This newsletter is a day late because I have been extremely jet lagged this week and time has even less meaning than it normally does.

Long time readers of my newsletter know that I am not usually a huge fan of blended teas. I have articulated a new exception, though: I do enjoy some teas that have jasmine / osmanthus / chrysanthemum blended in such a way as to enhance the flavor of the tea rather than to mask it.

 

This is a blended tea, and part of Friday Afternoon Tea’s fandom blends which are available only during the summer (which means: if you want this, buy it now, before it goes out of stock during the rotation.) It came as a small sample alongside a restock of some of my favorite single origin teas from Friday, and I thought… Well, Friday has very good taste, a thing I can tell from how she curates her single origin teas. Why not give this tea a try?

 

So I am now here to say that I will eat my words. I do, in fact, enjoy more blended teas than I thought. Blended teas that enhance the flavor of the tea, instead of seeing the flavor added as the primary flavor that is needed to mask the flavor of poor tea, are absolutely going into my rotation.

 

This particular tea is a blend of white tea with cinnamon and coriander, and the blend is incredibly thoughtful. Cinnamon can tend to take over a tea; in this one, it’s a very mild addition. And it’s not paired with other things that might make the tea feel very cinnamon-y; the coriander helps keep the mix from becoming too sweet, and adds depth of flavor. All in all, this was a gorgeous mix that provided a great afternoon pick-me-up.

You can get Little Dragon from Friday Afternoon Tea for $8 until September 3rd, after which it will disappear from the store until next summer.

Now that I’m back home and have (kind of) wrestled jet lag into something resembling submission, it’s time to start back to work in earnest on a new writing project.

 

Kind of.

 

Wait. Let me explain.

 

I don’t talk about this much, but my writing projects often overlap. I have a “research and thinking” time for books, often several years long. For some amount of time (between two months and five years), I think about the book and what needs to be in it. As I get closer to the writing phase, when I know things like some story elements, I do research and read newspapers set in the approximate era and place where I’m planning to write. Newspapers give rise to plot elements; I’ll make little sketches of scenes and vaguely plan things out. Finally, I’ll hit the phase where I start stitching all of those things into a book.

 

So what this means is that right now, I am doing three separate things.

 

First, I’m editing a novella I wrote in which the heroine is a being made of chaos who can turn socks into lint. This is basically a giant romp, and it’s ridiculously fun to work on. I wrote this as kind of a palate cleanser for myself (I’ve had this idea for about seven years!) and I’m super-excited about people being able to read it. I don’t know how long that will take, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to tell you more about it soon-ish.

 

I have a second project that I’ve had in my head for years. Over the last year, I’ve been stealing afternoons to do research—in this case, the research has included things like going in person to archives to pull up the official court documents on a court case from 1881, holding actual subpoenas in my hands and marveling about history. I’ve read about seven months of two separate newspapers for the area and a multitude of books. I have sketches of scenes and the first two pages of the book written, and that means it’s time to actually start writing. This is something different than anything I’ve ever written before in my life: it’s set in a different place, and based so much on a true story that it’s probably more correct to say that this is “fictionalized” rather than “fiction.” I feel, approaching this, that it’s something like tiptoeing up to the Marianas Trench: it’s a big project, a weighty project, and it’s about something that has not much been explored.

 

And I have a third project I’m working on—my next historical romance—where I’ve sketched out the plot and the when and the where and now I’m starting to do the background research. There will be a little bit less for this, because I already know more about where it’s set. Hopefully I’ll be able to jump in on writing for that relatively quickly.

 

Needless to say, though, this is one of the most exciting times to be a writer: when I’m starting a project that is new and fresh and exciting, and I don’t  yet know what about it is going to make me tear my hair out down the line.

 

So that’s where I am: I’m excited! Things are exciting!

Through this Friday, The Duke who Didn’t is 99 cents everywhere! This is one of my favorite books that I’ve ever written—a book about sauce, about second chance romances, and about discovering a history about yourself that you maybe never knew before.

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