Hi All!

Hope you're having a good day / week / month? I'm not one for chit-chat, so let's dive in!

After procrastinating on it for weeks, and shedding much sweat and tears, I have a new description for my YA mystery, Your Knowledge or Your Life! And, requiring much less effort on my part, but not less nerve wracking, I also have a new, professionally-designed book cover!

Check it out, isn't it gorgeous?! It's going to take a few days to update on all the platforms, but I'm hoping the new cover will be available everywhere from 3rd July...

Free book! Beyond The Threshold, my sweet YA Sapphic romance (half of it is in a centaur-populated world!) will be FREE on 22nd July on every platform as part of the Romance Book Blast event, check it out!

New book! It's time... I've had my head buried deep in admin and not-so-fun publishing tasks for the past few months, and I'm actually excited to start revisions on the next novel... the question was, which one?! I have several completed first drafts in my drawers, and I had a few options to choose from.

I read a Sapphic cozy murder mystery romance this past week, and I can't wait to start revisions in July. While this isn't the whole plot, the setting is an ERP implementation project, and I've had a few people tell me they were looking forward to reading it!​

I'm not reading as much as I'd like to, and I'm still buying books, so the pile is unmanageable. In an effort to tackle it—and stop feeling guilty about the fact that some of the books have been staring at me from those shelves for ten years—I moved a subset of the pile into my living room, right by the sofa.

And it worked, I have already renewed the pile once since trying it out!

My recipe:

Pick books that have been on the shelves the longest.

• 2 fiction books in English.
• 1 non-fiction book in English.
• 1 fiction book in French.
• 1 fiction book in Spanish.
• 1 non-fiction book in Spanish.
• 1 work-related book in any language.
• Optional, as available: graphic novels in any language.

Read* since the last newsletter:

• I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy (I cheated, got this one from the library. Loved it, and a lot resonated)
• The Happiness Project, Gretchen  Rubin
• The Mistaken Wife, Rose Melikan
• Alguien como yo, Elísabet Benavent
• Black Buck, Mateo  Askaripour
• Le Premier Miracle, Gilles Legardinier
• Wizard's First Rule, Terry Goodkind

I hate that I loved Wizard's First Rule, because it was 800 pages, and it's the first of a ten books-series... the second one is now on the TBR pile.

* There were also several DNF (Did Not Finish), one of which had been on my TBR pile for over twenty years *cue facepalm*

I'm continuing with my "themed weeks" as, unexpectedly, it's still working for me! Two of those were "getting rid of stuff" weeks... My spare (tiny) room had become a dumping ground for all the things I knew I wanted to get rid off, or for the things that I couldn't seem to fit anywhere, so I tackled it. Vinted, eBay, various books/CDs/DVDs sites, Freecycle, charity shops, and, as a last resort, recycling centre (known as "the tip" in the UK!), it took just over two weeks, but that room went from barely-able-to-set-foot-in-it to EMPTY. The feeling at that point, I can't describe. Elation? Relief? Hopefulness? Maybe all of the above?

For the next few months, the room is going to be hosting the 6,000 pieces jigsaw puzzle I bought on impulse in November 2023 (!). In case you're wondering, it's about the size of a double bed... The thing is, it's out of the way, so it can take as long as it needs, even if I only spend twenty minutes on it on a Sunday afternoon 🙂

I'm done rambling for today, I hope you have a great rest of your day / week / month!

Love, Sophie