Hello, Reading Friends!

Confession: I am very tired.

April is the month when high school seniors have heard back from the colleges they applied to, and May 1st is the deadline to commit to the rest of their lives and lose every other possible opportunity a college. So the last couple weeks have been a lot of intense conversations and campus visits, including this week my son and I took four plane flights and visited five states.

He was accepted to ten colleges, eight of which gave him a remarkably similar level of merit scholarship (yay!), and wait-listed at two more. At the beginning of the month, my son was going around and around the merits of seven different colleges, plus really hoping to get off the wait-list. As of today....drum-roll... I think we have it narrowed down to two. TWO! That's manageable!

As for myself, I did some frantic editing at each college while my son took a class (and other than that, I was driving/conversing/campus touring/etc). I did not manage to write you a newsletter (thus this Sunday one), but I did take pictures of libraries for you! The Vassar library definitely wins for overall castle-y-ness beauty. Unfortunately, that's a place my son was wait-listed, so I can't actually plan to move in... but I think this might have to be the inspiration for my next library-themed book. The ones I have so far are all based on private-manor-house style libraries, but maybe we need ✨ an entire castle that is also a library. ✨

Conn College does not have the most beautiful library.

The modern architecture is not my favorite, but at least Oberlin has interesting modern architecture.

Oberlin gets bonus book-points, however, because their alumni include Tracy Chevalier (LOVE HER!!!), and who wrote Judy Moody AND The Princess Bride

What sort of Fae inhabit a library like this?

Do you want to read that story?

Vassar's library was equally beautiful on the inside.

If you love books about libraries...

These are my stories with Maximum Library Coziness:

Rian was chosen for the king's training program...but he doesn't want to be a warrior. Running from the bullies, he stumbles into a magical library and the wren-like Fae who has a plan of her own for him...

The Squire and His Magical Library

Kindness Anthology

Help! I need your suggestions!

I envision my books before I start to write, and I've been working on the details in the next trilogy within the Castle in Kilkenny series. (Wayyy more details coming in the next newsletter, when I'm not so tired!) So I've realized — I have a gap!

One of the primary challenges of retelling traditional fairy tales and myths is that they often don't follow what modern readers consider a logical or satisfying plot arc, so I work in other elements of Irish lore. In this case, the base fairy tale is slow-paced, and basically....

I need something to torment Aiden while we're all waiting for the rest of the story to resolve.

So..... what's your favorite pesky, dangerous, or otherwise fascinating Irish fae? What little monsters would you like to read about next? Reply to this email to tell me!

...and while you're at it...

Please send me your favorite cat memes. I am desperate for cat memes.

I like to put playful book-related posts on my Instagram, and I know there's got to be good cat ones out there, but I've really been striking out with finding them. Here's the only one I've got:

You can click on the photo to go to my Instagram post

If you can't see it, the next pages say:

Be sure to read The Little White Cat & the Dog Who Wasn't.

Your llamas are counting on you.

And now some books for YOU...

Has all that talk about colleges made you feel like reading some coming-of-age stories? This promo has a magical academy, an Oxley College romance, an intern at the Sundance Film Festival, and one last road trip before college begins.

YA and Teen: Life at the Crossroads

What's better than historical romance? Historical romance with ONLY ONE BED. This is a perennial trope, mostly because authors can do such incredibly different things with it. In my book, for instance, it's only one bed in a magical tent ✨ on a rocky island in the middle of a storm. (And it's not a spicy scene.)

This is a sales promo so they're not fr*e, but many of them are marked down, only 99c, and/or available in KU or Kobo+. So I encourage you to click through and see!

One Bed for a Bluestocking has been one of my top favorite reads in the last few months, and Snowbound with the Scoundrel came close. I also just finished a different book in the series that Wren St Clair has listed — so there's some good ones in here! Enjoy!

Only One Bed

The Shelties were delighted when we got back home!

Since my son and I got home, there has been much bouncing, playing, and cuddling (and shoving one's canine brothers out of the way to get more cuddling). To celebrate, I tried to take some pictures:

This is Adare and Malin posing on the couch and looking at the camera, like the Very Good Boys they are

This is Inish sulking in his box instead of joining the photo shoot. He is one of those types who doesn't like doing things that other people are doing.

I finally hauled him out, plopped him down, and kept him in place with a treat. The wonder here is that he has not yet nabbed the treat and taken a finger or two with it. We're working on patience. Notice that Adare is actually looking at ME and not the treat, fully trusting that I will give it to him once he has fulfilled my instructions.

Happy reading, !

I should be back on schedule with Thursday-ish newsletters now. Next up, I've got a whole bunch of teasers about what I'm working on and you can expect to see in the next few months! I have a lot of balls in the air right now, but I'm really exciting about sharing some wonderful books with you. 🥰 📚

Ta-ta for now,

Christy & the Shelties

P.S. Don't forget to send me suggestions for what Irish fae I should add! If you don't have a particular name in mind, what type.... should it be silly? Nasty? Peculiar? One big boss battle or a constant mosquito-like torment?

P.P.S. Reminder.... you've got a few more hours to enter this fun BookBub promo, spicy or non-spicy romance 💘