Greetings, book-ish friends and !

As you read this, I’m in New England visiting colleges with my son, so I prepared a quick and playful newsletter. If you’re here for the book news, scroll past the tongue-in-cheek Sheltie Iditarod story to find some book links — and stay tuned for the next newsletter, which will be a readers’ guide to famous Cozy Fantasy. Women’s fiction readers, I have a sweet mother-daughter freebie for you today.

But first — please reply to this email to enter my giveaway! I’m having a drawing for a Denik notebook with my custom artwork. All of my novels are outlined* on Denik notebooks because I love them so much. 

To enter, hit "reply" and:

• promise to write a review for one of my Castle in Kilkenny fairy tales
• or, join my ARC review team 
• for bonus entries, follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Substack 

You are also welcome to include where did you go to college, and would you go there again? (That’s not required for entry, it’s just on my mind.) I look forward to hearing from you!

*by “outlined” I mean “random ideas, bits of dialogue, and notes to self written at 1am by the light of that one app which doesn’t go into dark mode”

346 days to the next Iditarod: Choosing My Team

After cheering the last mushers into Nome, it only makes sense to choose my own Iditarod team — right? The most important thing for a joyful, successful Iditarod is choosing the dogs who truly want to race. Therefore, I have sorted through all the dogs I have ever owned, and selected which ones would enjoy the trail to Nome.

(Since clearly this exercise only exists in my imagination, I’ve included dogs who are no longer with us in this earthly world, but still alive in my heart.)

Malin ✅

Malin’s boundless enthusiasm to “do the next thing, let’s go, do it!”would last for many hundreds of miles. If he ever got tired, I would just need to tell him that there was a really suspicious bird around the next corner, and he would race forward to chase it away. Or a creek. Malin would run a thousand miles to bark at a creek.

Adare ❌

Adare would make it at least halfway just on his desire to be together and through three more checkpoints because it made me happy. But in truth, he really doesn’t like his feet touched, and mushers have to put on booties so the snow doesn’t make micro-abrasions on the dogs’ pads. The booties only last 50-ish miles so booties have to be changed frequently on the trail — mushing teams can go through 12,000 booties per year! Eventually, Adare would apologize profusely but request that I stop messing with his feet.

Inish ❌

No debate about this one. Inish is very easy-going, but he really hates being cold. Really, really hates being cold. He tells me that his feet stop working entirely. The Shetland Islands are as far north as parts of Alaska, but clearly Inish does not agree that his breeding prepares him for any weather more challenging than our living room. 

Monaghan ✅

Monaghan loved to run all day, every day, but even better — sled dogs get to eat 12,000 calories a day, and Monaghan would have done absolutely anything for that much food. As a house-dog, he was forced to resort to things like pushing chairs across the room so he could reach the counter, but even Monaghan would have been satisfied with the caloric intake of six grown men.

Killala ❌

This sweet princess was always able to find the softest place in the room. As soon as human-quality textiles hit the floor, she would nudge it to make a comfortable bed, preferably with a stuffy for a pillow. That way, she could keep track of her family (like any good herding dog) without going to the trouble of raising her head. She would be less than delighted at curling up in a pile of straw in the snow, so I would leave her at home, where my children always drop their clothes on the floor.

Donegal ✅

Doney would do whatever I asked him to, including running to Nome…as long as there was a pretty girl-dog in the harness in front of him. He would vote for getting stuck in a storm and being forced to hunker down in a cabin along the trail with three other teams, and he would emerge with 29 new best friends. However, “competitive” was never in his nature, so I’d have to put him in the middle of the line. Behind the girls.

Teelin ✅ ❌

Teelin used to go to work with me, and she always knew which students needed to roughhouse and which ones needed comfort. Some lessons, I would set her up in the teacher’s chair and she calmly watched the student playing piano, while I puttered at the opposite side of the room until the student regained their confidence and was ready to play for an actual human being. With her deep connection and trust, she would have been happy to run to Nome if I wanted her to.

However, with her excellent intuition, she would have known that I don’t truly want to. She would have chosen something that made me happy.

Since I don't want to spent two weeks doing hard physical labor as quickly as possible…I became a writer instead

When you read fairy tales, do you ever wonder how it feels to walk all day and battle all night? Probably at least as hard as mushing dogs for ten days on minimal sleep. In The Knight of the Terrible Valley and Aiden of Florida, Aiden is just as tired as any Iditarod musher, and stumbles into the final checkpoint—that is, having finally rescued his sisters—in a condition kind of like Dick Mackey stumbled into Nome in 1978. Aiden delivered his sisters to safety, but can Aiden himself make it home?

Get Aiden of Florida

Here’s some books to keep you busy…

…while you’re waiting for the next fairy tale retelling, or the next Iditarod. 

Just to balance out the mood, here's a heart-touching women's fiction novel. Is being 80 years old "out of time," or is there still the chance to deepen a mother-daughter relationship...and maybe even fall in love?

Get "Out of Time" for free

And here is some hopeful fantasy and sci-fi. If you’re in the mood for small cute animals other than dogs, you could try Priye (a cat-person) or Squeaky Hatchling (a baby dragon). Both were fun little reads!

Hope is a Slighter, Tougher Thing

Don’t forget to enter the giveaway!

As a newer author trying to launch a series, some reviews would help me so much! It doesn’t have to be complicated; just a few words makes a big difference for how the algorithms work. And I can’t wait to share this beautiful notebook with you! Just reply to this email that you’re willing to write a review. Thank you!

Christy & the Shelties ❤️

(who are, in fact, going no further than a nice circuit around the neighborhood)