What is a weekend?

I have written nearly 160 000 words of fiction this year, and it’s a number that stuns me every time I think about it.

This is not a necessarily huge amount of words in self-publishing—there are people publishing a book monthly, or even fortnightly—but it’s absolutely the most I’ve ever written in a year. Even when I was at my fanfic writing peak, I don’t think I ever managed this kind of volume.

And all I had to do to get here was read widely and constantly, write often, get traditionally published, develop organisation and time management skills by working my butt off in a demanding profession, treat my anxiety, pay off my student loan, give up my permanent day job, and completely refocus my life on being a full time writer/part time everything else!

I finished the main draft of Aphrodite Unbound a couple of days ago and flicked it off to my editor and sensitivity reader, and then I did something I haven’t done in a while, and took a weekend. Sometimes you gotta hustle (see previous newsletter re: grindstones) and sometimes you gotta STOP. Rest. Fill your cup.

Should your cup need filling, I recommend the following things I’ve been enjoying lately:

• The day after I finished the Aphrodite manuscript, I binged Deadloch, which is both a very funny send up of solemn murder TV shows and an excellent murder show in its own right. Madeline Sami is particularly fantastic as foul-mouthed shorts-wearing Darwin detective Eddie, but really, it’s consistently great writing delivered by consistently incredible actors.
• Watching murder investigations in Tasmania reminded me of Livia Day’s cozy murder mysteries, set around Hobart. There are two series, one featuring baker and cafe owner Tabitha Darling, and one featuring second-hand clothing shop worker Samantha Sullivan. They’re warm, funny, feminist rom-com-mysteries with a great cast (and I think most of you can get A Trifle Dead for free!)

• Speaking of murders, I’ve been storming through Louise Penny’s Inspector Gamache novels. Penny is a big deal, a multimillion selling author, but I had never heard of her until a few months ago until she was mentioned in Nicole Dieker’s newsletter. The books are humane, twisty mysteries mostly set in Quebec, around the delightful (and weirdly murderous) village of Three Pines. If you like your murder investigation to include good food, poetry, art, Canadian history, and the occasional digression into the nature of good and evil, I would highly recommend the series. Normally I’d hesitate to recommend something already so deservedly popular, but uh, see above re: who is this?

• Speaking of Nicole Dieker, I recommend her Larkin Day mysteries! Larkin is an ex-theatre studies PhD reconstructing her life and trying to be a better person. (Armand Gamache from the Three Pines series is already a good person, a solid moral centre to the series. I like him very much, but I have much more sympathy for Larkin, who reminds me of myself twelve years ago - when I also flamed out off my PhD program and moved home to live with my parents.) I have bought, but haven’t yet started the new Larkin Day, Shakespeare in the Park with Murder. Given that I am a big nerd for 1) Shakespeare, 2) theatre, and 3) murder, I expect to enjoy the heck out of it, but you’ll want to start with Ode to Murder, which has Beethoven, baked goods and a victim you’ll love to hate.

  

• If you’ve skimmed down this list and are like, Karen, can you not recommend anything with less murder, yes! I can! Not only does Claws and Contrivances have less in the way of gruesome death, it ranks highly in the categories of delightful family shenanigans, hilarious fake relationships, and loveable magical critters. I have read and adored all of Stephanie Burgis’s adult works, but her Regency Dragons fantasy romances might be my favorites. The first is Scales and Sensibility, and it’s not necessary to read it to enjoy Claws and Contrivances, but why wouldn’t you?

Right. I’m going to finish making a cardigan, and then start writing the next book in the Wellywood Magic series, Witch Craft Services. I hope you find something above that might interest or delight you, and, regardless, that you take a moment this week to fill your own cup.

Let us drink life to the lees!