It’s been a hot minute, friends. Sorry I dropped off the (blog) map for a bit; I needed a little pause and reset. The last few weeks have not been quite the reset I hoped, but I felt like it was time to pop back in here and say hi. We’ll see how it goes. I’m in my “give yourself grace and do what feels joyful” era. This year’s had a bit of a rough start – safe to say, collectively as well as personally – so I think this is the right attitude for the times. I’ll say no more, because I don’t want to turn this into a therapy sesh. I’ve had a few good ones lately (with a new therapist, who is amazing!), so you guys are off the hook 😉

In exciting news, my second book, Murder Takes a Holiday, is coming out in ebook and paperback on Tuesday, March 24! I’m testing out a new approach and making the ebook available on Kindle Unlimited. It does mean, sadly, that it will remain an Amazon-exclusive for the next 3 months. I am hoping for a “wide” release after June.

I won’t say more about my writing journey for the time being; it’s been a rollercoaster ride since the publication of A Party to Murder, but I will save the details for another time.

I will leave it here: if you read A Party to Murder and enjoyed it, I think you will love Murder Takes a Holiday and I would love for you to read it. Your support (and reviews!) mean the world.

Remember my goal to reduce phone screen time? Yeah, I really dropped the ball on that. Seeing a recent weekly screen time summary was a wake-up call … again. So I am bringing fresh energy to tackling this! I’m pairing this goal with one to slow things down. I’ve been in “go, go, go” mode since January 2025 and I’m perilously close to serious burnout. I want and need to (re)learn how to do, well, nothing. Nothing “productive”, that is.

I still have things I want to accomplish this year, but I am going to let up on the gas pedal for a bit, and give myself a bit of breathing room. I should have been doing that over the winter, to be honest – winter is the perfect time to hibernate and rest – but I didn’t because … I like to make my own life more difficult, hah. So, instead, I am going to focus on bringing balance back into my life this spring. Balance between doing and being.

I also want to make more time for hobbies like reading and thrifting, because both have kinda fallen by the wayside lately. I know what you’re thinking: ‘even thrifting??’ Yes, even thrifting. I have a lot of thoughts about the current state of thrifting, but I’ll save those for another time. I do want to reignite my enthusiasm for the treasure hunt. Thrifting helped to reframe how I looked at the world; in particular, helped to fix the idea that there is beauty everywhere, including in overlooked places.

And I need to get back into reading for fun! After the holidays, I fell into a slump. Then, recently, I finally got around to reading E.F. Benson’s Mapp & Lucia series, and that reminded me of how delightful and fun reading can be. I cannot recommend it enough if you need a cozy, humorous escape. Imagine if Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse had a baby, and that is the delight that is the incomparable Lucia (social queen bee of her picturesque small English village) and her rival Miss Mapp.

It’s hard to believe we are nearing the end of March because the weather has been so atrocious, but there are signs that we might be turning the corner. And, of course, with the Equinox, spring is officially here! I cannot tell you how excited I am to embrace my warm weather wardrobe again. I need a change … and a break from my sweaters. Yeah, I said it. Sorry, sweaters – I still love ya, but we need some time apart. Like, say, 6 months or so?

Have a great weekend!

A short work week and it’s almost the end of February all of a sudden? It’s like Christmas all over again. I kid, I kid. But I had a mostly good time and that’s worth celebrating these days.

I’m gearing up to finish the behind-the-scenes technical stuff so that Murder Takes a Holiday can go up for pre-order by the end of the month! I’m so excited about it! For everyone who loved A Party to Murder, I think you are going to really enjoy this one. It will be officially out at the end of March … which is coming right up. Whoa.

[I’m currently editing book #3 in the series and honestly? It might be my favorite yet. You’ll have to wait a little while longer to read it though ;)]

My reading has slowed way down because I’ve been going HARD with my writing, but I did manage to finish The Scapegoat: The Brilliant, Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham by Lucy Hughes-Hallett. It’s a chonker of a doorstopper of a book but it was brilliant. I love how vividly Hughes-Hallett paints the portrait of not just George Villiers (a fascinating figure) but also his milieu – his family, friends, patrons and lovers, rivals and enemies, and various associates. It’s an engrossing glimpse into the 17^th century, the history and the psychology of the age.

