Friday Reads 7.10.26

What I Did On My Summer Vacation

Hi, hello, happy Friday, and welcome back to another week of random thoughts on life and books. I’ve been off on sabbatical for a month, and while it was exactly the right thing to do, I missed you!

Sabbatical did, and did not, go according to plan. The main goal was achieved: I took the book from 54k to 80k, and have a solid plan for where it’s headed now. I’m hoping to wrap a draft by the end of the month, then I should have time to edit it into a book. Drafts are, by their very nature, a systematic wreck, and I will admit that, because of my surgery and all the other nutty things that have gone on this past year, I am still flying the plane while it’s being built. I’m used to a messy draft, but this has been one of the most difficult books I’ve ever written. Physical challenges aside, the characters simply would not give me their voice. I’ve forced it out of them at last, and I’m hopeful again.

In addition to adding 25k to the manuscript, I also did all my PR homework, which was a lot but also helped me conceptualize the new book; read seven books; did four podcast tapings; planned two trips; released two more Taylor Jackson novels (Judas Kiss and The Cold Room); and started back up with my yoga practice. I call that a win. (And also, clearly I needed this break, right?)

The enforced time away was helpful, without a doubt. But it was an afternoon, sitting on the beach, staring at the waves, that fixed me. It didn’t give me an idea, or a solution, or anything like that. It simply reset my autonomic nervous system and allowed my fight-or-flight response to start turning off. Before the trip, I told my therapist the depths of my struggle. It wasn’t just a creative block stymying me; it was life itself. These past several months have been insanity. Writing in a tornado isn’t possible. Not good writing, anyway. She pointed out that my body has been in fight-or-flight since last November when I had the knee replacement. She’s not wrong; it’s been a nonstop barrage of stuff since then, and I was crumbling under the pressure.

So I decided to step away. Stop trying to make everything work the way it was before and instead just be. Change my scenery. Stop pushing. Stop fretting and freaking out about the deadlines.

This is really the only thing a stressed creative can do. Step away, log off, and find the space, the margin, to breathe. To center. To let the reality you’re living in fade out and the calm of the natural world to come forward. It’s always there, waiting. Always open to your company. The sky and the stars will never tell you they’re too busy to get together or that there aren’t enough likes on that post. There is no need for a platform, a performance, a technological wonder. There is only the words, your thoughts, and the calm.

Sadly, we only got through a week of our planned three-week work vacation before we had to come back to deal with more family health issues, but at least I had that afternoon on the beach to stare into the waves and reset. Water, wind, sun—these are the best prescriptions for your body when it’s feeling frantic. If you want to hear more of my doctoring, I wrote extensively about my RXs for our overly busy lives in the June Newsletter.

I’ve been reading a lot, too. Just a note: my friends at Bound Booksellers had a catastrophe while moving into their new store last week. Most of their books were damaged by an overhead pipe bursting. All the book links are to their Bookshop store, where you can help get them back on their feet!

I do want to draw your attention to Ron Charles’s piece about Dua Lipa’s secret library of banned books. How very cool!

I finished The Correspondent and the second I closed the cover, completely lost control. I think that book was healing for me in so many ways. It takes a LOT to make me cry, and I was sobbing at the end. I knew what was coming and it still devastated me. In a world right now where emotions must be kept in check, it was gloriously freeing to let them go over a fictional woman.

I’m listening to Dungeon Crawler Carl and my workouts have never been so much fun. What a silly, adorable, meaningful story! I see how this series has overtaken the NYT list.

I read Someone Else’s Husband by Kimberley McCreight and it was great. I was entranced by the climb of Kilimanjaro, and McCreight’s own experiences as an adrenaline junky shine through.

I read Rock Paper Scissors and My Husband’s Wife by Alice Feeney, and I think she’s incredible. Her sleight of hand is some of the best in the business.

I have also started a galley of Victoria Aveyard's Tempest. In utter coincidence, this pirate-themed fantasy releases on the same day as The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon, a brilliant historical about Grace O’Malley. Two wildly divergent tales about female pirates—I’m telling you, great stuff.

I have a slew more books that I’m contemplating reading next, nibbling around the edges. I saw a great meme the other day of a basket of apples with a single bite taken from each—that is the book situation here. I need exactly the right story to capture my attention now, when I’m so deep into the final parts of my own.

So how’ve you been? Everyone doing well? What did you read this month that really stood out?

JTx

PS: Just found out Last Seen has been nominated for a Silver Falchion for Best Suspense! What an honor! Hope to see you at the Killer Nashville banquet!