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

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

I am currently writing this almost a week ahead, because by the time you get this, I will be at the cottage! Not that cottage, but I am spending the week at my best friend’s family cottage with her, her kids, and her parents. It’s an annual tradition and I love it so much. It’s supposed to be HOT (hitting 100°F!) by mid-week and I am planning to pretty much roll out of bed and into the lake. As someone who loves the water and grew up on a lake, spending a huge amount of time

As always, James did an incredible job recording Made to Order. He brought Donovan and Tyler to life in only the way he can. The tender scenes made me cry and OMG the spicy scenes are just 🔥. Absolute fire. If you haven’t started the series yet, now is a great time to do that.

I survived the gauntlet of four days of extremely high heat and thunderstorms and came out alive! I even felt up to going to a 4th of July party at a friend’s house (even though I did not feel like celebrating where this country is currently at) and had a nice time. I got to play with a cute doggo, eat some delicious food, chat with friends, and play games. This week I’ve been putting the finishing touches on Game Misconduct and it’ll be off to edits while I am up north hang

Colleen did a beautiful job with the illustrations for Graham and I really am delighted with the way the Delayed Penalty cover turned out. I also had a blast creating the merch and couldn’t resist making a little backwards cap, movie popcorn, and eggplant sticker with quotes from the book! The hoodies turned out really cute too and are slightly different styles, because the players have one style and the people who work for the team have another. We’re taking pre-orders for D

I had a lovely time last week. I got a haircut, walked along the river, then went to the farmer’s market. I came home with black raspberries, asparagus, a little ceramic container, dill Havarti cheese, blue cheese stuff olives, and raspberry & vanilla macarons. I chatted with a few lovely people, enjoyed some dogs, then took myself out to dinner. It was exactly what I needed! This week has been a challenge. Michigan is in the midst of a heatwave and we have four days of storm

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

Sadly, despite a valiant attempt, the Baby Pens lost the Eastern Conference Finals. That’s officially the end of hockey season for me, although I did catch the Stanley Pup the other night. As always, it was an adorable “hockey game” played by dogs to help rescue dogs find homes. If you want to watch, you can find it here on YouTube. I’ve been reviewing audio and am up to my eyeballs in Shop updates, illustrated paperbacks, and fun new merch. Keep reading to learn all about th

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

Happy Pride, friends! Whether you're celebrating as a member of the queer community or are an ally supporting those of us who are LGBTQ+, I just want you to know that I love and appreciate you all! This year I’m celebrating by offering all of the Pride gear on the shop for  26% off. Whether you want an Evanston River Otters T-shirt to wear at home, Pride pucks to decorate your bookshelf, or a Toronto Fisher Cats water bottle to keep you hydrated at Pride, it's all on sale. Sh

The Baby Pens are off to the Eastern Conference Finals, Sidney Crosby is doing Sidney Crosby things at Worlds, and Evgeni Malkin signed to play with Pittsburgh for one more year. throws confetti All is right in my hockey world. (I am disgusted and saddened by the situation with VGK going to the playoffs and their vile-excuse-for-a-human goalie and will not be watching any of the NHL playoffs.) I am having a great deal of fun in my fictional hockey world. Leif & Tanner are

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

Before we get into the good news about Cheap Shot being available in audio, I wanted to share some info with you. Audible recently released an update saying that they are changing their payment structure. It's a decision that will hurt both authors and narrators, so I wanted to take a moment to tell you that I appreciate each and every one of you who is willing (and able!) to support me by shopping directly.  Running the Brigham Vaughn Shop is a ton of work. Kim & I work very

Great news! The Baby Penguins are still in the playoffs, and I’ve had a very productive week! I stopped by the thrift store and bought a little metal organizer for under my bathroom sink. This led to a full sink re-organize (and required buying several more organizers at another store) but after years of it annoying me, now it looks and functions exactly like I hoped and I couldn’t be happier with it. On Wednesday, I had a meeting with my web designer, Pippa, about some si