Hey there!

Hi!!!

Okay, yes, I know it's been a minute.

Life has been packed with day job work* and I'm back to writing fiction in scraps of time that I catch between client projects.

(*For those who don't know, my day job is ghostwriting business books and memoir + coaching authors who are writing nonfiction. If you are curious about that, head here.)

The good news is that I have still been finding time to write, and it looks like there will be more on the horizon.

Yay for writing!

Over the last few months, I've been chipping away at a thriller novel inspired by our time in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It's been fun to revisit that moody setting by reading fiction and nonfiction set there—I'm enjoying Peter May's detective novels, as well as a travel/memoir/research project called More Richly in Earth by Marilyn Bowering.

I've also been working on a short story set in the Danica Burns world, as a way to warm myself back up to finish book one.

(Members of The Crew will find that story in their inboxes as soon as I polish it up!)

That story took me to the deep, cold depths of Lake Crescent on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Have you been? It's absolutely stunning.

My husband and I used to go camping on the Olympic Peninsula a lot when we lived back in Seattle, and Lake Crescent was one of our favorite places.

I never found a body in it.

...but Danica Burns sure will.

Okay!

Happy solstice, friends—I hope it's found you well, and that you're finding community, joy, and good books in these trying times.

And if you're in need of a new book, just scroll down...

Cheers,

Jessie

For Your TBR

Short Audio Story Contest—you be the judge!

Audio listeners, Spoken Press is currently running a contest—and they want you to help judge!

The theme of this contest is hearing the author's story behind the story itself. So for each short story in the contest, the author also recorded notes that explain why they decided to write it. I love that they include that sort of context in the scoring.

I was one of the judges for the first round, and I was impressed with the entries. All of these semi-finalists are really fantastic!

​Head here to listen to the stories and score them.

Mystery/Thriller Free Fair—open until March 31st!

It's been a minute since I participated in one of these mystery/thriller fairs, so it's been fun to be back. Here are a few books on the list that caught my interest and might catch yours too!

Justice by Patricia Garyhall When Department of Justice attorney Jo Turner arrives in the mountain town of Kellogg, Idaho, she expects a routine environmental investigation. Instead, she uncovers a community poisoned—literally and morally—by a century of mining and corporate greed. When her investigation ignites violent backlash from townspeople desperate to keep their jobs, Jo must decide how much she’s willing to risk—for the truth, for justice, and for the lives caught in the crossfire between survival and conscience. Get My Copy!

The Coverup by Nadya Frank She’s so bad at disappearing, it’s almost funny. Ilona is on the run. The man who destroyed her life once wants her back. Badly. She thought she’d be invisible working waiting jobs in small towns around Moscow. But the scorpion tattoo above her wrist—his mark on her skin—brings him to her again and again. If only she could get rid of it before she moves to the next town and starts over… Luckily, she meets Mariam, a tattoo apprentice who offers to blast a new design over Ilona’s unwanted one. With the scorpion gone, Ilona could finally leave her past behind. With Ilona’s plan going awry, both women’s lives are on the line now. Do they trust each other enough to make it out of the trouble alive? Get My Copy!

Happy reading,

Jessie