multivitamin counted in the jar, Alice spirals deeper into infatuation, imagining a love so powerful it might erase a lifetime of self-hatred and loneliness. But as Alice prepares for the moment when she and Tom will finally meet face-to-face, she discovers that love might not be the cure she thought it was. Instead, the line between fantasy and reality becomes ever more blurred, shattering everything Alice thought she knew.

Friends of the Museum by Heather McGowan: When Diane Schwebe, the director of a major New York museum, is awakened in the early morning by a text message from the museum’s lawyer, it is the start of a twenty-four-hour roller-coaster ride. Diane has sacrificed many things in her life to help the fading institution stave off irrelevance and financial ruin. In this battle, she’s surrounded by her stalwart supporters: her enigmatic and tireless personal assistant; the museum’s trusty head of security; and its general counsel—a man whose ability to weasel his way out of a jam is matched only by his capacity to avoid learning anything from the experience. Orbiting Diane is a motley assortment of museum employees, each on the precipice of collapse or revelation: among them a line cook staring down a huge opportunity he’s not sure he wants; a costume curator stuck in an inescapable rut; and the ambivalent curator of the museum’s film program, whose first day on the job might very well be his last. On this day of the museum’s annual gala, every plate that Diane has kept spinning will fall and by daybreak, someone will be dead.

The Accidental Favorite by Fran Littlewood: Vivienne and Patrick Fisher have done an excellent job raising their three daughters, Alex, Nancy, and Eva. They’re well-adjusted women with impressive careers, caring partners, exciting hobbies, and sweet children. So it’s with great anticipation that three generations of Fishers gather at a beautiful glass house in the English countryside for a weeklong celebration of Vivienne’s seventieth birthday. But when Patrick’s reaction to a freak accident on the first day of the trip inadvertently reveals that he has a favorite daughter, no one is prepared for the shockwaves it sends through the family. Decades-old unresolved sibling rivalries are suddenly unmasked. And be it newly uncovered smoking habits, ancient crushes, or private doubts about life decisions both big and small, no one’s secrets are safe. Still-tender wounds are reopened amid an audience of friends, husbands, grandchildren, and even coworkers, and as the family’s past is re-written, they find themselves suddenly unmoored.

I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee: Baek Sehee could never have predicted how many people I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki would reach across the world. A runaway international bestseller, this record of conversations with her therapist demonstrated the realities of anxiety and depression. But Baek’s battle with dysthymia did not end there. In I Want to Die but I Still Want to Eat Tteokbokki, her experiences become more complex, as she vulnerably shows that striving for contentment is an ongoing journey.

The Lake’s Water is Never Sweet by Giulia Caminito: In the 1990s, Gaia’s family moves from the neglected peripheries of Rome to an idyllic lakeside town twenty miles away, in search of a new life that will lift them out of poverty. Each of them bears their own scars: Gaia’s strong-willed mother is fiercely determined to secure a better future for her children at any cost; her father, a once proud man, now suffers in bitter silence after a devastating accident; her anarchist older brother rebels against the political apathy he sees at home; and her young twin brothers wordlessly bear witness to a family in decay. When Gaia meets two local girls, Agata and Carlotta, the trio builds a fragile friendship throughout their adolescence based as much on their insecurities and jealousies as it is on their mutual affection. Gaia’s encounters with callous boys and contemptuous teachers convince her that she might always be an outsider--excluded from a privileged life and perhaps even beyond the possibility of happiness. Faced with bullying and betrayals among her peers and immense pressure from her mother to excel, Gaia turns inward and her world becomes increasingly insular. Then tragedy strikes her friend group. As more friends slip away and her family fractures, Gaia vows to make the world pay for all the things it has denied her.

At Last by Marisa Silver: Helene Simonauer and Evelyn Turner are two formidable women whose paths cross when their children marry. Both women are sharp, cunning, and unwavering in their conflicting beliefs about marriage, responsibility, and family and, most pressingly, their efforts to vie for the love of their shared granddaughter. At Last paints a vivid portrait of the American Midwest, capturing the essence of a time and place where societal norms and personal aspirations often clashed. Marisa Silver’s narrative weaves together the lives of Helene and Evelyn, from their vastly different childhoods through the pivotal events that define them. Both intimate and expansive, and capturing the complexities of ambition and love with humor and insight, At Last is a testament to what happens when an unintended, even unwanted relationship turns out to be a central one that defines a life.

