November, 2022 Newsletter |
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Happy November! Hello and welcome aboard to my new subscribers! I'm so glad you're here. And thanks to everyone who has signed up for my newsletter for being part of the three-book giveaway. I (sort of) announce the winner below and will be doing some more giveaways this winter, especially once we have A Stolen Child ARCs. Speaking of Maggie's fourth adventure, I'm really delighted with the cover the talented folks at Minotaur Books designed for it. You can see it below and preorder! I'll share some reading recommendations, give you my thoughts on National Novel Writing Month, and pass along one of my favorite recipes right now, an absolutely perfect and adaptable pumpkin cake that you can make for almost any occasion. We're into what we call "stick season" here in Vermont, but what a glorious year for foliage it was while it lasted. Now it's November and the next thirty days are going to be busy at my house. We have a high school senior (gulp) who is getting his college applications ready, a budding thespian who will be in a play at the end of the month, a couple of family birthdays, and a big Thanksgiving gathering to host. Sheep have been brought in from pasture, which means they are eating hay every day, which means we have a lot of hay to move around. It also means we need to mow their fields to get them ready for next year. Wood has already been cut and stacked and we've had a few fires, despite the kid who, to be fair, did most of the stacking complaining we'll use up the wood too quickly. I'm working on a new writing project, which I'll be telling you about in coming months, and of course I'm getting ready to write Maggie's fifth adventure as well. From November 11—13 you will find me at the New England Crimebake conference, where I'll be catching up with readers and fellow authors and participating in the "Writing Beyond our Boundaries" panel on Saturday morning. Come say hello if you'll be in Dedham, Mass. for the conference. I hope all is well in your world and I look forward to seeing you in December! All best, Sarah |
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Here it is, the cover of the next Maggie D'arcy mystery, A Stolen Child, which will be out on June 20, 2023! I'm so happy with the way it turned out! It gives you a sense of the book's Dublin setting, as well as some of the themes and plot threads you'll be hearing more about soon . . . You can preorder it from your favorite independent bookstore or below! (If you do, thank you, thank you! It makes a big difference in the early support for a book.) |
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Are you doing NaNoWriMo? November is National Novel Writing Month, when participants pledge to write 50,000 words of a novel in November. I've always had sort of mixed feelings about NaNoWriMo. For one thing, November is a terrible month to take on a big challenge like this. Why isn't it in January or February? February would be perfect! And for another, I don't think you can really write a novel in a month. Not a good one anyway. But of course, that's not the point. The point is to get over yourself and write a lot of words. And that is a goal I support. I'll be surfing the wave of collective ambition and trying to write at least 1,000 words every day in November. If you're participating this year, good luck! | | |
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Three books I'm really enjoying right now: Garrett M. Graff's deeply researched and engagingly-written account of Watergate, Ausma Zehanat Khan's first in a new Denver-set series about an American Muslim detective, and Louise Kennedy's terrific novel set in Northern Ireland. |
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A month or so ago, we had some friends visiting and I wanted to make something very autumnal for dessert. So I looked around and found a recipe for pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting. They were good. Really good. I made the recipe again, this time as muffins. Equally good. This week, I needed to make cupcakes (fancy muffins!) for a school fundraiser and a thank you present for a neighbor who had loaned us a fence charger. So I doubled the recipe, put half in cupcake tins and half in loaf pans and they were also really, really good. This is my new favorite recipe, perfect for this time of year. I share it with you, in honor of pumpkins, cold mornings, and woodsmoke on the air. | | |
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Three-Book Giveaway! The winner of the three-book giveaway for subscribers is . . . someone whose name starts with K. If that might be you, perhaps check your spam folder for a message. Congratulations! |
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