Tales from the Book Nerd-1
…because we could all use a good book and a stiff drink.
Hello and welcome to my newsletter! First things first, The Dead Don’t Drink at Lafitte’s is out today (April 13th). I can’t wait for readers to join Sam and Clive on their latest adventure. I set much of this book in New Orleans because it’s one of my favorite cities in the world.
In the book, Sam wishes she could join some of the tours taking place in the French Quarter. Although Sam was never able to take one, I’ve been on many. I’ve taken the ghost tour, the vampire tour, the historic tour, the cemetery tour, the garden district tour, and the bayou tour. All were fabulous and made me love the city a little more.
I don’t borrow heavily from my own life for my writing, too much of an introvert, no doubt. The exception in this book being the shops and restaurants Sam visits, the psychic she meets in Jackson Square, and drinks at Lafitte’s.
Sam visits Café Du Monde for beignets as often as she can. One particularly memorable time some friends and I were sitting at a table eating our beignets when the Jazz Funeral Band marched by. It felt like a quintessential New Orleans moment. The restaurant where Sam eats breakfast by herself is Brennan’s. My husband and I had an amazing dinner there one night, topped off with Bananas Foster.
As for the psychic, I had my palm read in Jackson Square. The psychic told me my next love would be 6’8†with blond hair and blue eyes, but that it wouldn’t last because, and I quote, “you know how you are.†Um, what the heck? How am I? Well, I met a man a few months later. He was 6’8†with
light hair and blue eyes and we’ve been married for eighteen years. Suck it, psychic!
And Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop & Bar? I’ve enjoyed more than my share of cocktails in the dark, low-ceilinged bar. New Orleans is a magical city. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend a trip to Louisiana.
Next up: The Wicche Glass Tavern is out October 5, 2021.Sam and Clive will be back in San Francisco for book 3.
*A note about the word wicche. I’ve seen a few reviews questioning the spelling. It’s actually a gender-neutral, medieval word for a magical person. I didn’t want to use witch and wizard. I wanted one term for all.
Book Recommendation Corner
As I’m also a librarian, I want to share titles of amazing books you might want to pick up. I’ll switch up the genres in each newsletter. If you like any of the books I suggest, remember to write a quick review for it. Reviews helps authors <3
New Adult (college): The Gladiators of the Gridiron series by C.R. Grissom. The first book is Mouthful and the second is Eyeful. The books are set at a fictional university in Silicon Valley and follow college football players and the young women they fumble over themselves to win. The books are laugh out loud funny. The characters are sweet, charming, flawed, and you can’t help rooting for them to find their happily ever after.
Fantasy: There are just SO MANY series that I love, so I think I need to start with the ones that made me want to write fantasy. The Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris (which became the True Blood series on TV) and the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. They are both powerhouse writers and their books are fantastic. The first Sookie book is Dead Until Dark.
I fell in love with Sookie. No matter the horrible things she hears in people’s heads or the terrifying events around her, she approaches everyone, human and supernatural, with kind Southern hospitality. And Harris knows how to write great, layered mysteries!
The first Mercy Thompson book is Moon Called. Mercy is a coyote shifter who has to deal with the werewolf pack—and a certain sexy Alpha—living next door. When bad guys start attacking the local wolves, Mercy jumps in to help. Both authors create fully realized magical communities within
the mundane world and both write amazing secondary characters that keep the reader engaged on every page. <3
Young Adult: As I’m a young adult librarian, you’ll see this genre in every newsletter. I’m going to recommend two for you. First, The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo. I highly recommend listening to the audio for all of Acevedo’s books. She’s the reader and she’s perfect! The Poet X is a book in verse. In Acevedo’s capable hands, I felt like I was sitting in a café, listening to a slam poetry competition. The story follows Xiomara, a teen in Harlem, trying to navigate life in a body grown men feel they have the right to
comment on and touch, in a house ruled by a religious mom, in a school where she feels out of step…except in poetry club. It’s there that everything she’s struggling with inside comes out on the page.
The second YA book I’ll recommend is I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. The language is gorgeous. I had to pause often to think about the sentence I’d just read. The story is about twins, Noah and Jude. When Noah is telling the story they’re fourteen. When Jude tells it, they’re sixteen. The chapters go back and forth between Noah and Jude, between fourteen and sixteen, until we get to the event that changed everyone’s life. Stunningly beautiful book.
😊 Happy Reading!