It’s Not the End of the World by Jonathan Parks-Ramage: It’s 2044 and life is bleak for many Americans, but not for Mason Daunt. Safe in his Los Angeles mansion, Mason can remain blissfully unaware of the relentless wildfires engulfing California, the proliferation of violent right-wing militias, and the rampant authoritarianism destroying American society. He’s so rich, in fact, that he and his partner Yunho Kim are throwing a 100-person, $100,000 baby shower to celebrate their newborn-on-the-way. When a potentially apocalyptic event hits Los Angeles on the day of their celebration, though, the wealthy gay couple refuses to cancel their party. Surely it’s not the end of the world? But as Mason runs a few last-minute errands, a staggering twist thrusts him into the mounting chaos, and threatens the lives of everyone he holds dear.

Hot Wax by M.L. Rio: Summer, 1989: ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But fame has sharper fangs than anybody realized, and as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning—one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next twenty-nine years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers. Hitching her fate and Gil’s beloved car to two vagabonds who call an old Airstream trailer home, she finds everything she thought she’d lost forever: desire, adventure, and the woman she once wanted to be. But Rob refuses to let her go. Determined to bring her back where she belongs, he chases her across the country—and drives her to a desperation all her own.

And now, my three favorite reads this year

Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito: Will I ever stop raving about this book? Unlikely. This was my single favorite read of the year. ICYM the dozen other times I mentioned it, here’s why I love the novel so much: It reminds me of one of my all-time favorites, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and stars my favorite kind of narrator: deranged but high-functioning. This book caught my attention when the NYT described it as “if Patrick Bateman were a 19th century English governess.” If you have hang-ups reading about the murder of fiction’s untouchables (animals and children), mosey on. But Lord, this book is so dark and funny and razor sharp. I wanted to reread it while reading it the first time. I rented it from the library but have since bought a copy for my home shelves.

Synopsis:

Grim Wolds, England: Winifred Notty arrives at Ensor House prepared to play the perfect governess--she’ll dutifully tutor her charges, Drusilla and Andrew, tell them bedtime stories, and only joke about eating children. But long, listless days spent within the estate’s dreary confines come with an intimate knowledge of the perversions and pathetic preoccupations of the Pounds family--Mr. Pounds can’t keep his eyes off Winifred’s chest, and Mrs. Pounds takes a sickly pleasure in punishing Winifred for her husband’s wandering gaze. Compounded with her disdain for the entitled Pounds children, Winifred finds herself struggling at every turn to stifle the violent compulsions of her past. French tutoring and needlework are one way to pass the time, as is admiring the ugly portraits in the gallery… and creeping across the moonlit lawns… Patience. Winifred must have patience, for Christmas is coming, and she has very special gifts planned for the dear souls of Ensor House.

Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: My second favorite book of the year! Try to keep me away from a book with this title. Can’t be done. You know how with some books, you can tell within the first five pages you’re going to love it? That was this for me. Indelible characters and effortless suspense. Signed, someone who expends a lot of effort making her books suspenseful.

Synopsis:

Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life. How did she survive that day, and what will it take to end the cycle of violence? Will the truth undo her, or could it ultimately save her?

Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino: Oh, Beautyland, I fell hard for you. This novel makes a great companion piece to Station Eleven, one of my all-time favorites. Not genre-wise, but love-letter-to-humanity-wise. The prose is so good it did make me hate my own WIP, but that’s show business, baby. (I don’t know. Run with it.)

Synopsis:

At the moment when Voyager 1 is launched into space carrying its famous golden record, a baby of unusual perception is born to a single mother in Philadelphia. Adina Giorno is tiny and jaundiced, but she reaches for warmth and light. As a child, she recognizes that she is different: She possesses knowledge of a faraway planet. The arrival of a fax machine enables her to contact her extraterrestrial relatives, beings who have sent her to report on the oddities of Earthlings. For years, as she moves through the world and makes a life for herself among humans, she dispatches transmissions on the terrors and surprising joys of their existence. Then, at a precarious moment, a beloved friend urges Adina to share her messages with the world. Is there a chance she is not alone?

Happy reading!

See you next year,

I spend a not-small amount of time thinking about the stories I’m not working on. Not because I’m unmotivated or disinterested—quite the opposite. I’m deeply interested. I just don’t have the time or mental bandwidth right now to take on more projects. Why does writing a novel take so long?!

