Ten days in California. Coffee by the pool. The Great Believers. A visit from my mom. Fresh squeezed orange juice. The new season of Queer Eye. Practicing being present. Bonnie Raitt. The Lazy Genius Podcast. Fresh air. Days getting longer. All the girls I love in one place. The Heart’s Invisible Furies. Cooking complicated dinners. The Daily. Planning for the future. Giving up a certain amount of control.
A fresh bullet journal. Vermont every weekend. Cutting the cable cord. The Cormoran Strike books. Habit tracking. Everything in a casserole dish. The Dropout podcast. Remembering how much I love Smartfood popcorn. Walks in the dark. Vacation planning. A Good Wife rewatch. Candles every morning. A trip to New York. Reading cookbooks under blankets. Accepting certain unalienable truths. Unexpected windfalls. Keeping warm and busy. Being careful not to burn out.
A trip to the tree farm. Collecting socks for the Forney Center. A winter CSA share. Sleeping in. The Harvard Bookstore Warehouse sale. Snuggling under blankets. The new seasons of Bake Off. A Sopranos rewatch. Hedging my bets. Butternut squash soup. Drinking lots of water. Doing Advent, maybe. Teaching Avon new tricks. Finishing up projects. Trying new bread recipes. Six of Crows. The Golden State. Alias Grace. Planning for 2019. Winding down for the year.
Leaves slick on the sidewalk. Long nights. A fresh revision checklist. Cranking the humidifier. Lotioning my knees. Reading books in the early morning. Baking all the time. Louisiana Book Festival. Seeing my family. Hanson in New York. Michelle Obama at the Garden. A fire in the fireplace. Taking stock. Making a Christmas list. Saying thank you.
Oh hey oh hi, I cannot get enough of TOP TEN’s new paperback cover!
I have been truly hashtag blessed by the cover fairy, and this baby is no exception: designer Jenna Stempel-Lobell and artist Leah Goren totally nailed the spirit of the book (RYAN IN A PARTY HAT, THEIR LITTLE BOWLING SHOES, I JUST CANNOT).
TOP TEN is out in paperback on January 15, 2019, but you can preorder right over here. Happy, happy.
A dark pedicure. Reading all the library books. Mother Florence in DC. An old friend getting married. YAS Bookcon. Cooking in. The Booksmith with good friends. A plum torte. A Halloween costume for Avon. Pumpkins next to the fireplace. Still puzzling. Family visiting. A big revision. All the podcasts all the time. The occasional hot chocolate. A cozy fleece. Chilly mornings. Trying to drink more water. Bringing the plants inside.
Confession time: a few years ago a friend and I co-wrote a trio of messy, complicated, sexy romance novels under the pen name Ruby McNally. We wanted to tell the kinds of stories we’ve always loved to read—smart, feminist romances about fully-realized, independent heroines and the sometimes-tough, sometimes-vulnerable, always extremely attractive guys who love them.
The Lights + Sirens trilogy follows three different teams of first responders in the Berkshire Mountains of Western Massachusetts: CRASH tracks a ferociously loyal and equally bad-tempered paramedic and a sad-eyed widower with a scruffy dog. SINGE is about a lady firefighter with a romantic streak and an affable womanizer with a dark past. BANG leans hard into my literal all-time favorite trope: partners who are Partners.
I am so, so excited to finally be owning my alter ego and sharing these books with you guys. If you like your messy, complicated love stories a little on the steamy side, I think you’ll love Ruby McNally.
All three books in the Lights + Sirens trilogy will be available in the Kindle store on Tuesday 9/18, and I’ll be sharing more about the books here in the coming days, but in the meantime you can follow me on Instagram for a sneak peek at their gorgeous covers and subscribe to my newsletter, Love Notes (sign up right there on the sidebar!), where I’ll send out an exclusive look at CRASH in the inaugural issue next week! Happy reading, and thank you guys so much as always for being on my team.
Finishing three drafts, no excuses. My baby sister getting married. Busting out a sweater or two. A jigsaw puzzle on the kitchen table. Apple picking. Cider donuts. Switching back to dark nail polish. Cutting all my hair off. Sending a ton of mail. Melody Gardot. The Gateway. Call the Midwife. FBI. A weekend in Vermont. Adjusting the sails for the end of the year. Launching Love Notes, my brand-new newsletter (sign up right there on the sidebar for original short fiction, deleted scenes, and sneak peeks delivered right to your inbox!). Something super exciting to share (watch this space).
Wringing out the last of the summer. Tomatoes everywhere. Listening to the rain falling. A playlist full of repeat-ones. Brandy Colbert’s incredible Finding Yvonne. Taking some damn responsibility. Cutting back the overgrowth. Saying no as often as possible. Remembering who I actually am. Hilary-Rachael’s enormously soothing insta. As much ice cream as will fit in my belly. Paying my library fines. A Jenny Rosenstrach reread. Godless on Netflix. Cold brew every morning. Looking for a little bit of fun.
hot and damp and verdant. 50,000 new words, I hope. Re-attending to some things I’ve let go. S’mores in the backyard in the suburbs. My sister’s bachelorette. First tomatoes in the garden. Afternoon naps on the deck. Breaking in my Get to Work Book. Early morning walks with Avon. Sleeping in the AC. Yacht Rock Pandora. Hipster ice cream in fancy cones. Taking a break from twitter. Calling my reps on the phone. Evenings full of fireflies. Wooden roller coasters. Enjoying it while it lasts.
