---
title: End of September round-up - Things didn't go as planned and I'm a work-in-progress!
description: End of September round-up - Things didn't go as planned and I'm a work-in-progress!
---

[Past Newsletters](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters)

# [End of September round-up - Things didn't go as planned and I'm a work-in-progress!](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/end-of-september-round-up-things-didnt-go-as-planned-and-im-a-work-in-progress)

 Written by [Sophie Maddon](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/author/sophie-maddon) | Sep 26, 2025 1:00:00 PM

 

# What's new?

​

Hi All!

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

​

# Book news:

I should rename this section, "Things Didn't Go As Planned"!

I had to restart the cover design process with another designer (proof that just because someone comes highly recommended doesn't mean they'll be good for you), which means I probably won't have a cover for my cozy mystery until the beginning of November, at the earliest.

This is very disappointing as I'm having to delay publicity and marketing activities, but as I always say, "everything happens for a reason, even if sometimes it takes a reeaally long time to figure out what the reason was."!

In better news, two of my Beta readers have sent me their feedback, and it doesn't seem too bad. I do need to rewrite the ending, but I have a couple of ideas on how to improve on it so it may not be that big of a hurdle.

​

Another thing I did was start plotting the next three books in the Abigail Palmer series, which meant writing multiple versions of the project plan for the biscuit factory project! I know which phases of the IT project I want to cover, but I need to know roughly when in the year they will be, so I can develop the setting correctly (end-of-year holidays vs swelteringly hot summer?) Next steps will be refining the plot details of each book, with a goal of writing the first draft for all three over October and November (NaNoWriMo may be defunct, but the habit of drafting new books in November is here to stay!)

​

# Tackling the (out of control) TBR pile:

​

I finally read the last of Austin Kleon's books, *Steal Like An Artist*, and like the others, it went on my writing bookshelf!

Other reads included:

*Silverborn*, the fourth instalment of the Morrigan Crow / Nevermoor series, by Jessica Townsend - This one was a long time in the making, as the third in the series came out five years ago, and it was good, but I missed some of the magic in the previous ones. I'll still read the next one, whenever it comes out, just hoping some of that magic will be back.

*The Maid*, by Nita Prose - I read this one because it came up when I searched for "cozy mysteries with neurodivergent characters" as part of the marketing prep work for ***A Slice of Mystery***. It was fine, but I was surprised at the hype around it, I didn't think it was *that *good (and I didn't like the ending, there had been no indication that the narrator was unreliable until that point, and I felt cheated). I won't be reading the next two in the series.

*The Phoenix Project*, by Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford - another one I read as part of my marketing prep work for ***A Slice of Mystery***, and I devoured it! Officially, it's a novel set on an IT project (which is why I thought it could be a comparison tool to be used in advertising - "if you liked *The Phoenix Project*, you might like *A Slice of Mystery*"), but some of the reviews made it sound like it should have been labelled as a non-fiction business book. I think both sides are correct - it's a novel, it's as engaging as a novel, but with high-quality information that could be found in a business book. I'm already planning on reading the sequel, *The Unicorn Project*.

​

# Life news:

My cleaning week happened!!! Yes, I'm unduly excited about it, but it was so needed, it's nice to see the difference. I could use another week to clean all the things I didn't, but for right now, it's good enough.

"Good enough" is something I'm actively practicing because it's so uncomfortable. Perfection is what I truly want, but it feels too hard to achieve, therefore nothing gets done. On the other hand, "good enough" is perfectly achievable!

I didn't quite get the "week of doing nothing" I really wanted / needed, but I did get some rest, which definitely helped. Realistically, the next available slot for a "week of doing nothing" might be in December, but it's something to look forward to.

I want to be better at finding balance, but the more I try, the more I'm thinking my brain may not be wired this way. It feels like I can only function at either 0 or 100, when most people operate at 50% capacity quite happily. If that's true, then the answer may be to shrink the periods of time where I operate at 100, so the exhaustion/recovery rate cycle is smaller. If I start a recovery phase less exhausted (because I operated at 100% capacity for less time), in theory, it should take less time to recover?!

I'm a work in progress, and that's ok!

Love, Sophie

​[Read for free (or close) with libraries and subscription services! ](https://sophiemaddon.com/read-for-free)

 

PS: I almost forgot, my giant jigsaw puzzle is progressing!

 

[View full post](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/end-of-september-round-up-things-didnt-go-as-planned-and-im-a-work-in-progress)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Sophie Maddon"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2026-04-25T11:39:44.643Z",
  "datePublished" : "2025-09-26T13:00:00Z",
  "headline" : "End of September round-up - Things didn't go as planned and I'm a work-in-progress!",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 60,
    "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
    "width" : 60
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/end-of-september-round-up-things-didnt-go-as-planned-and-im-a-work-in-progress",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Past Newsletters"
  }
}
```