January 2026 Newsletter

Hello, friends and neighbors. You may have noticed that I, uh, didn’t post as much last month as I wanted to.

No offense meant to poor Shane Black, but I just couldn’t sit down and watch any more Christmas content. KISS KISS, BANG BANG is a wonderful film and I think some of Val Kilmer’s best work. LONG KISS GOODNIGHT has Geena Davis! Geena Freaking Davis! I love her in everything including EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY. Maybe *especially* EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY! But I was out of holiday spirit by the 10th of December and just wanted to settle down with Nick and Nora by the end of it all.

Events + Appearances

2026 is shaping up to be a whole kinda year. I’m resolved to get out to events more– I have honestly not been able to do any major bookish things since my first came out in November 2022. There were some family issues as well as my house burning down; I’m excited to get to as many Los Angeles- and California-based book events as I can this year!

In February, I’ll be heading up north (well, northern California) to be at Left Coast Crime. I’m really hoping that the organizers put me on a panel and if they do, I’ll let you know! I haven’t been to SF in more than a decade, so I’m excited to see how the city changed. Last time I was there I headed in to Napa almost immediately, so its really been ages since I’ve been in the city proper. I’m sure much of it hasn’t changed… and am excited to see what has. Also, I get to hobnob with a bunch of crime writers at a nice hotel! And meet my internet friend, Kim, for the first time, even though we’ve been online buddies since about 2010. What could be better!

If you know of anything on the calendar, book- and writing-wise, please leave a comment. It’ll be great to see you all out and about. Or virtually!

What I Read:

I just finished the latest book in the Chief Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny. It’s the second book in a continuous storyline, and the way this ended, it seems like there will be a third. It’s a lot of story, especially as someone who came to Gamache through the THREE PINES TV show starring Alfred Molina. I really love the Three Pines stories; the murder mysteries that are very contained and very “real”, focused on a single murder and how it affects a small village. Perhaps, this day and age, those stories are less real than the stories in the Wolf mini-series, which has dealt mostly with American-Canadian relationships and fictional acts of terror. I am generally not inclined towards socio-political thrillers and large-scale storylines that involve cataclysm, perhaps that is because I read the news and am constantly inundated with stories about cataclysm. One paltry murder seems so managable nowadays.

I know I will end up reading the next one, but I do so with apprehension. I don’t know how many more existential threats I can stomach in a time of so many real existential threats. Reading stuff like this feels like listening to true crime podcasts if you’ve had a family member or friend meet a violent end. At what point is it no longer entertainment?

I’m hoping to vary my reading quite a bit this year, and read more books that are new this year, or were released fairly recently. After I finish my current read (a biography on Caravaggio), I think I’ll be jumping into Meredith Hambrock’s SHE’S A LAMB!. And I’m over on Storygraph to track my reading now. Please follow me there if this is something you also want to do!

Silver Screen Sleuths

I don’t think I want to theme the month of January, but I’d love to cover at least two, possibly three movies this month. Do you have any suggestions? Please leave them in the comments!