--- title: "February round-up: Giveaway, baking, and I might be a workaholic" description: "Giveaway, baking, I might be a workaholic, and you can't make everybody happy: I've never considered myself to be a people-pleaser, but I was definitely reminded of this fact when the early reviews for A Slice Of Mystery started coming in." --- [Skip to content](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/february-round-up-giveaway-baking-and-i-might-be-a-workaholic#main-content) [![](https://sophiemaddon.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Sophie%20Maddon%20logo%20for%20website%2029042025.jpg?width=1024&height=256&name=Sophie%20Maddon%20logo%20for%20website%2029042025.jpg)Homepage](https://sophiemaddon.com/) - [Home](https://sophiemaddon.com) - [Young Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/young-adult) - [Your Knowledge Or Your Life?](https://sophiemaddon.com/your-knowledge-or-your-life) - [Beyond The Threshold](https://sophiemaddon.com/beyond-the-threshold) - [Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/adult) - [A Slice Of Mystery](https://sophiemaddon.com/a-slice-of-mystery) - [Read for Free](https://sophiemaddon.com/read-for-free) - [Large Print](https://sophiemaddon.com/largeprint) - [About](https://sophiemaddon.com/about) - [Contact](https://sophiemaddon.com/contact) - [Past Newsletters](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters) - [Home](https://sophiemaddon.com) - [Young Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/young-adult) - [Your Knowledge Or Your Life?](https://sophiemaddon.com/your-knowledge-or-your-life) - [Beyond The Threshold](https://sophiemaddon.com/beyond-the-threshold) - [Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/adult) - [A Slice Of Mystery](https://sophiemaddon.com/a-slice-of-mystery) - [Read for Free](https://sophiemaddon.com/read-for-free) - [Large Print](https://sophiemaddon.com/largeprint) - [About](https://sophiemaddon.com/about) - [Contact](https://sophiemaddon.com/contact) - [Past Newsletters](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters) # February round-up: Giveaway, baking, and I might be a workaholic ![Sophie Maddon](https://7528315.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hub/7528315/hubfs/raw_assets/public/mV0_d-cms-elevate-theme_hubspot/elevate/images/avatar-placeholder.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=avatar-placeholder.jpg) Sophie Maddon February 27, 2026 # Book news: ​ Let's talk about how you can't make everybody happy: I've never considered myself to be a people-pleaser (if you know me personally, please stop laughing), but I was definitely reminded of this fact when the early reviews for *A Slice Of Mystery* started coming in. **Reader 1 (excerpt):** "\[...\] Also, there was so much talk about her job, workflows and boring meetings \[...\] - at the beginning it was interesting, but soon I thought it took to much space and pushed the mystery to the background.\[...\]" **Reader 2 (excerpt):** "\[...\]Her social awkwardness, combined with her corporate career as a data analyst, is unusual. \[...\] Even moreso, if we could see some more business-specific behind-the-scenes in the different companies, perhaps tying into the mystery. I think that would keep things really fresh!\[...\]" There you have it - one reader thinks there's too much "job" stuff, while another wishes there was more! That said, once the series is over, I *might* create a few short stories that go deeper into the business-specific behind-the-scenes, but I'm not committing to it just yet - I'm planning to have five books with Abigail, four of them in the biscuit factory project, and one standalone, plus a Christmas-related short story, but I also have a lot of other stories with other characters I want to publish, so all I can commit to right now is *maybe*. By the way, if you wanted to pre-order *A Slice Of Mystery* AND support your local bookstore, this is now possible! As of last week, the ebook is now available to pre-order from Bookshop.org (link to all retailers [here](https://bc48e57b.click.kit-mail3.com/qduxzwnq70f7h4zl2vnilh8dvv8r7i4h8000x/qvh8h7hdzee6dvug/aHR0cHM6Ly9ib29rczJyZWFkLmNvbS9TbGljZU9mTXlzdGVyeQ==)). # ​Free Stuff: Head over to [The StoryGraph](https://bc48e57b.click.kit-mail3.com/qduxzwnq70f7h4zl2vnilh8dvv8r7i4h8000x/g3hnh5hmrggzmou3/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcHAudGhlc3RvcnlncmFwaC5jb20vZ2l2ZWF3YXlzL2Y2N2M4NjgyLWY4YTMtNDM1ZC04ZjBiLTkxMWY4YjQ0YzY0Yg==) - I'm giving away 50 ebooks of A Slice Of Mystery (closes March 18th)! While we're talking about The StoryGraph, I set up a "[readalong](https://bc48e57b.click.kit-mail3.com/qduxzwnq70f7h4zl2vnilh8dvv8r7i4h8000x/3ohphkh30xxd3dsp/aHR0cHM6Ly9hcHAudGhlc3RvcnlncmFwaC5jb20vcmVhZGFsb25ncy85ZjU2NGY1My1kMzY1LTQ1YTYtOGM3NS05YjIzMDNjNWQzYmY_cmVkaXJlY3Q9dHJ1ZQ==)" group, where you'll be able to chat with fellow readers about *A Slice of Mystery*. ​Tackling