July 19, 2026

Rolling, rolling along

Hey, babes!

I write this from my grandparents’ kitchen counter with a melting bowl of neopolitan ice cream at my elbow, on the laptop I haven’t opened since setting up my office in the house. The keyboard that used to be so familiar feels weird under my fingertips. But we are here! This one will be brief.

The kittens are all weaning now, and 3 of the 4 are using the litterbox. They are being looked after by friends for this week as I am away visiting family. Yesterday, I hiked the Bridle Trail early in the morning with my aunt. In the evening, I enjoyed Trooper bingo with my aunt and mom. It’s the little things. A chance to slow down a bit. Detach from the day to day. Seek love at the source. Go to my favorite hometown coffee shop and enjoy the handmade dumplings at my favorite Chinese place.

You should know that I did not win anything at bingo.

I started watching a Korean dark fantasy series on Netflix called “The East Palace” which released this week. It is…. sublime. Intense. Monstrous. Eight episodes, and I have worked through half of them, and hope to watch the last few tonight and tomorrow night, then rewatch again.

I won’t get deep into writing updates other than to tell you that writing is happening, and I hope to share more with you soon.

As always, I appreciate you coming on this ride with me.

Before I leave you, however, I’ll drop July’s free book and the promo of the month:

Holly Weaver only had one hot dream about her three otherwise overbearing stepbrothers and has been jinxed ever since.

Okay, maybe it was more than just one dream.

But everything that could go wrong in her life since then has. She lost a job, a car, and a goldfish that very morning. But after a complete mental cleanse, with the help of her lovely life coach—okay, her local fortune teller, Fyre Spirit—she managed to set her house in order again, replete with only pure thoughts about puppies and candy and none about her three stepbrothers in any shape or form.

Now mutual friends of theirs are getting married, cue destination wedding, and they simply won’t accept Holly’s excuse of not being able to make it.

So now Holly has to calculate exactly how many bags of Fyre’s protection crystals she needs to lug around so as not to become jinxed all over again when she sees them again.

XOXO,

Mariah