Last spring, I put this conundrum to my favorite free therapist/career coach, ChatGPT:

Sometimes I feel like I’m never going to get to all of the creative projects I want to.

The response soothed me. I’m sharing it here in case you, too, are a creative and/or ambitious person who never feels like there’s enough time to execute all the ideas floating around your brain. Here’s what Chat said:

That feeling is real—and it’s not a failure of productivity. It’s the sign of a genuinely creative person with more imagination, ambition, and ideas than any one schedule can contain. That’s not dysfunction. It’s the mark of someone who wants to make things that matter.

But still—it’s hard. Especially when you have the discipline, the career, and the desire... but not the time. Here are a few ways to reframe that feeling so it doesn’t become a source of shame or paralysis:

Read more

You all seem to enjoy posts where I discuss my ambitions and progress. As someone who adores goal-setting, this makes me feel so seen I could cry. I’m thinking of making quarterly check-ins an ongoing thing here, for both my accountability and your entertainment. Here we go.

Book 4

Here’s what I said in January:

I’m going to… as soon as I turn in book #4.

Here’s what I said in April:

For the past six weeks, I’ve been working on draft 2, which I turned in Wednesday.

Since then? I turned in a third draft, received more edits, and polished a fourth and final draft. Last week this book was officially cleared for copyedits, which means it’s definitely being published! I’ve successfully tricked a group of professionals into sharing my words with the world a fourth time (around Nov 2026)!

The book also underwent a title change. Its working title was THE SUBMISSION, courtesy of my friend and titling genius, Margarita Montimore. I still love the original and its double play on the word “submission”; the book is about an aspiring writer taking his book out on submission, AND said writer kidnaps the agent he wants, forcing her to submit to him. But one of my editors worried readers outside publishing wouldn’t know “submission” as an industry term, which is fair. Every time I told a non-industry friend the title, they stared blankly. The new title is more fun and accessible.

Like The Hitchcock Hotel, this book came together pretty painlessly. Maybe because it draws from my life as a writer—or maybe my process is finally smoothing out. Fingers crossed the momentum continues.

Screenwriting

Read more

Here’s why I killed each one.

Project #1: THE WICKED TEST

Read more

Speaking of this moment, as of today, The Hitchcock Hotel is officially on sale in paperback across the USA. You can buy a regular copy here or a signed copy here.

Quick reminder that I’m doing one in-person event for this launch on Thursday. I’ll be chatting with my friend and fellow novelist, Amy Meyerson. Details below and here.

Thank you so much for your continued support. Now onto your movie recommendation.

1. What’s your ideal scary setting?

A. A foggy English estate
B. A dusty roadside motel
C. A cozy train car
D. A stylish apartment
E. A macabre dinner party
F. An eerie fairground

2. Which word sends a shiver down your spine?

A. Obsession
B. Madness
C. Disappearance
D. Voyeurism
E. Perfection
F. Manipulation

3. Pick your favorite villain:

A. The jealous housekeeper
B. The boy next door
C. The charming stranger
D. The quiet neighbor
E. The arrogant genius
F. The deal-maker

4. What’s your favorite recent-ish thriller?

A. The Night House
B. Barbarian
C. A Simple Favor
D. Watcher
E. The Menu
F. Gone Girl

Ready for results?

Mostly A’s — Rebecca

Gothic vibes, dead wives, and secrets behind every door. You love your thrillers moody, haunted, and slow-burning.

Mostly B’s — Psycho

You like your suspense with a stab of horror. Twisted, tense, and unforgettable, this one still slays.

Mostly C’s — The Lady Vanishes

A little wit with your whodunit? Disappearances, double identities, and one very suspicious train ride.

Mostly D’s — Rear Window

A stylish slow burn. You’re the watcher, the overthinker, the one who sees what others miss.

Mostly E’s — Rope

Polished, chilling, and morally sharp. You like your thrillers in one room—and one long, uncomfortable take.

Mostly F’s — Strangers on a Train

You’re here for twisted deals and psychological spirals. One handshake, and everything unravels.

Honestly, you can’t go wrong with any of these. If I were you, I’d curl up under a blanket and go for a movie marathon.

Be back at the end of the month with a post about all of the writing projects I killed this summer. [Insert melting smile emoji.]