Doomscrolling on IG (yeah, that’s not going great) I came across a bunch of videos from Chinese content creators talking about the Year of the Fire Horse, and one of my big takeaways is that (as someone born in the year of the Monkey) it is good to wear white, blue, and earth colours in 2026 to balance our the fiery energy.

Blue and earth colours, you say? What, like … brown? Hmm …

SIGN ME UP, BABY!

Have a great weekend!

It’s been over a month since I published my debut novel, so I thought it was a good time to reflect on my experiences (so far) as an indie author. If some of you are thinking about writing your first book, I hope you will find some inspiration, along with realistic sample data, for your own journey.

I’ll start with the amazing bits.

People – dozens of them, at least – have read my book. They. Have. Read. My. Book. The words I wrote down. It still blows my mind a little, every time I think of that. Better yet, people* enjoyed it! The messages I’ve received have been so reassuring: for the right reader**, A Party to Murder offers exactly the kind of experience I set out to create. I love hearing readers’ impressions and thoughts about the plot and the characters, and seeing my creations through their eyes.

Lately, I have been trying really hard to stay away from reviews posted online. Reviews are for other readers, not authors, and I don’t want to get hung up on ratings and rankings. [More on that in a minute.] But, like most writers, I struggle with the push-pull of wanting to know readers’ reactions, while at the same time, not wanting to be unduly distracted by others’ opinions. ‘Not every book is for every reader’ is a mantra I have to repeat to myself more and more, as reviews and ratings continue to pile up. I try to look at all of them, regardless of the number of stars, as evidence of my book’s journey out in the world.

From the outset, I had pretty modest ambitions for A Party to Murder – a debut novel from an unknown author – and I am glad for that. I was able to meet my sales goals and feel a modicum of accomplishment from that. It helped to offset some of the inevitable disappointment that has cropped up. Sales tapering off, reviews trickling in very slowly, lots of radio silence, hazards and challenges of marketing and promotion in an over-saturated market, uncertainty about the outlook of my future books. Being a self-pubbed author is not for the faint of heart (any more than trying to be traditionally published is; it’s only different). One of the hardest parts of the process has been to stay the course in terms of purpose for writing, against the noise of external influences, voices, opinions.

By necessity, I have to keep a toe in bookish and writerly spaces, and they are a constant source of self-doubt. What I mean by that is: readers want all kinds of different things from the books they read, and writers want all kinds of different things from the books they write. It is quite easy to be swayed by their views. Ultimately, though, letting yourself be guided by other people’s values and priorities is a recipe for disappointment and disillusionment. I’ve had to re-learn – over and over – the importance of charting one’s own course, even when one must do so against the current. It’s vital … but not easy. Oh, no.

You know what’s easy? Getting down in the dumps and languishing there. Having done a fair bit of that already, I’m resolved to stay out of it moving forward.

I have a lot of things to look forward to! My second book, Murder Takes a Holiday is coming out in just over a month, and I am very excited about it. I just finished working with my editor on the final revisions, and she told me she thought it was even better than A Party to Murder. As I’m going through the proof-reading now, I must say that I agree with her 🙂 And next up will be my first standalone fantasy mystery – a fun little genre-bending cozy romp, if I do say so myself. Currently titled The Mysterious Affair at Gaunt Hall, it’s tentatively scheduled for a June release … which means I have a LOT of work to do in the coming months. And that’s not accounting for the other 3 books in various stages of completion or the couple new books I’m hoping to write this year. Sounds a bit mad? It probably is. Wish me luck, lol!

At this point, you may be asking, “Adina, why are you doing all this?” And, honestly? The answer is: because I can. My books are like little trophies I make for myself – for the joy of making them and the joy of seeing them, looking all pretty and polished, on my shelf. And, yes, also for the joy of knowing that even a handful of people might read them and have a blast. Anything else is gravy.

That feels like a good note to end on 🙂

But let me open up the floor: if you have questions about self-publishing (or writing your first book), don’t be shy. Leave a comment or send me a message, and let’s talk!

* The ones I know about anyway, at least.
** Some who loves Golden Era murder mysteries as much as I do.