I wish I could tell you that life has totally calmed down but, alas, it has not. You probably guess that when you didn’t get a message from me last week. I’ve had a few migraines (boo!) and my mom had to go to the emergency room via an ambulance after passing out and falling. She wasn’t hurt but given her age, they had to be thoroughly checked out to be sure it wasn’t a heart attack or stroke. She came home the next day but it took about a week to figure out the diagnosis. It

The Game Misconduct illustrated paperbacks and Tanner & Leif merch are finally here! I hope you love Colleen's illustrations for Tanner & Leif! I think she did a fabulous job bringing both of them to life and I couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I really love how the merch turned out too. I even did a hoodie for Leif with the NY Rockets logo on it and a cute little Clarence the Hamster sticker. We are taking pre-orders for the gorgeous special illustrated editions

As soon as I finish writing Christmas at O’Neill’s, I’ll be diving into The Neutral Zone Series! It’ll be a six-book series featuring the New York Rockets. The first book will be called Game Delay and features Nicholas (Nicky) Calhoun and Beauregard (Mac) Major McCann III. Nicky, a (semi) closeted gay man, is captain of the NY Rockets. Following a terrible concussion, he struggles with persistent post-concussion symptoms. When he returns from a prolonged absence, he realizes

Pretty soon after I started writing the Scoring Chances series I got a vague idea for a Christmas story set at O’Neill’s Pub. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to work it into my schedule last year. When I looked at the second half of this year though, I realized it would fit perfectly! It’ll be a cozy holiday novella set in the pub featuring a hockey player and cute but nerdy accountant who knows nothing about hockey. When O’Neill’s Pub owner Liam retires and sells the place to

I hope you love the illustration that Colleen did for Luke. We originally had a different pose picked out but just before she started working on it, it hit me that Luke needed to be fighting! I asked her if she could do that and she said she absolutely could. I LOVE the way it turned out and I think she really nailed Luke’s look and personality. The gloves on the ice are the perfect touch. We are taking pre-orders for the gorgeous special illustrated editions of Cheap Shot

It’s officially August! If you read last week’s newsletter you know that there was a plumbing disaster. It has now been fixed knocks on wood, the bathroom’s clean again, and I was even able to take a nice relaxing candlelit bath in there the other night. Things did NOT go as smoothly when it comes to the cover image, so check out yesterday’s post for more on that. The important thing is, Game Misconduct is live and you can read the book readers are calling a “definite must-r

Writing, editing, and releasing Game Misconduct has been unmitigated chaos from beginning to end. I should have predicted this, because if we thought Jesse Webber was chaos, it’s nothing compared to the natural disaster that is Tanner Clayton. Tanner is joyful in every way but he does tend to disrupt things wherever he goes. Including every part of this book. If something can go wrong, it HAS gone wrong. If something can be more complicated/difficult/confusing than it needs t

Can you believe it’s August?? My brain is still somewhere back in May … The good news is that my foot is looking MUCH better. It’s been a little over two weeks since I slipped and fell on the stairs. I am so grateful that it wasn’t anything more serious than a soft tissue injury because the swelling has all gone down and the wildly colored bruises are gone. It just looks like my normal foot now! The bad news is that there’s been a plumbing disaster. There’s currently a hole

Although I was very much looking forward to resting and recharging at the cottage last week, that was cut very short by the wildfires (see yesterday's post for details on that). Climate change is impacting us all and it’s very worrisome to imagine how much worse it will get in the future. I tried to rest and recharge at home the best I could, but I am still teetering on the edge of burnout and am not quite sure how I’m going to deal with that. Given the state of the world, i

Thank you for all of your kind words about my migraines. I really appreciate it. This hasn’t been a particularly exciting week, although I did have a nice time on Father’s Day. My parents invited my second cousin (who is in college, doing research during the summer semester) to dinner and we ate out on the porch. For once, it was lovely weather and it was really nice to spend the time outside and actually enjoy it! I am writing this Wednesday but have plans to get my hair cut

