Weekly Notebook: One Week Away — and the Clock Is Ticking
🌿 The Maple Grove Update
Spring is fully committed in Maple Grove now—no more teasing. The lilac bushes along Birchwood Lane have gone from bare sticks to something that smells like a promise, and Brewed Awakenings has officially moved the patio chairs outside, which Mildred interpreted as a personal invitation. She showed up with her own cushion and a thermos of something she refused to identify.
Jenna has been distracted this week in ways she can't quite explain. Restless, maybe—the way you get when you know something is coming and you can't decide if you're excited or terrified or some particularly inconvenient combination of both. Lisa says Mercury is in something. Joe says it's just the weather changing. Mildred just keeps watching the treeline like she always does, sipping whatever is in that thermos, not looking worried at all.
My daffodils are a sea of yellow in my front border. Tulips are starting to pop up now, deep red and butter yellow, standing at attention in the front border like they have somewhere important to be. I feel the same way this week. Seven days, fellow sleuths. Seven days.
📜The Weekly Tasting Menu
Three Guest Sleuth picks this week—each one hand-selected because I think you'll love them. Here's the lineup:
🔍 Guest Sleuth Spotlights
🐎 Snowfall at Silver Run—Ellis Thorne When divorced horse-rescue owner Sable Jones's Labrador comes home with a mysterious scarf, a death ruled an accident starts to feel like anything but. A cozy mystery set in an equestrian community—warm, character-driven, and completely hard to put down. Find it on Amazon
🐾 Murder on the Morning Route— Daisy Stone Former corporate burnout Megan traded the city for a seaside town and a dog-walking business—until she finds a body near the lighthouse and her marketing brain starts noticing patterns nobody else does. Cozy, charming, and anchored by the best beagle-corgi sidekick in the genre. Get your free copy
🤠 Confessions of a Wanna-Be Cowgirl—Sylvia Grant A little something different this week — a feel-good small-town romance with dry humor and emotional heart for when you want laughs without a body count. Find it here
🧁 The Main Course
Fellow sleuths — seven days from right now, Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints will be officially in the world.
And seven days from right now, the price goes from $0.99 to $3.99.
I've been watching the pre-order numbers tick up all week, and every single one of them makes me a little teary in a way I'm blaming entirely on spring allergies. This book is different from anything else I've written—it's smaller and quieter in some ways, but louder in all the ways that matter. Teen-aged Jenna doesn't know yet what she's capable of. She's still figuring out who she is, who she can trust, and whether a girl who sees the worst in people can still choose to believe in them anyway.
I think a lot of us have been that girl.
If you've been waiting—this is the week. One dollar and ninety-nine cents for a few more days. After April 18th, the window closes and the price goes up to stay.
Get Ghosts Don't Use Blueprints on Amazon — $0.99 this week only
And if you've already pre-ordered — thank you. Genuinely. You have no idea what it means to have you waiting on the other side of launch day.
✍️ Behind the Scenes
have been stress-cleaning my office under the guise of "preparing for launch week," which mostly means I moved three piles of things from one surface to another. Charlie has decided that the new arrangement of said piles makes an excellent napping platform, and honestly, I can't argue with her logic. Seven days. We've got this.
Until next week, fellow sleuths —
Willow 🌿
Meet Willow
Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.
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