Hey Reader,

Happy Spooktober! Fall is in the air here in the Pacific Northwest, and I for one am excited for the return of cozy season.

Unfortunately, cozy season is also flu and cold season. I managed to catch a cold recently that knocked me flat and spent far too many days curled up in bed drinking lots of soup and tea. On the plus side, I made progress on my TBR pile, though I admit I wasn't in the mood for much other than comfort reads.

Being stuck at home was also good motivation to get lots of words written! Which brings me to...

WIP

Draft 2 of the WIP is currently sitting at about the halfway mark, which means I'm currently at the point where I think it's the worst thing I've ever written. Of course, I HAD to go and make it harder on myself by realizing what the book needed was...a second POV.

On the bright side, I have discovered the magic of sprinting! Sprinting, in case you didn't know, is the technique of working in short, focused bursts. Somehow, by putting my damn phone down, I've managed to almost double my daily word count. Funny how that works.

How do I stay so disciplined, you ask (because you totally asked)? I've been using an app called Focus Friend, which is basically a fancy timer, but you get a little bean friend that lives in a house. When you focus, the bean knits socks, which you can exchange for home decorations. Is it ridiculous? Yes. Does buying the bean a new bookshelf give me that sweet, sweet dopamine? Also yes.

If you upgrade to the paid version, you can lock certain apps on your phone, but personally I've done fine with the free version.

Also, you can name your bean friend. I called mine "the horror", which means I now get notifications like this:

Recent Reads

In honor of Spooktober, here are some of my favorite recent spooky reads!

A woman who returns home to help her uncle run his museum discovers a whole other dimension hidden in the walls. In keeping with Kingfisher's style, the writing is sharp and witty, and I would say this book is fairly low on the creepy scale, probably closer to dark comedy than horror.

When Cora Zeng's sister is murdered in an anti-Asian hate crime during the COVID-19 pandemic, the killer whispers two words before pushing her in front of a train: bat eater. Months later, Cora begins finding bat carcasses while working as a crime scene cleaner. As the Hungry Ghost month begins, dark connections surface between the deaths Cora is sent to clean up and her sister's murder.

A group of employees at the Orsk furniture superstore volunteer to work an overnight shift to find out who's been damaging store merchandise, only to realize that there's more to the store than meets the eye. Make sure to get the physical book because this is an EXPERIENCE! It's designed to look like a furniture catalog from a certain real-life retail store, complete with obscure assembly diagrams and fake discount vouchers.

Cool Non-Book Stuff

Here's a spooky month nerd fact!

​Carl Chun, the German marine biologist who discovered the vampire squid, was injured and suffered for years before passing away, after a deer trophy fell off the wall onto him.

My guess? The vampire squid did it.

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Until next time!

G