I hope you enjoy the illustrations that Colleen did for Mickey & Rafe. I think she nailed their expressions perfectly. Rafe looks like a big ol himbo and Mickey looks focused (grumpy) on the ice. I hope you enjoy the gorgeous special edition paperback of Slew Foot. ​We are taking pre-orders for Slew Foot now and signed paperbacks will begin shipping August 25th. I also designed some fun merch for Mouse and Turtle. It’s a toss up between my favorite sticker but the Level 4 B

Hockey season is officially over with the Hurricane’s Stanley Cup win. I don’t know if any of you are Vegas Golden Knight fans but I think we can all agree that seeing Carter Hart fall apart at the end was very satisfying after the league worked so hard to get a horrible person back on the ice. I wasn’t really rooting for Carolina either but I DID root for Seth Jarvis. He’s an absolute ball of chaos with a delightful friend group and although he wasn’t who I pictured when I c

As much as I loved the illustrations Colleen O'Malley did for Connor and Jesse on the Goaltender Interference cover, I think Gavin’s illustration might be one of my favorites. He looks exactly like I pictured him. Every inch the stressed-out Boston Harriers general manager! I did not have Colleen do an illustration of Dakota so we could prioritize getting these paperbacks done. I am hopeful that once we wrap up the paperbacks, I can have her do illustrations for the other non

While I’d really love to be that super-organized author who always has my shit together, last summer’s migraines really set me back when it comes to bigger projects. This summer, the migraines are significantly better (but not completely gone) so I am trying to be careful not to overload myself. So although someday I hope to have illustrations and merch done before a book is finished that hasn’t been my reality lately. My more realistic goal was to get them out before the fin

Uhh, so if you didn’t already know by now, sometimes the ADHD strikes hard. I’ve been blathering on about James recording Flipping the Switch but, uh, that is in fact not the next book in the series! Kim finally pointed out that Made to Order comes next. Not sure how I forgot about my subby Army vet and his bossy chef, but well, somehow I managed it. It was no big deal. I hadn’t sent the files to James yet but it meant I needed to make a very quick pivot to get everything re

If you love my illustrated paperbacks, but live in a place where you can’t order them directly from my Shop, you can now buy them on Amazon! They should be available in all countries and both the Rules of the Game series and the Relationship Goals series are available (Scoring Chances will be coming in August). Because of the way Amazon sets up paperback pre-orders for alternate editions, I can’t link you directly to the series but if you click the button below it’ll take you

The weather went full-on summer in the past week, and I went for a lovely (if ridiculously hot and humid) hike on Sunday. I got to enjoy nature (including seeing a relatively rare bird for this area –a pileated woodpecker!) and hang out with a friend I haven’t seen in months. We grabbed lunch and watched a movie after and it was a really nice way to spend the day. My Baby Pens are still doing very well in the Calder Cup playoffs so I’m having fun watching the newish prospec

I know how expensive everything is right now and there are always lovely, shiny new things in the book world to buy. I always try my best to make everything on my Shop as affordable as possible. Since Amazon tends to bang up our books a lot when they ship, when faced with a stack of books with creases, scuffs, and dings, Kim had the brilliant idea of creating Brigham’s Bargain Bin where we offer books with relatively minor damage at a 25% discount. This is great news if you’r

Throws confetti Now that Kim has finished settling into her new house and I am done traveling everywhere, we have a little more time to focus on the Brigham Vaughn Shop. Today I am excited to announce that illustrated paperbacks are now available on my Shop! I was so excited to create the illustrated special edition paperbacks with the help of Colleen Malley. She’s such a talented artist and I love the way she illustrated my characters. I got so many compliments on the

So, this has been a rough week, huh? Let’s all take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, then breathe out slowly together. It’s been incredibly hard to focus on writing and promoting books. Lately, I’ve been able to create some compartmentalization where I do what I can, when I can (calling reps, showing up to protests, making donations) but try to be 100% present for my writing and all of the other parts of being an author. Some of it comes from spite. I REFUSE to let