Dear friends, creative souls, and fellow book devourers,
It’s my birthday month and I’ve just gotten back from a trip to my homeland, Aotearoa New Zealand, Land of the Long White Cloud.
In today’s post at MIRI AND THE MUSE—which serves as both my indie author newsletter and a personal journal into living a creative life filled with delicious glimmers—you will find:
An update from the writing cave.
A section on why face-to-face book signings are important to me as both an author and a lifelong book devourer
A reader giveaway for my LGBTQIA+ family hosted by C.L. Cannon.
A signed copy of LONELY KITTY is up for grabs.
Keep scrolling for a chance to nab your very own signed copy of the first book in my KNIGHTS OF DESTRUCTION shifter motorcycle club series below.
But first…
Will I be seeing you at MEET ME IN THE MOUNTAINS in Penrith next month?!
Visit their website to learn more about this awesome signing coming up fast.
Hello my lovelies,
I was lucky to have the chance to spend my birthday month in New Zealand, visiting with dear friends and family while also helping my Papa get on top of a number of things around our family home now that he’s back from visiting Italy.
The most notable DIY project was tackling the pool.
That’s right. We had to do a top-to-bottom scrub because this beast of a pool had gone to the dark side. I’m not kidding. In our absence, the pool had become a stinking green cesspit, so it took all hands on deck from three generations to get it back to the beautiful blue of yore. I’m proud to say that with plenty of patience and teamwork we got there in the end and reveled in the chance to swim in it once more.
Plus, the kids had an absolute blast catching the froggy residents who’d taken over and releasing them back into the wilds!
We also went on a family getaway at Lake Taupo which is in the center of the North Island.
(For anyone planning a trip or making a vision board for future holiday destinations, here’s a link to 100% Pure NZ website dedicated to Lake Taupo where you can learn all about this incredible part of the world.)
Our trip was packed full of glimmers and I’m very grateful we booked it in last minute. One wonderful week. No work, limited screentime, and lots of fun swimming, hiking, meeting up with friends and family, and eating our way through a selection of internationally-inspired waffles… the kids even got to try biscuiting!
(Lol. Look that one up. ‘Biscuiting’ is a leisure activity where they drag you behind a speed boat on an inflatable. This adventure came about when we discovered some of our cousins just happened to be in town on their summer holidays, too, and invited our kids to join in on the fun.)
This gorgeous lake has been a special gathering place for my family across multiple generations so it was really beautiful to have the chance to introduce the kids to some of our favorite spots.
Now that we’re back in Land of Oz—unpacked, gazillions of laundry loads have been fed through the washing machine, and we’re preparing for a new school year—I am gently bringing my mind and heart back to all the exciting book signings, author events, and nail biting, swoon-worthy stories I’ve got coming out this year.
First up, let’s talk TOASTY HALLOWEEN.
I can’t wait to share this hilarious romp with you featuring some of our favorite characters from the KNIGHTS OF DESTRUCTION. I’m working with my cover designer to create something fun for these short works. While K.O. Newman is working on the brief, I’ll start powering through my edits from Mariah Thayer.
It’s so close, my friends, I can taste it!
Which brings me to my final update for this newsletter…
Hold onto your bookmarks, folks, because MEET ME IN THE MOUNTAINS is right around the corner. If you are still on Facebook, they have an attendee FB group there as well.
With love,
M.S. xox
Two years on from my last signing—LOVE ON THE BEACH in the Gold Coast—and now I’m gearing up to see you again in less than two weeks. I’m excited, true, but it’s also a bittersweet moment because on the way home from that last signing was when I got a call from my folks with bad health news.
Looking back on it, I can see that this was the beginning of a breathtakingly fast slide which took Mum from hiking in the Italian Alps with us in October 2023 to dying of terminal cancer in April 2024.
Thus, going home and soaking in the peace of my family home for the first time since 2024 felt like a real ‘coming full circle moment,’ and this book signing will be the next.
So much is going on in the world right now.
Horrifying events and unspeakable torment is being unleashed on our fellow human beings right before our eyes. The values of democracy are being challenged, human rights are being trampled on, and the greater world balance is being tested.
I am desperately aware many of my friends and book devourers—near and far—have not been able to catch a breath. Many have had to flee their birth country to escape prejudice and seek asylum. Others cannot leave and must weather the storm in place. For countless others, these scenes are all too familiar. The most recent layer in generations of lived trauma and pain caused by systemic violence and inequality.
Ultimately, this is why I decided to go back to doing signings this year.
Do I feel ready?
Not really.
And yet, I’m doing it anyway.
Because joy and community is our life blood.
Because I believe that in the darkest of times, we need art and the connective tissue of storytelling more than ever.
Because these brief moments of connection—where we get to meet, face-to-face—are sacred and need to be protected.
They open our hearts and connect us to what is truly important in this life. Each other. And they fuel us through the next news cycles, the next protest, and the countless hours of grassroots organization and community involvement we are diving into as we fight for each other’s rights and build the world we wish to see our children grow up in.
So tell me, my beautiful friends and fellow book devourers, will I see you at MEET ME IN THE MOUNTAINS? If not, I’d love to know if there is there an upcoming signing or bookish event you’ve heard about near you which you wish I could attend.
I’m thrilled to be able to tell you about this wonderful reader giveaway celebrating LGBTQIA+ sci-fi and fantasy. I enjoy participating in C.L. Cannon’s Reader Giveaways because the quality of prizes up for grabs are always mind blowing, as is the caliber of the participating authors.
Get your fine selves over to enter this giveaway, stat!
Here’s what you need to do…
Save one or more of the teasers below (yes, the landscape postcard counts too, if that’s your favorite!)
Share it on your socials—Booktok, Instagram, Facebook, Substack, Bluesky or X… honestly, anywhere you gush about books—with one thing you love about these characters or my KNIGHTS OF DESTRUCTION at large.
Send me an email, drop me a comment below, or reply to our group chat on the Substack app with a snapshot or link of the post you made. Every share you send through—up to a max of three entries per subscriber—will get you a new entry!
A few things you should know:
I’ll keep this giveaway open until my next signing — MEET ME IN THE MOUNTAINS in February — so you’ll have plenty of time to space out your posts. This giveaway is open to my readers from all over the world and is being run by yours truly. Substack is not responsible nor affiliated with this giveaway in anyway and nor are any other social media companies or blogging platforms. Winners will be chosen by lottery using a random number generator. I will announce the winner on MIRI AND THE MUSE by the end of February and reach out to the lucky winner via DMs or email.
Eek, so excited for this. Good luck!
Happy reading, friends and fellow book devourers!
With love,
M.S. xox
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