A new mystery for Christmas
Full disclosure, I’m watching a Lindsay Lohan Christmas movie as I write this week’s update—and I put up our tree yesterday.
I’m an unashamed Christmas fan and love decorating for the holidays. I also love the terrible acting and silly storylines in Christmas movies.
I’ll give you the verdict on Falling for Christmas at the end of my update, but it’ll have to work extra hard to overtake last year’s winner of the best/worst Christmas movie (Christmas on the Farm!).
What I’m writing
In the spirit of the holidays, I’ve been working on a Lady Clues Christmas short story this week. At the moment it’s called Lady Clues and the Christmas Thief, and you’ll be able to read it for free in mid-December!
I’ve been having great fun researching The Savoy hotel in London at Christmas time as that’s where the story is set.
I’m still trying to find out how much it cost to dine at The Savoy for Christmas. I suspect it didn’t cost $485 like it does today!
More on Lady Marigold
This week I’ve been so thankful for everyone who has bought or borrowed A Roaring Murder.
I’m still pinching myself that my story is out in the world and reading your lovely reviews to my family has been an absolute highlight.
A few people have messaged me that they can’t wait for Lady Marigold book two. That’s spurred me on in writing the first draft. I’m a quarter of the way in and having so much fun continuing the story.
Lady Marigold and friends aren’t everyone’s cup of tea though. I had a one and a two-star rating that knocked the wind out of my sails for a moment, but I don’t think there’s an author who hasn’t had a few of those so I’m in good company.
This week’s recommendations
Reading
One of my favourite 1920s historical mystery series is Magda Alexander’s Kitty Worthington mysteries. In the latest, Murder at the Tower of London, Kitty is asked to investigate after a royal prince is assassinated at the Tower and Kitty is his next target!
My second recommendation is for the latest book in Colette Clark’s Penelope Banks mystery series. It’s called A Murder After Death and it’s set in 1920s New York. Penelope “Pen” Banks has just been hired by one Winston Waterstone…who has been dead for almost two months. This, according to his wife, who is still very much alive…
Watching
The Crown. I wasn’t feeling too enthused about it, to be honest, because the writing in season four was a big letdown. It’s much better in season five though and there were only a few times when I thought “as if that would have happened”. That might have been because the War of the Wales was such a melodrama. As we inch closer to the loss of Princess Diana watching the show makes me feel sad for her and the boys.
Listening
I’ve been trying to save up audiobooks and podcasts to listen to on the plane when we fly from Sydney to Frankfurt, but I’ve still been listening to by weekly favourites like The Happier Podcast, Chat 10 Looks 3 and Mamamia Out Loud.
Cooking
I’m slowly making my way through the fabulous cookbook by one of my all-time favourite food bloggers—Nagi from Recipe Tin Eats. She’s so lovely and her recipes always have a video to follow which is so helpful.
Doing
Lots of spring cleaning to get the house ready for our pet sitters. Also, it will be lovely to come home from holidays to a tidy and organised house. I also need to think about what I’m going to pack!
That’s it for this week’s update, but before I go, the verdict on Falling for Christmas is it was beautiful to look at and to fun watch, but the production value was way too high for a Christmas movie. There was no dodgy CGI (see NYC scenes in Christmas on the Farm) and also not enough cheesy dialogue 🙂
Until next week, I hope all the stories you read are great ones and if you liked this email—why not tell your friends about it? Send them this link!