Cover reveal for LAST MISSION TO PARIS! "Decades after serving as secret agents during World War II, three women reunite to uncover the truth behind the murder of their fellow agent in Paris." Publication date: January 19, 2027. us.macmillan.com/books/978125...

Good morning by Pil Hwa

The only acceptable use of Claude

$150K per song but $3K per book. This is fine.

Hope to see you at the Mystery Writers of America @mysterywriters.bsky.social NY/CT Spring Fling tonight at the Taylor Public House at 6! I'll be there with Noel—and possibly a raven named Edgar....

Talking about Wallis Simpson this week on the podcast with @melanieben.bsky.social - author of the new novel THE WINDSOR AFFAIR pod.link/1489560920/e...

THE NINTH CIRCLE pubs three months from today. And here's the first review, a great one from Kirkus! “Billy Boyle’s latest World War II mystery begins with a literal bang . . . A colorful history lesson embedded in a brisk action tale.” www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews...

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you." — Rumi, The Masnavi, 13th Century Dutch classical violinist Janine Jansen and mezzo-soprano Olivia Vermeulen perform Erbarme dich, mein Gott, Johann Sebastian Bach, St Matthew Passion, composed in 1727. 🙏🏼🌍🕊️

The @pbs.org documentary Natchez: Exposing the Myth of Southern Charm is one of the best I've ever seen, and as powerful and terrifying as any Jordan Peele film. Thank you to everyone who worked on it. Truly why "who lives who dies who tells [our] story matters. www.pbs.org/independentl...

Please join me and novelist Karen Odden, who will be speaking about her newest novel, THE ARTFUL DODGE. We're chatting online this Wednesday, May 27, at 5 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. ET. Hope to see you! (Sign up at the link below.) www.sohocrimelineup.com

So for the final post in my Sabbatical Reads blog series, why I'd add historical genre fiction to my prior two categories of historical fiction, & two takeaways from the Maggie Hope novels about how this subgenre works! blackwhiteandread.com/may-15-2026-...

Happy book birthday, @tiffanylwarren.bsky.social! Can't wait to read A HARLEM WEDDING! bookshop.org/p/books/a-ha...

Author, bookseller, and publisher friends: Please keep posting your positive stories about selling books through Bluesky, and I'll package them up and show them to publishers so that we can get more book publishers and even more authors and book conversation here!

"Bluesky? I don't even know what language they speak there. Isn't that one of those places where they still have Communism?"

Today's newsletter kicks off with A GOODREADS GIVEAWAY of 25 copies of my new book -- enter to win!! And there's all kinds of other fun stuff. @susaneliamacneal.bsky.social @edwinhillauthor.bsky.social @sohopress.bsky.social @jennifermoritakerr.bsky.social Read it here: mailchi.mp/29b3a10ff73c...

You don't even need to burn books if you own the publishers

It is becoming clearer to me that books, like dissertations, possess the unfortunate characteristic that you only understand how to write them after they’ve been written

All I want is a humble castle on the Irish coast, a crackling fire, a vintage mystery novel, an emotional support raven, a raging thunderstorm, a few purring cats, endless cups of tea, and a scandalous amount of freshly-baked pastries.

My latest. I’ve been watching the media coverage of the murders of Dr. Cerina Fairfax and Vice Mayor Nancy Metayer. One way media can fight back against male violence: If you kill your wife, you don’t get to be called a “husband” any more. You’re her killer. open.substack.com/pub/karenatt...

Who else will be at Malice Domestic next weekend? I'll be on a panel called "Making History," with these amazing novelists: Mally Becker @mallybeckerwrites.bsky.social, Michelle Cox, and Amanda Flower, and moderated by Joan Wright Mularz. Hope to see you! #malicedomestic #mystery #agathachristie

Mood:

"Rape Academy" — another painful, hateful, rageful day of being a woman. It's not *just* the 63,000 views. It's also that not one person reported anything. #rapeacademy www.cnn.com/interactive/...

It won’t solve the problem, but ensuring that book editors have ample time to thoroughly edit every single book on their lists would help. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/b...

I'm doing copy-edits now (for two different books!) and whenever I get to one of those (sadly correct) notes that identifies a timeline issue or a plothole, I'm basically like "Well, I guess I'll delete the book now and walk into the woods."

Trying to tell my son how wonderful Ciara is, and how awful West and Amanda are—and he finally looks at me and says, "Is this what it feels like when I talk about the Marvel universe to you?" #summerhouse

My friend is feeling down so I gave her permission to go further into it. Chunky knits. Lamb & parsnips for lunch. Chopin! Schumann! Rachmaninov! Drag nails along a corridor’s flocked wallpaper! Unloose a pack of dogs to skitter in a ballroom & sink to your knees in lament & say, “OH, WOE!”

When live gives you lemons, make Lemonpundcake.... #afroman www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xxK...

Mr. Churchill's Secretary ebook is now $1.99 on Amazon for a limited time. (And it's always free at your local library.) www.amazon.com/dp/B007R072G...

More news I am here for

Thank. you, Kate Quinn and @bookbub.bsky.social, for repping MOTHER DAUGHTER TRAITOR SPY www.bookbub.com/blog/books-k...

Those who are not exposed to reading techniques at a young age can struggle as they get older action.everylibrary.org/what_science...

“flowers bloom no matter war or peace”

if anyone needs me I'll be in the 𝙋𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙎𝙥𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚

Thank you, National Writers Museum, for including MOTHER DAUGHTER TRAITOR SPY in your March picks! americanwritersmuseum.org/awm-staff-pi...

The world is on fire, but #F1 racing is back, and for that tiny bit of joy, I'm grateful. Go Williams! Vamos!

I hope the footnotes are awesome/ fulsome! Full of the scholars and writers who have been researching, writing, lifting these early American women's histories for a long time. Because it is true that despite that work, too few people know enough history --and how "history" comes to us as it does.

February’s Crime & Mystery column is finally up and reviews new books by Yosha Gunasekera (wonderful), C. William Langsfeld, Devon Mihesuah, and the civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.

There was once a rabbit who dreamt of wild adventure, of liners sailing to Brazil, carrot fields in Norfolk, creameries in Normandy. I have a small life, he said. But before he died, he looked up at his beloved human & he realised that a life of love is never slight, not at all.

The U.S. men's hockey team is yet another reason why women choose the bear.

So the men's hockey team partied with Kash Patel and made a bunch of misogynistic jokes about the women's hockey team and yukked it up with Trump and tbh this is why I have a hard time caring about the Olympics because I need to see who you voted for before I expend any energy rooting for you.

I wrote a book! It's trickling out, already in some bookstores. And I'm doing a bunch of events for it (see below). More info on book in alt text.

You gotta admit, the staffers in the background keeping it real are the best part.

A huge part of being a writer is telling yourself you need a mental health day from work, and you spend that break writing, so… doing more work.

Thanks @Mollie Ann Cox for including Maggie Hope in "5 Clever and Compelling Heroines in Mystery Series" in @crimereads.bsky.social with Nancy Bilyeau @nancycb.bsky.social Mally Becker @mallybeckerwrites.bsky.social and Deanna Raybourn @deannaraybourn.bsky.social crimereads.com/5-clever-and...

the bushes were people 😂

Writing a novel is not a race....