Two years ago, I dragged a chair into a sunny spot in the driveway and started brainstorming a new project. I was waiting for notes from my agent, uncomfortable with any free time (Gray used to say I always had to “fill my box,” no matter how much I looked forward to relaxing after finishing something), and itching for something to do.
What I wanted, specifically, was a way to talk about my books and the books I loved in a format that wasn’t The Lauren Letter. At the time, The Letter was sporadic and purely self-promotional: here are my new releases, tour dates, etc.
I wanted something different. A community that supported other authors by recommending their books, interviewing them about their work, and publishing their essays on the craft: essentially everything we’re asked to do pre-pub, but in a way that felt celebratory and under our control.
I had that familiar stuttering heartbeat I get whenever I’m excited about something—the kind that means I’m already committed and will figure out the logistics later, because anything else would feel like failure. (Does anyone else do this to themselves? I blame grad school.)
But keeping up with the volume of new releases every month felt impossible. For reference: the Library Journal list of prepub thriller titles had 22 for January 2026 alone. And that number is nowhere near comprehensive.
So I started reaching out to friends about sharing the workload. Collaborating made reading all of those phenomenal, attention-deserving books feel manageable. Exciting. Even fun.
Here’s the note I sent two years ago (and yes, apparently I did send it on tax day):
Now Thriller Thursday is wrapping up its second year. We’ve grown to over a thousand subscribers, published 36 author interviews, and recommended 150+ books.
None of this would have been possible without the people who said yes.
And it reinforced something I keep coming back to: if I’m looking for something, other people probably are, too.
I started a book club with that same mindset. It’s grown from six women to nearly twenty and, for many of us, has become a kind of “church,” a place of regular community, and the event we most look forward to each month.
And speaking of books and book club…
A few books I’ve loved lately.
Kin by Tayari Jones: We read this for book club, and it was universally loved, which had me patting myself on the back, since it was my pick. It follows Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, and the different directions their lives take: one to Spelman College in Atlanta, the other in search of the mother who left her as a baby. It’s heartwarming and heart-wrenching in equal measure. Highly recommend!
We Would Never Tell by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau: Glitz, glamour, gossip, and murder on the French Riviera. This was such a fun, perfect-for-warm-weather read. Set against the backdrop of Cannes, the story unfolds through assistants, stylists, junior publicists, and struggling actresses working behind the scenes. Told in what I think of as The White Lotus fashion, we know from the start something has gone terribly wrong, but not who died, who’s responsible, or how it all unraveled. A brilliant exercise in strategic withholding.
Dear Mother by Rea Frey: A suspicious fire, an isolated cabin in Washington, and a daughter determined to uncover the truth, this is Rea at her best. Dear Mother is propulsive, emotional, and every twist lands harder than the last. Just when you think you’ve solved the mystery, another revelation sends the truth spiraling in another direction. Dark, emotional, and intensely gripping, it will haunt you long after the final page!
If you’re in Nashville, come hear me in conversation with Rea at her book launch at Parnassus Books on April 28th! Details and RSVP here.
What’s keeping me up at night.
Young Sherlock: I often get stuck in indecision paralysis whenever I try to pick something new to watch on tv. So I love a show with long episodes I can stretch out and forestall the task of having to choose again. Young Sherlock gets bonus points for having just one season (for now), which meant no multi-month binge commitment. Directed by Guy Ritchie, the show has all the whip-smart dialogue and fun action you’d expect and is based on a series of young adult novels by British author Andrew Lane, adding teenage years to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock oeuvre. I particularly loved seeing the young friendship between Sherlock and the man who will become his nemesis, James Moriarty. Add to that the appearance of Joseph Fiennes (was anyone else obsessed with Shakespeare in Love in high school?) as Sherlock’s father and the fact he’s the real-life uncle of the actor, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, who plays our protagonist, and I was charmed by the playful, action-filled adaptation.
The little things that make a big difference.
This Pomodoro timer was given to me by a Hinge date. The date went nowhere, but the timer goes with me everywhere. If you’re unfamiliar with the Pomodoro technique, it’s a time management method developed by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s that involves breaking work into short, highly productive intervals. The name pomodoro, comes from the Italian word for tomato, based on the tomato-shaped kitchen timer while Cirillo used while a university student. This timer is not shaped like a tomato, but once I set it, I’m not allowed to pick up my phone, answer emails, or get up for a snack until it beeps. It’s amazing what I can accomplish in 45 minutes without distractions!
A monthly dispatch from our household’s most opinionated resident.
Bowie is learning to stay “out” of the kitchen in exchange for blueberries. We’ve started calling this little spot on the rug his “magic blueberry spot,” because he now believes any time he sits there, a blueberry will appear!
This month’s highlight is Rea Frey and her latest book, Dear Mother. Rea is a dear friend (see what I did there?), and I can’t recommend her book enough. She scrapped her initial manuscript and revised the entire novel in two weeks. 2 WEEKS! I can’t even fathom. But she did it. And the result is the page-turning suspense, I recommended above.
Snag Your Copy of Dear Mother Here!
Rea has a newsletter where she unveils the secrets of publishing. From bestselling novels to book coaching, she shares the raw truth of writing, publishing, and what it really takes to succeed. You can subscribe to her newsletter here.
She also demystifies the author life and breaks down how authors turn their various skillsets into lucrative careers in a recent essay for Thriller Thursday. See, collabs continue to be a theme!
And just in case you missed the invite above: Come hear us in conversation at the Dear Mother launch, April 28, at Parnassus Books! RSVP.
A few updates from the author life.
If you want to get more out of the stories you consume, join me for an online Symposium tomorrow, April 22, on how to read like a writer. Also, if you missed last month’s Symposium with Rea Frey on how to collaborate on a book project, you can find our talk here.
Publishers Weekly called Indie Darling an “empowering thriller.” It’s the first trade review, and reading it, I breathed a sigh of relief. (They were not kind to my debut, The Resemblance, which they called “impassioned if overwrought”—and yes, that line has stuck with me!) Reading this though, I was practically glowing.
I’m planning a party for the Indie Darling book launch Nashville-style, which means not just a reading and book signings, but also live music and a surprise musical guest!
For more frequent updates and photos of Bowie, follow me on Instagram.
Thank you, as always, for reading and sharing this little corner of the internet. This letter box wouldn’t mean much without the people who open it.
Until next time,
—Lauren
P.s. Tell me something good you’ve read, watched, or discovered lately.
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