April 2025 Roundup

5 Ways To Tell If Your Manuscript Is ... The Dos And Don’ts Of Dealing With Bl...

April 2025 Roundup

Welcome to the April 2025 roundup!

This month, I spent the first day of April on an 11-hour train ride returning to Melbourne from Sydney. I’d popped to Sydney for a few days at the end of March to see my mum, who was having a special lunch for her 70th birthday. I’d organized to attend as a surprise, and she was surprised, which made it a fun day! I then spent some time catching up with family and friends, and of course, my evil twin (see pics below!).

While on the train, I listened to two audiobooks (The Inheritence Games and The Hawthorne Legacy – reviewed below), caught up on season 3 of YellowJackets (still nothing like the brilliance of season 1, but a step up from season 2), and season 2 of The Night Agent (even better than season 1).

If I was working on any fictional work, it would have been the perfect time to get some writing done, but as this was a quick trip with limited luggage, I didn’t take my laptop, and any handwritten words in a notebook would be unreadable because I can never read my own writing back. So, after working hard on my Checklist ARCs for the last three months, I took the five days as a mini break, and then got stuck back into things once I’d returned home. To see what I accomplished for the rest of the month, read on…

This month, I did manage to get my Authoring Checklist ARC off to readers, and now I’m waiting for their feedback to see what needs to be tweaked before that book can be finalized. As it will be a free companion ebook, the work still required isn’t as much as the main Writing and Editing Checklists.

That book will be released in both paperback and ebook, and to finalize it, I’ve gotten as far as applying the last round of feedback from betas and sending the files to my designer. He’s formatting the ebook with Sigil because Atticus puts in such odd spacing and padding around bullet points and headings. Thankfully, we fixed those issues for the Authoring ARC, so doing the same with the Writing and Editing book will be easy. After that’s done, it’s just a matter of making the whole book cover (so far, there’s just the front, and it needs a back and spine), but that can’t be done until the files are uploaded to IngramSpark, which will calculate the cover dimensions based on the number of book pages. I also have to officially assign my ISBNs to the paperback and ebook, and all the other fiddly behind-the-scenes processes for getting a book ready to publish that I always forget about until it’s time to publish , but on the bright side, I don’t have to lose my sanity getting Word to start the page numbers and headers at the right place!

So, that’s where I’m at with my checklist projects—a few steps closer, but still more to go.

The Residence

I love a good murder mystery, and this star-studded series delivered! When the body of the head usher of the Whitehouse is found in the games room during an Australian state dinner, the world’s greatest detective, Cordelia Cupp, is on the case. She is played perfectly by Uzo Aduba, who balances Cordelia’s smart yet quirky bird-watching personality against the seriousness of the crime she’s investigating and the zaniness of the characters who are the suspects.

This series isn’t afraid to have fun, making jokes about the very true laid-back attitude of Australians, having Kylie Minogue play herself, and a running gag of Hugh Jackman being at the dinner when it’s obviously not Hugh Jackman. There’s also the very Agatha Christie way the murder is solved, the excellent performances of the cast, expertly placed and foreshadowed clues, and a satisfying murderer reveal that will keep you guessing right until the end.

Shrinking (Season 2)

I finally got around to watching season two of Shrinking after hearing such good things, and it didn’t disappoint. This isn’t a happy show. All of the characters are messed up, but it’s their struggles and how they overcome them that make this such a worthy watch.

Season 1 followed Jimmy (Jason Segel) and how he imploded after the death of his wife, ignoring the needs of his teenage daughter, and using some very unconventional methods to help his therapy patients, resulting in one ending up in jail for attempted murder. Season 2 is Jimmy still trying to help his patients, and making amends with his daughter after cleaning up his act, but when the drunk driver who killed his wife (an excellent role played by co-writer and Ted Lasso star, Brett Goldstein) comes looking for forgiveness, Jimmy is the one who needs all the help he can get from his boss, co-workers, family, and friends. Most of them are also struggling with their own relatable trials this season, only enhancing the greatness of this must-watch series.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

When 17-year-old Avery Grambs is told she’s required at the will reading for one of the world’s most prominent billionaires, she figures her help with a homeless man has gotten her some goodwill money. What she gets is Tobias Hawthorne’s entire estate—and hostility from the family he left with nothing. Teaming up with his four grandsons, Avery soon discovers that the Hawthornes play elaborate games, complete with cryptic clues, where she has just become a big piece of a final puzzle.

I loved everything about this book, including the characters, the games they have to solve, the secrets, lies, and the family mysteries the book weaves throughout. As it’s the first in the series, there are plot-lines left for the other books, but this one does a nice job of tying up it’s own story and introducing the rules of the world, and I highly recommend it for fans of fun mysteries, a little romance, and character driven stories.

The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Pretty much picking up where the first book left off, there are more games to be played for Avery and the Hawthorne boys. Teaming up with Jamison, Grayson, and Zander, they discover that their grandfather’s only son, the long-dead Toby, might actually be alive, and someone Avery knew before she became the Hawthorne Heiress. But trying to find Toby and the truth about the fire that killed him and three others takes a backseat when several attempts on Avery’s life land her in mortal danger. There are more clues and mysteries to work out, Avery’s conflicting romantic feelings for Jamison and Grayson, and backstories and future foreshadowing for the other books galore! I enjoyed this book even more than the first, which is an excellent way to continue a series.

This Stays Between Us by Margot McGovern

When the first event at her new school is attending a camp in an old mining town, Shelley just hopes to get through the weekend. What she ends up doing is taking part in a seance with her cabin roommates that makes them a target for a ghostly legend, and could expose a terrible secret she’s been hiding.

Set in the year 2000, big on channeling ‘90s horror movies, and with a foundation of solid female friendships, This Stays Between Us nails those things and has a genuine creepy vibe when it comes to the seance/ghost chapters, making it a book I’d recommend for fans of YA Horror.

Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg

In Writing Down the Bones, author and poet Natalie Goldberg lays down the foundation of her daily writing practice, an act which allows her to write freely and connect with herself and her words. As this was an anniversary edition, each section was revisited by a 50-something Natalie reflecting on the advice given by the 30-something version of herself who’d written the original book.

Both funny and insightful in regards to what she thought of her advice and if it still holds up today, it added another layer to a book that was already a fun and easy read. With the main notion of this book being that a writing practice will help get the words flowing, it’s also a relatable and inspiring read for any writer, and one that I highly recommend if you’re feeling stuck.

Let’s Be Book Friends!

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your faves! You can also find and follow my book reviews on Amazon and BookBub.