My cover reveal + Agatha + choosing restaurants

Aug 1, 2021

May I recommend

Checking out the cover of my novel!

Isn’t it pretty! Isn’t it exciting?

Can you not wait to read it? (March 2022).

That’s the GD Eiffel Tower because it’s set in Paris! That’s a pretty wallpaper-y pattern because it’s about beautiful things that get lost and important truths that get found. Gasp! Amy did you just come up with that line in the frenzy of excitement you are feeling about this cover? Yes, yes I did. I am psyched!!!

Did I ever think this would actually happen? No, no I didn’t!

Tell me what you think in the comments below!

The joys of Agatha

Queen of Crime: How Agatha Christie created the modern murder mystery

I love Agatha Christie novels, as I alluded to in last week’s newsletter. As a kid I read every one of her mysteries available at the Cowansville Municipal Library. More recently, I read a bunch of them in French as a way to practice my comprehension skills and feel smug that I ALREADY KNOW who the killer is, because I remember enough about the English versions I read thirty years earlier to suspect the invalid step-mother, the innocuous neighbour or the beautiful redhead with the flashing eyes.

This spring I was working on a retelling of Murder on the The Nile, but set in the 1980s… I’ve shelved it for now, because my characters weren’t gelling, but I’d love to write the kind of smart, cozy stories where everything gets neatly tied up in a satisfying bow by the end. There is real skill and craft to this work and Agatha was the queen.

They are assembled—maybe eight or nine people—in a small place: a snowbound train, a girls’ school, an English country house. Then—oh no! A body drops. Who did this? And why, and how? Among those gathered, or soon summoned, is a detective, who says that no one should leave, please. He then begins questioning the people concerned, one by one. In the end, he collects all the interested parties and delivers the “revelation”: he names the murderer and the motive and the method. Almost never does the culprit protest. Occasionally, he goes off and commits suicide, but as a rule he confesses (“God rot his soul in Hell! I’m glad I did it!”) and exits quietly, under police escort. Anyone who has ever seen a Charlie Chan movie, or played Clue, or, indeed, read a detective story of the past half century will recognize this scenario, created by Agatha Christie, the so-called Queen of Crime, in the nineteen-twenties.

This terrible dance

With God as my witness, I will not pick the restaurant

Just pick a restaurant…

B: I am equally chill and easygoing. You could take me to a restaurant where the waiters slap you in the face.
A: You could take me to a restaurant that only serves ice cream cones children dropped on the ground.
B: You could take me to a restaurant that’s on Mars and I’d never see my family ever again.
A: Is that a restaurant you’re recommending?
B: How dare you. Giving even the slightest hint of recommending a restaurant implies I think I should wield the power of a tyrannical god. Out of the kindness of my heart, I bequeath the honor and the privilege of picking the restaurant to you.

The delight of the nap

7 secret benefits of an afternoon nap

You know I love a nap, but if I can’t convince you, maybe this article will:

Surrendering control
When we believe we’re the source of everything right and good, we start to think the world might stop spinning on its axis if we don’t keep it going. Imagine the exhaustion. (And the arrogance?) When we let go and nap, we acknowledge, at least for a moment, that life keeps going just fine without us—a good reminder for all of us now and then.