Happy reading,

August has been busy. I’ve been trekking back and forth between California and Arizona, the latter of which is my home base while my house is being renovated. I spent a week in Seattle. And as you read this, I’m in North Carolina, babysitting my niece and nephew for a long weekend. Next week I get to move back into my house, after three months of construction! Oh, and did I mention the paperback edition of The Hitchcock Hotel comes out on September 16th?

PREORDER HERE

Like I said, busy. Lots of family time. Lots of writing. Lots of travel. The summer has passed quickly, but the heat has felt endless—I guess that’s what happens when you spend three months in the desert. I can’t believe fall is already around the corner. I think I’m ready for it.

Onto the quiz.

Which Deadly Sin Are You?

Which travel snafu is most likely to upset you?

A) Your partner isn’t picking up on your advances.
B) Having to wake up early.
C) Not being told about the VIP lounge until it’s too late.
D) Getting seated near the bathrooms at dinner.
E) Your hotel only offers a continental breakfast.
F) Someone else in your group has a better view from their room.
G) The people in the room next door won’t shut up.

What’s your dream role on The White Lotus? (S3 edition)

A) The one who starts something steamy with a coworker. (Belinda)
B) The one who’s here to take pills and nap by the pool. (Victoria Ratliff)
C) The one with a private villa, a hidden agenda, and a federal investigation waiting at home. (Timothy Ratliff)
D) The soul-searcher who books a monastery stay to prove a point. (Piper Ratliff)
E) The one ordering her third cocktail by noon while pretending not to notice the group tension. (Laurie)
F) The one creating the group tension while pretending to play peacemaker. (Kate)
G) The one who came for closure and ended up throwing punches. (Rick)

What’s your guilty pleasure in a luxury hotel?

A) Flirting with another guest at the hotel bar.
B) Never leaving the bed.
C) Hoarding the fancy toiletries in your suitcase.
D) Snapping selfies for your followers.
E) Ordering two desserts.
F) Casually snooping on the other guests.
G) Taking out your stress on the treadmill.

What are you most likely to overpack?

A) Lingerie
B) Sweatpants
C) Money belts
D) Face serums
E) Snacks
F) Designer sunglasses
G) Antacids

What’s your favorite Hitchcock movie?

A) Notorious
B) Rear Window
C) To Catch a Thief
D) Vertigo
E) Rope
F) Rebecca
G) Psycho

Describe your perfect day on vacation.

A) An early-morning flirtation, a sun-warmed afternoon, and a little mischief after dark.
B) Room service in bed, a long nap, no pressure to do anything.
C) Starting the day with free coffee in the lobby, upgrading yourself to first-class for the flight home, and finishing with a five-star dinner—on points.
D) Glowing skin, a seamless itinerary, and quiet satisfaction when someone mistakes you for a local.
E) Eating your way through a city, then closing out the night with a decadent dessert.
F) Being asked where you found your shoes, your sunglasses, and your travel agent.
G) Waking early, conquering a hike, and shutting down that one tourist who cuts the line.

What’s at the top of your travel bucket list?

A) A romantic escape to a city where no one knows your name.
B) A spa retreat where you're encouraged to nap between massages.
C) A five-star, all-inclusive resort with a private butler.
D) A destination no one’s heard of—yet.
E) A culinary tour that starts with pasta and ends with gelato.
F) The private island your college friend honeymooned on.
G) The ancestral village where your great-grandfather disappeared.

Ready for your results?

If you picked…

Mostly A’s: Lust

You’re here for the thrill, the spark, the late-night glances across a candlelit table. You crave connection—or at least a compelling distraction. You pack silk and charm in equal measure and believe rules are more like suggestions. If there's mischief to be made, you'll make it look sexy.

Mostly B’s: Sloth

You’re on vacation from everything—decisions, stress, pants with buttons. If left alone, you'd live in a robe and subsist on room service until checkout. You’re a pro at unplugging and believe that true luxury is not moving unless absolutely necessary.

Mostly C’s: Greed

You like the best—and believe you’ve earned it. Upgrades? Obviously. Points? Always. You know how to game a system, maximize value, and leave a place with more than you brought. Why settle for one welcome drink when you can ask what else they’re offering?