the (out of control) TBR pile: Yes, the TBR pile is huge. Yes, I did buy a few more books this month. And yet, yes, I borrowed a couple of books from the library. It's not my fault. I was walking past it, it would have been rude not to go in. The first one, I gave up on after a few chapters. This was really disappointing, as I've loved the first thirty or so books that this author wrote, but I tried to get into this new series, and I just couldn't, the style felt flat, compared to her previous writings. The other was *We Solve Murders* by Richard Osman, the story was a lot of fun with just the right amount of absurdity, and the characters were loveable (I'm not sure which is my favourite, the ex-cop father-in-law or the seen-it-all, done-it-all romance writer!). The only thing I struggled with (which won't stop me from reading the next one), is that it's written (mostly) in present tense, and my brain kept on auto-correcting to past tense, since that's what I usually read. Since I'm neither drafting nor editing at the moment (focusing on learning marketing, and trying really hard to not burn-out), I took the opportunity to read a bunch of books in French and Spanish (reading in foreign languages while writing confuses my brain), and I realised how much I'd missed reading these authors... I need to find a better balance in my life, and apparently, in my reading habits! # ​Life news: Lots of cooking and baking done - blood orange ice-cream, American scones (if you have a good recipe, please send it through, mine wasn't great) , kouglof (a specialty from the Alsace region in France), a pumpkin-and-chestnut crumble, red cabbage soup, and a beetroot curry (the recipe that made me like beetroots). I've been meaning for a while to take some time off to recharge my batteries, but it turns out it's not that easy to go from 100 to 0, so I did my best to do as little as possible (and mostly failed), but I'm okay with that. I did tackle some tasks that had been on my to-do list for months (and were stressing me out), so that's good, and I pushed A LOT of tasks out to March and April - I've been doing my best to do only the most urgent and important ones. I'm going to keep going like this for a few more weeks, then, once I'm sure the burn-out risk has passed, on to revisions and edits (yay!). Last minute update: I'm already noticing the positive effect of (relative) rest on my creativity: I drafted the first chapter of book 3 in the Abigail Palmer series! It's horribly messy and will probably need to be completely rewritten, but it's a start, and I'm calling it a big win. Love, Sophie   [Read for free (or close) with libraries and subscription services!](https://sophiemaddon.com/read-for-free)  ## Share this post [mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fsophiemaddon.com%2Fpast-newsletters%2Ffebruary-round-up-giveaway-baking-and-i-might-be-a-workaholic](mailto:https%3A%2F%2Fsophiemaddon.com%2Fpast-newsletters%2Ffebruary-round-up-giveaway-baking-and-i-might-be-a-workaholic) ## Keep reading ### [June round-up: What do I do about the dead body?!](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/june-round-up-what-do-i-do-about-the-dead-body) ### [![](https://ecp.yusercontent.com/mail?url=https%3A%2F%2Fembed.filekitcdn.com%2Fe%2FoZtHraW5eTqV44CkQGCcnn%2FkfjQrX1nax7nrw9d6tHApp%2Femail&t=1780912252&ymreqid=18db2881-8618-0531-1c4d-7b0002015100&sig=XFPpyQQhJ1G.saA0CerEiw--~D) May round-up: thank yous & book updates](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/may-round-up-thank-yous-book-updates) - [Home](https://sophiemaddon.com) - [Young Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/young-adult) - [Adult](https://sophiemaddon.com/adult) - [Read for Free](https://sophiemaddon.com/read-for-free) - [Large Print](https://sophiemaddon.com/largeprint) - [About](https://sophiemaddon.com/about) - [Contact](https://sophiemaddon.com/contact) - [Past Newsletters](https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters) --- Privacy Policy · Legal · © 2025 Sophie Maddon. All rights reserved. Pursuant to Article 4(3) of the Digital Copyright Directive ((EU) 2019/790), this website and associated landing pages may not be used for text or data mining (TDM), or web scraping for AI training purposes. ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Sophie Maddon", "url" : "https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/author/sophie-maddon" }, "dateModified" : "2026-04-25T11:37:15.777Z", "datePublished" : "2026-02-27T14:00:00.000Z", "headline" : "February round-up: Giveaway, baking, and I might be a workaholic", "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://sophiemaddon.com/past-newsletters/february-round-up-giveaway-baking-and-i-might-be-a-workaholic", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://sophiemaddon.com/hubfs/Sophie%20Maddon%20logo%20for%20website%2029042025.jpg" }, "name" : "Sophie Maddon" } } ```