Hey there!

When I first started working on my new mystery/thriller series—the Danica Burns series—I had two goals.

My first goal (which I want to talk about today) is to write books that take readers on journeys to some of my favorite places.

I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest basically all of my life—I grew up in rural Washington State, and as an adult I’ve lived in Seattle, Idaho, and Portland. When my sister and I were kids, our parents loved to take us on road trips. We went camping every summer in national parks and state forests. We spent spring breaks on the chilly Oregon coast. We explored southern Oregon, Montana, the Olympic Peninsula, and anywhere else that called to us.

As an adult, I’ve wandered through even more corners of our gorgeous region with my husband—in a car and on our bikes. We've camped in old growth forests and on the beach, we've visited hot springs and deserts, and there is definitely more to explore!

I absolutely love it here.

I've taken some inspiration from the surrounding landscape for my sci-fi books, but mainly as we've traveled physically, I've been traveling even farther mentally—wandering through time and space to explore the Durga System. It has created a strange disconnect, where I'm not fully experiencing the place I'm visiting whenever I'm on the road.

Writing thrillers set in the Pacific Northwest is, oddly, a way of staying more present in my surroundings. I'm enjoying tapping into the local culture and landscape to fuel my writing, noticing details and getting curious about history instead of soaring past it all in a space ship.

When most people who aren’t from here think about the Pacific Northwest, they imagine gloomy skies and rain. They picture Seattle grunge and Portland hipsters, tech startups and trendy coffee shops. But most of our region is rural and remote—and a huge percentage is high desert, in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains.

Which is why my plan in the Danica Burns series is to take readers to the parts of the Pacific Northwest they might not normally think of. Hells Canyon. The Alvord Desert. The Okanagan Highlands. The Rocky Mountains. I want to show just what makes this region special—warts and all.

I'll be sharing some of these travels in this newsletter, but here's a small taste.

You can probably guess that we have some spectacular waterfalls in Oregon, given all the rain in the western Cascade Mountains. You might even have visited the tallest waterfall in Oregon, Multnomah Falls—which is about a 30-minute drive from Portland.

But not many can name the second tallest waterfall—and even fewer visit it, despite the fact that it's an easy hike off the Highway 58. Which means that whenever we've gone to visit, we've often had the entire place to ourselves.

Can you name this waterfall? Head here to check your guess. :)

That's all for today. In the next email, I'll talk about the second goal I had in mind when I started writing the Danica Burns mystery series.

But first, I have a few special things to tell you about!

For Your TBR

Are you running low on books?

I'm sorry—what kind of ridiculous question even is that?? There's always room for another couple. :)

Here are a few places to stock up.

Microcosm Spring Spectacular Sale!

First up, Microcosm Publishing (the company that publishes my nonfiction books, like From Chaos to Creativity) is having a spring warehouse cleaning sale! You can find a few of my books, along with a ton of other quirky guides to everything from vegan cooking to picking locks.

From Microcosm: Get 50% off over 800 books, decks, and journals at the Microcosm Spring Spectacular Sale! 10 days only, March 20-30, 2025. See all the titles at https://Microcosm.Pub/SpringSale and use the coupon code SPRING2025 to meet your reading needs and help us spring clean our warehouse!

Crime Writers for Trans Rights Auction!

Next, there's a fantastic auction happening right now, with items like signed books from Walter Mosley, Gillian Flynn, Charlaine Harris, Val McDermid, and more. You can also bid on items like manuscript critiques and custom flash fiction pieces from celebrated crime and crime-adjacent authors. And it all goes to a very timely cause.

From their site: From March 26 through April 1, 2025, you can bid on a wonderful range of items, including from some of the most celebrated voices in crime and crime-adjacent fiction, with all proceeds given to the Transgender Law Center to help further their important work.

​Head here to check out the auction.

New Kickstarter! Outsiders: A Speculative Short Story Collection

A while ago, I realized I kept writing stories that explored what it is to be human, from the perspective of creatures and beings who are decidedly not. Many of these stories have been published in small journals throughout the years, and I've been mulling around the idea of collecting some of these stories into one volume.

Last week, I decided now was the time!

I'm incredibly excited about the stories, and the cover turned out to be gorgeous! (You can see it on the Kickstarter page, link below.)

From the page: From demon carpet salesmen to outer-dimensional beings to ancient monsters, these creatures hail from beneath the mirrored surface of the lake and just past the glare of the moonbeam. They slip through the shadows of our peripheral vision, and sit beside us in the coffee shop. Some want to befriend us. Some have fallen in love with us. Some are trying to destroy us. Some just think we look tasty. All of them are looking forward to meeting you.

​Check out the Kickstarter here — and don't forget to hit Notify Me on Launch!

Happy reading,

Jessie