Mostly D’s: Pride

You have standards—and not just for yourself. You appreciate beauty, intentionality, and the kind of experiences that leave a mark. Some might call you a perfectionist, but you’d argue that excellence is underrated. You’re driven to make things better, whether it’s your itinerary, your career, or the wine list.

Mostly E’s: Gluttony

You’re here for the flavor, the fizz, the full-body experience. Second dessert? Yes. Aperitifs and digestifs? Why not. You indulge with gusto and bring the party with you. Your suitcase may not close, but you’ve got stories to tell and snacks to share.

Mostly F’s: Envy

You notice what others have. Not out of pettiness—just curiosity. Okay, maybe a little pettiness. You’re an expert in quiet comparison and subtle manipulation, but you do it with a smile. You’re the glue in any group dynamic—and the match, if needed.

Mostly G’s: Wrath

You’re calm. Until you’re not. Your standards are high and your tolerance for nonsense is low. Whether it’s a noisy neighbor or an existential injustice, you won’t hesitate to take action. You’re passionate, principled, and maybe just a little scary when pushed.

Paperback Updates

In case you missed last month’s newsletter, we’re talking about the Seven Deadly Sins because each of the POV characters in The Hitchcock Hotel is based on one of those sins. I have a few exciting updates on the paperback launch front:

You can now order *SIGNED* copies of the book from BookSoup here. BookSoup can ship anywhere in the world, so readers outside the US, this link is for you too.

My publisher is giving away 50 (!) copies of the paperback edition of THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL via a Goodreads giveaway. The contest runs until September 5. Enter here. US residents only.

Lastly, if you’re local to Los Angeles, I’d love to see you at my paperback launch event at Sunny’s Bookshop in Tarzana. I’ll be chatting with my good friend, Amy Meyerson, who has her own thriller coming out early next year. More info on our event below. You can RSVP (for free!) here.

What did you get on the quiz? I’m Gluttony (always, frankly).

Yours in gelato and queso,

Because in just 47 days—on September 16th—the paperback hits shelves in the US!

(UK readers, yours is already out. You can buy it here.)

You know how this goes: when a writer has a book coming out—in any format—we find creative ways to talk about it in the hope that you’ll preorder. Since I believe subtlety is overrated when it comes to supporting my livelihood, let me make that preorder link big and bright:

Preorder THH paperback here!

Now onto something more fun.

When THH launched last fall, I found myself telling the same handful of stories during interviews and events. One that resonated most? How I used the Seven Deadly Sins to build my cast.

The Sins have always intrigued me—thanks to nine years of Catholic school, the movie Se7en, and a love of anything resembling personality classifications. They’re just plain epic, y’know? Who wants anger when you can have WRATH?

Since THH is a whodunit, I needed a large cast. That scared me. Too many POVs can confuse readers (not to mention authors). I needed a way to anchor each character quickly. Enter: the Sins.

This isn’t to say all hedge fund managers are greedy or all trust fund kids are lazy, but leaning on caricature early helped me get to more dimensional characters. Here’s where I landed:

Grace is Greed. A hedge fund manager who always wants more—financially and emotionally.

Samira is Lust. A sex toy entrepreneur and sex ed advocate.

Julius is Sloth. A trust fund kid with zero ambition.

TJ is Wrath. A bodyguard furious with others—and himself.

Zoe is Gluttony. A chef who struggles with alcohol and the word “no.”

As for the other two POVs, Alfred and Danny were always so clear in my mind that I didn’t need a Sin to keep them straight. But for fun?

Alfred is Envy. He’s opened his dream hotel but still wants what others have—Hitchcock’s genius, his friends’ college experience, and maybe the girl who got away.

Danny is Pride. If you’ve read the book, you know why.

These labels didn’t define the characters, but they helped me get started. By the end, the cast stood on their own.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll be having fun with this theme. Next month’s newsletter includes a quiz to find out your deadly sin, and I’ll be sharing book, movie, and TV show recommendations by sin on socials. Stay tuned!

What I learned this month

Recently I have been using AI, specifically ChatGPT, more frequently in my writing process—not for the actual prose, but as a sparring partner, research source, and career coach. I prefer optimism over fear-mongering when it comes to new technology, but I will say that this article from The Verge—You sound like ChatGPT—gave me pause.

