Sheltie Gazette: The secret board game in my WIP 📝
Jun 08, 2026 3:43 am
Hello, book-ish friends—
What does a writer do to keep herself entertained while she's deep-sea diving in the middle of a manuscript? Well, I don't know what everyone else does, but sometimes I keep myself entertained with absurd names. They get removed from the final draft, so pretend this is a secret message written in invisible ink. 🤫
I spent May buried under end-of-year graduation activities (how is he grown up already?!?) and now am spending June burying myself in my my next manuscript — due in one week! I knew that dropping everything to spend time with family would mean that I would have to drop everything else to write, so it's late nights and lots of tea for me!
But first...
The algorithm made me do it 😭
I have bad news... I think I'm going to have to delay the release of Oona and the Swan (if the tech demons will let me do it!). It's not because it's not going to be ready in time; I'd love to send this out to you. But the release date is too close to what my publisher has scheduled for The Bonnet Brigade, and frankly, my friends, the algorithms are mean right now.
Small authors are having a terrible time getting any eyes at all on their book, and both Meta and Amazon like to see consistency. In other words, it's hard to talk about two things at once, because even though we are human beings and can hold two things in our heads at once, computers like to reduce us to one thought. So I'm going to delay Oona's flight into the world and keep my fingers crossed that she'll be able to fly so much farther that way.
Meanwhile, do you think I should get a new cover while we wait? I had this designed going deliberately for the down-home-charm, old-school kind of fairy tale cover.... do you think it would be better modernized or you like it like this?
Travel to Istanbul with a "story of a marriage" romance
I have a secret for you.... when I was first deciding to throw my hat into the ring and attempt to become a professional author, this was the story I was dreaming of telling.
In 1820, it takes months to get word between London and Istanbul. With letters crossed (and a scheming father) Rose ends up getting a ticket to sail across the entire ocean and marry a man she kind of liked from a party last fall. Marriage is completely different from what Rose ever expected, Rose is different from what Owen expected....and then mix in a vengeful boss, a women's sanctuary, and an abusive Muhtar..... all set in one of the world's most dramatic, cosmopolitan, and beautiful cities.
That's not a blurb, it's just an idea-dump, but really the part that lodged in my heart was the characters. Rose and Owen were just so intensely who they were, and the secondary characters just LEAPED out and told me all about themselves.
But then there are the tertiary characters. The book's current title is THE AMBASSADOR & THE ARCHITECT — Owen is the architect, and Rose is a metaphorical sort of ambassador. There are several groups of people, so I've looked up lists of Turkish names (and gotten perplexed permission from my publisher to use Turkish diacritic marks). But then for the European community...
Well, there was one military figure who needed to come check on Owen. I wrote "Colonel" and then couldn't stop thinking.... Mustard. Now, that's not bad. Mustard is a possible English name.
But then I had to name all these other people, some of whom remain in the background and some get a few speaking lines. And it was late at night. And I got silly.
So far, we have The Hon Mrs Peacock (and her daughters), Mrs Scarlette, Mrs Plumley, and the downstairs neighbors, M. and Mme. LeBlanc. As you can see, I have room for one more named European, and they have to be green.
I am really getting a huge kick out of my Clue characters wandering all over Istanbul in the 1820's. I'm going to have trouble ctrl-find-and-replacing them all! Maybe in my special-newsletter-exclusive story, I'll have to have a Mr Bouddy.
Looking for some Celtic adventure?
If Istanbul is too hot for you in the summer, check out these fr*e Celtic fantasies! This is a small group of books, but they all look like thoughtful stories that will immerse you in legend and lore.
A grumpy-sunshine dog for my grumpy-sunshine romance
Did you know that now apparently it's called a reverse grumpy-sunshine if the girl is the grumpy one? Why is that reversed? Have you not encountered any grumpy females in your life, because I know I have!
Anyways, my dogs are all male, and they're mostly all cinnamon roll heroes — the official definition is "tough on the outside, sweet on the inside" but my dogs go with "sweet all the way through" and my MMC's (male main characters) go with "eclectic and neurodivergent on the outside" but we can ALL AGREE that we need to be sweet in the middle.
Except Inish.
This is me attempting to look cute with Inish. Notice his aggrieved expression.
When Malin tries to sit on the couch next to me, Inish is MORE than aggrieved. He is distressed. Irate. He puts the grump in grump. A different dog taking HIS PLACE ON THE COUCH next to HIS PERSON is what Inish spends his ENTIRE LIFE concerned about.
Malin is like, whatever, I want to sit here for three minutes. Then I'll move on with my life. The only reason I'm not growling back is that I just can't be bothered, thanks.
This is not me. This is not my child.
This is one my of my piano students, and Inish came in from playing outside and decided that under the piano bench is a SAFE AND COMFORTABLE place for his next nap if everyone else can PLEASE GET OUT OF HIS WAY mmkay thanks bye.
A minute later, he stretched out so that his head was under the pedals, because in his current position he was not forcing anyone to work around him.
Inish advocates that my next fairy-tale retelling needs to be "The Princess and the Pea."
He will be the princess. He will be sure to keep the dramatic tension high by complaining frequently.
Then, he will eat the pea.
Meanwhile, if you want fairy tales and exotic atmosphere...
...Make sure you've read my Castle in Kilkenny series! I've got family-focused novellas and full-length romances, depending on your mood. And so many dogs.
My timer has gone off and I need to convince my kid to practice piano, so I'm off! Happy reading!
