Sisterhood of Sleuths will be published October 4. and I’ll be doing a mix of in-person and virtual events to celebrate . . .

Pre-order Sisterhood of Sleuths from my local independent bookstore by October 4 to receive a signed/personalized copy of the book, as well as a bookmark and stickers! Or, if you’re able to attend one of my upcoming in-person events, you can get a signed book with bookmark and stickers there too!

I’m excited to share the cover of my next middle-grade novel, Sisterhood of Sleuths! The cover was illustrated by Sarah Watts and art directed by Sasha Illingworth.

Here’s a bit about the book:

Maizy always assumed she knew everything about her grandmother, Jacuzzi. So when a box full of vintage Nancy Drew books gets left at her mom’s thrift store, Maizy is surprised to find an old photo of her grandmother and two other women tucked beneath the collection. Stranger still, when Maizy shows the photo to Jacuzzi she feigns ignorance, insisting the woman is someone else. Determined to learn the truth — and inspired by the legacy of Nancy Drew — Maizy launches her own investigation with the help of new friends, Nell and Cam. What they discover not only points to the origins of the iconic series, but uncovers a truth from the past that will lead to self-discovery in the present, connecting three generations of women.

This intergenerational mystery filled with literary history, friendship, and family secrets delivers a captivating tribute to the world’s most famous girl detective.

Sisterhood of Sleuths will be published September 27 with Christy Ottaviano Books/Little, Brown! Learn more or pre-order your copy here.

I recently visited my local indie bookstore The Wandering Jellyfish Bookshop and signed copies of all my books in hardback and paperback. If you’d like a copy, you can order online (if the web page hasn’t been updated to show all options, just call or email them), or stop in if you’re local. You’ll not only be supporting me, but a brand new (very awesome!) children’s bookstore in my area.

If you already have a copy of my books and would like a personalized bookplate (and/or a bookmark and stickers), email me at fromthemixedupfiles@gmail.com and I’ll be happy to send you one.

This year for newsletter subscribers, I’m sharing about my process as I work on my next middle-grade mystery. I’ll repost here on my blog a few weeks after they appear in the newsletter, but if you want to follow my writing process closer to real-time, or you don’t want to miss out on my monthly Book Love giveaways, or you want to be the first to hear Book Scavenger updates and other bookish fun, then make sure to subscribe. I’ll be sending out a new one with the latest soon!

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I’ve come to the point in my revision process where I clean my office. No, seriously, that’s part of my process! With every draft of every novel I’ve written, there is always a point (or multiple) where the clutter and piles and pet hair build up around me as I work and then I can’t stand it anymore.

So, I clean my office.

You might be saying, that’s housekeeping, not part of writing! Or maybe it sounds like procrastination. But I think of it as part of the revision process, because I see meaning in it. There is a reason why I can ignore the clutter and piles and pet hair for a stretch of time, and then suddenly can’t anymore.

Right now, my thoughts about my revision are feeling jumbled. It’s like, in the beginning, you have a map and you know your destination. But then the directions get complicated, and there are multiple routes you could take, and you might be looking at the map upside-down for awhile there. It can feel hard to make sense of which way you’re going. And for me, writing in a messy office is like trying to make sense of that map while in fast-moving traffic on a freeway. There’s just too much going on. And when things feel chaotic inside my head, it helps me focus better if what’s around me doesn’t feel chaotic too.

This wasn’t a major deep-dive, super-detailed cleaning session, mind you. All I did was move the piles out of my office, relocate anything that belonged in another room, throw away or recycle the obvious stuff, vacuum, mop, dust my desk, and then move the piles back in. If I really wanted to procrastinate, there is plenty more cleaning and organizing that could be done. Things are still jumbled in my head, but now it feels like I’ve exited the freeway and can focus better on where I’m going.