Words like “prowess” and “tapestry,” which are favored by ChatGPT, are creeping into our vocabulary, while words like “bolster,” “unearth,” and “nuance,” words less favored by ChatGPT, have declined in use. Researchers are already documenting shifts in the way we speak and communicate as a result of ChatGPT — and they see this linguistic influence accelerating into something much larger.

I felt mildly reassured that I happened to use the word unearth in my writing hours before reading this piece, but that reassurance was cut short when I came across this:

And the deepest risk of all, as Naaman pointed to, is not linguistic uniformity but losing conscious control over our own thinking and expression.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how AI will affect different facets of our lives (jobs, art, education, etc.), but I hadn’t much considered the impact on language. As a peddler of words and creative expression, this article is provoking deeper, and often uncomfortable, reflection. I plan to write more about my process shift in a future newsletter, but for now, I’m still hammering out how I do or don’t want to use AI tools long-term.

Art picks

The Water Lies by Amy Meyerson: So well-executed is this thriller that I can’t believe it’s Meyerson’s first. Our protagonists are heavily pregnant Tessa Irons, who is convinced her toddler knew the dead woman that turned up in the canal outside her Venice Beach home, and mother of the deceased, Barb Geller, who refuses to believe her daughter’s death was a drunken accident. Naturally, the police dismiss their suspicions, but does that stop these two? It sure doesn’t! What a thoughtful examination of IVF and motherhood, stacked on top of a stellar plot. Folks, I know this is important to a lot of you: I did not guess the twist. It’s my job to come up with twists! Meyerson is sneaky! It’s not out for a few months, but you should just pre-order it now as a gift to your future self.

The Hurricane Blonde by Halley Sutton: It was SO nice of Halley Sutton to write a book just for me. At the risk of sounding like Bill Hader’s Stefon, this book has everything: 1) a murder bus tour, 2) a hot mess nepo baby protagonist, and 3) a deep dive into Hollywood’s seedy underbelly. The Hurricane Blonde is like your true crime-obsessed friend pulling up a chair next to you at the bar and going, You’re never going to believe this… For the twist lovers, once again, I was bested! Twice in one month! I’m both sad and delighted to report that this particular twist will break your heart a little. Buy the book here.

Line of the month

In honor of the impending paperback publication, this month’s line is the very last sentence of The Hitchcock Hotel.

“Burn it to the ground,” she whispers with a smile.

Diabolically yours,

This month I want to talk about time management—slightly less glamorous but arguably more important.

I’m pretty good at time management on the daily level. I have a decent sense of how long a task will take me, whether it’s writing a new chapter, making edits, or blurbing another author’s novel.

Where I tend to struggle is at the yearly, monthly, sometimes even weekly level. These are, I’m not kidding, the 2025 goals I set back in January:

1. Finish writing book 4. (First half of year)

2. Revise TV pilot & share. (Q1)

3. Write short story for XX. (Q1)

4. Secure film agent or manager.

5. Write 100-150 pages of book 5. (Second half of year)

6. Sell book 5. (Second half of year)

Stretch

1. Apply for at least one fellowship/grant.

2. Start writing poetry collection.

3. Submit 1-3 poems to lit mags.

In what world did I think I was going to write two books, launch my screenwriting career, and start a… poetry collection… in 12 months?! Every December, Matt and I share our goals for the following year with each other. After I rattled this list off to him, he gently said, “I think this might be a touch ambitious.” Bless his heart for not saying delusional.

This is a common theme for me year to year. I’m an ambitious person with a(n unwarranted?) sense of dwindling time. I am also acutely aware of how lucky I am to have my dream career, and there’s a lot I want to do with it. The drive comes from a good place, but it often turns into panic, anxiety that lodges in my chest, a sense that I’ll never get everything done.

My friends, I am not too proud to admit that I turned to our AI overlord for help with this conundrum. And you know what? Chat had decent advice, so much so that I’ve decided to share it with you here. I suspect it might be just as useful for non-writers.

