throws confetti I couldn’t be happier about the outcome of the US midterm elections. It’s so exciting to see such an overwhelming shift away from the current administration and toward a more progressive direction. There is a lot of work to be done and I think some things may get worse before they get better, however, there is much reason for hope. The hard work by people like Stacey Abrams (a politician AND a romance author!) and other grassroots organizers helped shift our l

I didn’t have anything specific scheduled to email you about this week, so I thought I’d do a little roundup of things I’ve been loving. I’ve read some great books lately so I thought I’d share them with you. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn: historical fiction with a bit of a mystery twist. Set in England during WWII and follows three female friends during the war. It begins years after, and features flashbacks to when they were working as codebreakers at Bletchley Park. One of t

Things are humming along with getting Christmas at O’Neill’s ready to release in early December and I have a nice little surprise for you! It’s a teaser from the story that I really think you’ll enjoy! It even features a couple of familiar faces. Check out yesterday’s post here if you’d like to read it. whispers I don’t want to get my hopes up that it’ll last but the good news is that the weather has finally stabilized enough for me to string together a few non-migraine da

On Saturday, I woke up with a migraine attack but was able to take meds early and rest for a couple of hours until I felt good enough to go to a small art fair. I met my parents there and we browsed for a couple of hours. I got a cherry and ginger wine slushy (10/10 would recommend, although they had delicious sounding non-alcoholic ones as well) and sipped that while we wandered around. It was about 75 degrees out, which is about 10 degrees warmer than I personally enjoy, b

This week I made some tough choices AND had some good things happen, so let’s get into it! Migraines have been … not great and I made the incredibly tough decision to drop out of Hockey Romance Night with the Grand Rapids Griffins. That has nothing to do with the event or the organizers, they are wonderful! It’s simply that I don’t physically feel up to it. Because the migraines have been so debilitating for the past few months, I haven’t been able to adequately prepare for

Once again, life has been a little bonkers (just typed binkers, which made me giggle for some reason). There are still some migraines happening and I can’t WAIT until my appointment later this month. My keyboard randomly decided it no longer needed to work, so I had to wait for a new one to arrive. Last week, my PA, Kim, and the people in her household all had Covid, so Kim & I threw in the towel and said, “fuck it, we’re doing the bare minimum”. Usually that includes the new

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

This time, my lake vacation was a solo one. I rented a small cottage on Lake Huron for a few days. On the first day, I drove a few hours north to a little town along Michigan’s thumb (if you don’t know, Michigan is shaped like a mitten!), checked into my cottage, and spent the evening settling in and relaxing. The second day was very rainy/stormy, so I did a little writing. I know that seems like work but really, the writing part is the easiest bit of being an author. I did

This has been a tough, tough week for me so I’m just sending a quick note. My migraines have been especially challenging, and I’ve spent more of the week recovering than working. I have doctor’s appointments coming up and we’ll keep trying to nail down treatments and preventatives that work for me. There’s no cure, I’ll spend my whole life managing this, but I am hopeful that I can find some new things to help do that. Much of what I’ve done so far HAS helped. The migraine at

Thank you so much for all of the love you’ve already sent for Tanner & Leif’s book. I am so thrilled that you enjoyed it! I wish I could tell you that the week after the Game Misconduct release was all smooth sailing, but if I did, I’d be lying. On Monday I got walloped by a migraine. It didn’t really lift until late Wednesday and as I write this on Thursday, I am still very tired. It’s the worst one I’ve had in over a year and, unfortunately, it’s my own fault. Rather than

On Monday, I drove a few hours north from where I live in Michigan to my best friend’s family cottage on a lake. We arrived in the afternoon, got unpacked/made the beds, then went straight out to the lake. We had a lovely evening, spent the entire day out on the water on Tuesday, and by that evening my eyes were extremely irritated (we weren’t yet aware of how bad the fires had gotten). By the time woke up Wednesday morning, the air was visibly smoky and there was fine ash fa

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

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

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

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

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

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

As many of you know, the Pens got eliminated from the playoffs. I was very sad but honestly, making it to the playoffs at all was a gift. The entire season they had was a gift. Last fall, they were predicted to be the worst team in the league. Making it to the playoffs with Sid, Geno, and Tanger all there and healthy was impressive and I am so glad they got that again. I had to mourn for a bit and step away from hockey. While I did, I worked on puzzles, plus went hiking and s

It’s spring, and although we’ve already had some hellishly hot days here in Michigan, we’ve also had some lovely ones that feel like a nice relaxing spring day should. Sunny, but cool with a light breeze. On Sunday, I went for a three-mile hike. The trees are nearly all leafed out and the wildflowers were blooming and it was great to be out in the fresh air. I have plans to go hiking with a friend in a couple of weeks as well and I am really looking forward to it. You may