Hey there!

As the mornings get moodier and cooler around these parts, I've found myself slipping into an old habit: writing stories longhand in a notebook while sipping coffee, blissfully free of screen distractions.

Sometimes I can open my laptop and stay focused on the fiction work at hand. But lately, the sight of my laptop triggers "business brain" to kick in, and I start thinking of all the other projects I "should" be working on: edits for a ghostwriting client's book, admin for my fiction business, refreshing my website, building a course for Story Rebel.

Sitting down with a physical notebook and pen has been the only way to keep myself focused on the story.

Only one problem.

Typing up all those notes later was daunting! So daunting that I found myself stuck once more.

If you've been around this newsletter for a bit, you might know that I often dictate my stories. I like to go for walks (or even lie on my bed) and talk through a chapter, then transcribe it.

(For transcription, I use this tool that a friend of mine built.)

But typing up my handwritten notes was a different beast entirely.

I kept thinking how great it would be if I could just read the notes and digitize them! My usual system wouldn't work, though. I wasn't musing through a chapter—I had little snippets of notes I wanted to write in different files.

So I begrudgingly began poking at the native speech-to-text tool on my MacBook.

I've tried it in the past and... it sucks. It's way worse than the speech-to-text that's native to the iPhone.

But as I was trying to make it work, I did discover a new app (for both Mac and Windows) which allows you to just speak your notes, emails, etc directly into your computer.

And it WORKS! It's SO accurate, friends, I can't even believe it.

It made transcribing all my notes a breeze—and suddenly I was back on track and ready to keep blazing on this story.

I don't normally share writing tools in this newsletter, since the majority of you are readers, not writers.

But we all have to do computer work, and this has been such a time saver for me that I figured I'd share. After all, I've raved about it to everyone else I've talked to this week—including the grocery store clerk (true story).

The tool is called Wispr Flow if you're interested in trying it out.

(And if you want to download it, I've got an affiliate link that gives anyone who signs up using it a free trial month, and I get a free month too. Win-win! Here's that link: https://wisprflow.ai/r?JESSIE40 )

Anyway, I'm always looking for accessibility aids to make long hours at the computer more sustainable. (And to protect my carpal tunnel-y wrists and poor vision—I had terrible eyesight even before I lost an eye.)

If you have a tool or ergonomic office set-up you swear by, I'd love to hear about it!

For Your TBR

OK, enough about office ergonomics—it's time to talk about what you're really here for: books!

MTS Bookfair! Remember going to book fairs as a kid, wishing you could leave with more books than you could even carry? If you’re like me you probably had to satisfy yourself with only one or two books that you could convince your parents to by. ​ Well this book fair is the kind where you get to take as many books as you want and they’re all some variation of Mystery, Thriller, Suspense. ​ Gather up all the books your heart desires here: Get My Copy!

Garden of Lies by Jemma Stark When a renowned real estate tycoon is found hanging in his lavish Garden District mansion, all signs point to suicide. But the governor isn't convinced and requests the FBI's help. Assigned to the high-profile case are Special Agents Briana Song and James Buckley—and it's Briana's first investigation since transferring to the New Orleans office. Their probing reveals the tycoon had multiple enemies who wanted him dead. Yet every avenue of the investigation leads to blocked paths and lies. As they investigate, Briana realizes they'll need to bend the rules to uncover the disturbing truth lurking beneath the mansion's manicured exterior. ​ Get My Copy!

Happy reading,

Jessie