Welcome new subscribers
Get my books FREE - Join MJ's Cabin Crew
April Event - My first book signing
Little Free Library Tour - Sharing the love
Book Rec? - What book made you LOL?

Hi ,

First of all, I'd like to roll out the welcome mat to all the new subscribers who have signed up in the last month. So many of you! I hope you enjoy being part of this community. That being said, if you subscribed by accident or find that my monthly bookish content isn't for you, please feel free to unsubscribe below, no questions asked. Honestly! I would never force you to stay. 😆

Now, onto the good stuff.

All right, peeps. I've been SO busy since we last connected, mostly with writing-related endeavors, but also with a fun diversion, too (more on that below).

The biggest feat was finishing Book 2 and handing it over to a team of 13 beta readers–four huge fans of the first book (shout-out to Ginny, Steph, Janet, and Dawn!) and nine complete strangers who had not read Book 1. I'm thrilled to report that both groups came back with absolutely glowing reviews! Fortunately, as much as they loved it, they weren't shy about pointing out weak plot lines, character development issues, and a couple of scenes that made their eyes roll. Suffice it to say, those parts hit the cutting room floor pretty darn quick.

Three cheers for beta readers!

After taking many of their suggestions and reworking several scenes, I was able to send my editor a nicely polished manuscript last week. And just this morning, she sent me a quick note saying that she was "loving" what she was reading.

In the meantime, I've started checking things off my To-Do list. One of these tasks is to assemble my ARC team, and I'd love you to be a part of it! What's an ARC team, you ask? Well, it boils down to this...

It's a way you can read my novels for FREE.

That's right. If you join my Advance Reader Copy team, MJ's Cabin Crew, you'll be the first to read my new book and get exclusive access to future books (and even Book 1 if you haven't read it). All I ask is that you leave an honest, spoiler-free review on the platform of your choice: Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, and others.

Leaving a review–even a short & sweet one–helps lend credibility and gives other readers a reason to add a book to their TBR list. To learn more about the importance of reviews, check out one of my early blog posts, How to Tip Your Favorite Author.

So, if you're interested in joining MJ's Cabin Crew, click the button below. It will take you to a quick sign-up form to fill out.

If you'd rather not join the team but want to read TimeBlink, it's on sale for 99¢ until April 20 or on Kindle Unlimited until May 5.

Happy days! I've been invited to take part in my very first book signing event!

Having published my first novel in the middle of a worldwide health crisis, I could only ever dream about an opportunity such as this. So yeah, I'm excited (also a bit terrified) to go meet some readers face to face. And the bonus? I get to support a local, independent business at the same time.

If you're in the Edmonton High Street area on April 30, drop by Daisy Chain Book Co. to say hello anytime between 2 and 3:00.

A few weeks ago, my husband and I jumped into the car with our 15-year-old dog and drove 1200 kilometers to our hometown, Victoria, British Columbia. We would have flown, but Tetley has doggie dementia and we didn't want to leave him with unfamiliar people in unfamiliar surroundings. See the Instagram Reel for how it all turned out.

Along the way, we took the opportunity to stop overnight in Kelowna, Penticton, and Coquitlam to visit friends we hadn't seen in a while, ending in Victoria for five days. It was lovely spending time with everyone again and checking in on our elder family members.

During our stops, I thought it would be fun to write a personal note inside some of my books and donate them to select Little Free Libraries around town. We found this one in Kelowna. Isn't it adorable? To see the rest, you can watch my TikTok video here.

For unknown reasons, I've been digging into humor lately. It's a genre I don't normally gravitate toward, but I stumbled across a couple of fantastic books recently that I just couldn't pass up.

One of them was Fight Night by Miriam Toews. Like many of Toews' novels, it is written in a stream-of-consciousness style that may not appeal to everyone, but once you get past the first few pages, the deeply layered characters will suck you in.

The story is narrated by the spunky, precocious 9-year-old Swiv, who has just been suspended from school for fighting and has been tasked with writing a letter to her absent father. She lives with her heavily pregnant mother and her feisty, quick-witted grandmother whose antics made me laugh so hard I cried.

Don't get me wrong: This story is also quite dark and touches on heavy topics like mental health and suicide. But Toews has an uncanny ability to inject a sense of lighthearted mirth into such troubling topics as if they'd always come hand in hand.

The other hilarious book I've picked up recently is The Peculiar Language of Llamas by Carol Anne Shaw (a fellow indie author I found on TikTok of all places, and who, it turns out, lives about 45 minutes away from my hometown).

TPLL is a Young Adult novel also written from a young narrator's point of view, 15-year-old Myles Cook, whose newly-divorced father has picked up and moved them to a cabin on a small fictional island off the west coast of BC. I've just started it and am already thoroughly enjoying Myles' quirky adventures.

So now I'm looking for recommendations!

Let me know what novels have made you laugh so hard you almost peed yourself, be it a recent title like the ones mentioned above, or an old classic that never fails to entertain you.

Just reply to this email, and I'll be sure to include a list in next month's update.

📚

That's it for now, . As always, thank you so much for sharing this big, crazy adventure with me.

See you next month!