How to Know You’ve Overfilled the Week

1. You’re constantly “re-carrying” goals

• You keep moving the same task day to day (e.g. “write blurb” moves from Mon to Tues to Fri)

• By Friday, your checklist still has half the week’s items untouched

Signal: You planned based on ideal output, not real time/energy

2. You finish each day frazzled—even when you’re productive

• You met your goals but feel spent, rushed, or cranky

• You’re too tired to enjoy evenings, workouts, or creative downtime

Signal: You didn’t budget for transitions, fatigue, or margin

3. You can’t shift gears between projects

• You want to touch both novels and screenwriting but never get to the second track

• Your brain lingers in one project while another languishes

Signal: You underestimated the cognitive cost of context switching

4. You start avoiding your to-do list

• You’re “accidentally” scrolling, cleaning, or making more tea

• You dread opening your Notes or project folders

Signal: Your week is too dense or not aligned with your current energy

How to Prevent Overfilling

Here’s a Weekly Gut Check template—designed to help you spot overfilling before the week begins. You can paste this into Apple Notes and run through it each Sunday or Monday when you’re setting goals.

WEEKLY GUT CHECK
Use before finalizing your task list—takes 5 minutes

1. Is this list based on time or hope?

• Have I roughly estimated how long each task will take?

• Have I accounted for meetings, admin, or life interruptions?

• Am I planning for 70% capacity—not 100%?

2. Am I overcommitting to creative output?

• Do I have more than 2–3 major creative priorities?

• Am I trying to push progress on too many different projects?

• Have I made space for screenwriting or fiction—not both—every day?

3. Is there recovery time baked in?

• Did I leave room for rest, resets, or unexpected detours?

• Is at least one afternoon unstructured?

• Am I building from my energy rhythm (e.g. deep work in the mornings)?

4. What does future me want less of by Friday?

• Guilt from dropped tasks?

• Mental clutter from context-switching?

• Burnout from overperformance?

What I learned this month

Pandora Sykes’ excellent newsletter, Books and Bits1, led me to author Naoise Dolan’s Substack, specifically a post called “Show, don’t tell” is broken.

Here’s what Dolan had to say:

Emotional depth doesn’t have to mean flushed cheeks. … Personally I’m far more moved by descriptions of emotion expressed through cognitive realism rather than somatic signs: the stomach cramps could equally be attributed to an ill-advised third cup of coffee, while zooming in on each pixel of a character’s thought process can far more precisely reflect their experience.

The amount of time I have been spent laboring over alternatives to racing hearts and chewed lips and clenched jaws…! Why had it never occurred to me that I could skip some of that in favor of a more cerebral approach? Floored by the prospect, I’ve picked up Dolan’s Exciting Times (2020) to see it in practice. I haven’t started reading yet, because I’ve spent most of June on the road, but I’m looking forward to applying this to my own work once I do.

Art pick

If you told me last month that my new favorite series would be a reality show about an old British guy trying to create a profitable farm in the Cotswolds, I would not have believed you. Am I interested in farming? Nope. Did I know who Jeremy Clarkson was before watching the show? Nope. And yet. Early in June, I spent a few days in Canton, Georgia, with Matt’s uncle and aunt, who absolutely adore Clarkson’s Farm. I sat down to watch the pilot fairly unwillingly, but by the end of the episode, I was hooked. This show is charming, educational, and, most importantly, hilarious. I laugh—loudly—several times each episode. I’m only six episodes in to the first season (there are four), but once I’m back home with more free time on my hands, I will be zooming through this unexpected delight. If you’re looking for something light and easy, this one is on Prime.

Line of the month

This month our final thought is courtesy of Danzy Senna, whose Colored Television was one of my art picks last month.

Novel writing is too much. But also, there’s absolutely nothing better.

As for frequency, over half of you said you’d prefer monthly emails, and that seems like something I can maintain (she says cautiously), so that’s what I’ll attempt. I’m going to aim to send this out the last week of every month. Maybe if I write that here, I’ll actually manifest it.

Before we get started, I want to let you know that the TMH ebook is only $1.99 over on Amazon until June 1st! This Might Hurt is the underdog of my backlist—can we give her a little boost this week? US readers, you can grab the ebook here.

Okay, onto the main topic.

Knowing the type of feedback you need

Revision is an entirely different beast than generative work. And what is central to successful revision? Feedback.

When I was a baby writer, I thought the source of the feedback was most important. Before I had an agent, before I enrolled in an MFA program, I agonized over how to get my work in front of qualified readers. That challenge matters too—but today, I want to talk about types of feedback, not sources.

Developmental vs. linework

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ChatGPT suggested that last option.

You won’t hurt my feelings if you choose the last one! We all get too many emails; I’m not here to clog inboxes.

Thanks so much for your help! Your reward is a picture of my dog wearing a cowboy hat.

You’re the best,