It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer and Kathyrn at The Book Date.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I finished Secrets of the Amish Letter by Rachael Phillips last week, staying up until 1 a.m. so I could take it back to the library the next morning when we went there for the Summer reading program. In the end, we didn’t actually go to the library that morning but I was able to return the book later in the day.

I enjoyed the book overall, but actually enjoyed book two in the series – Murder Simply Played — more.

I am still reading The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz and also started Elementary She Read by Vicki Delaney. 

I shared the description of The Word is Murder last week, but I thought I’d share the plot of Elementary She Read today:

When murder pays a visit to Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, Gemma Doyle must use the powers of deduction to find the killer—and clear her own name.

Gemma Doyle, a transplanted Englishwoman, has returned to the quaint town of West London on Cape Cod to manage her Great Uncle Arthur’s Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium. The shop—located at 222 Baker Street—specializes in the Holmes canon and pastiche, and is also home to Moriarty the cat. When Gemma finds a rare and potentially valuable magazine containing the first Sherlock Homes story hidden in the bookshop, she and her friend Jayne (who runs the adjoining Mrs. Hudson’s Tea Room) set off to find the owner, only to stumble upon a dead body.
 
Gemma is the police’s first suspect, so she puts her consummate powers of deduction to work to clear her name, investigating a handsome rare books expert, the dead woman’s suspiciously unmoved son, and a whole family of greedy characters desperate to cash in on their inheritance. But when Gemma and Jayne accidentally place themselves at a second murder scene, it’s a race to uncover the truth before the detectives lock them up for good.

From what I’ve seen on her social media sites, Vicki is also Eva Gates, if you have ever read any of her books. That seems to be a common theme in cozy mysteries – authors who write under a few different names.

Little Miss and are reading the second book in the Boxcar Children series and Paddington Abroad right now and we have a stack of picture books from the library to read this week as well.

The Husband is reading Patriot Games by Tom Clancy.

What’s Been Occurring

Little Miss and I went swimming at my parents yesterday and I may have overdone it a bit.  I was in so much pain last night from actually using my arms to do something other than writing that I had trouble sleeping. It didn’t help that we were in the pool for almost two and a half hours. It felt good to exercise and to have fun with Little Miss, though, so it was sort of a good pain. I don’t know how to explain that. My muscles might suffer after I go swimming (thanks to whatever auto-immune ridiculousness I have going on) but my brain is more alert an hour or so after I get out and after I’ve had some food.

My mom, who will be 79 August 3, made us bacon for dinner and we added that to lettuce and tomato for me and bread, lettuce, tomato, and dressing for everyone else. When we came home, The Husband had also made us steaks so we had two meals, which was totally fine after all those calories we burned.

I wrote about our activities last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post yesterday. Bottom line? It was a busy week in many ways and there is another busy week coming up. You can read all about our busy summer so far HERE.

What We watched/are Watching

This past week we watched Newhart, which is a comfort watch for me, and I watched The Seven Year Itch with Marilyn Monroe, which I will be writing more about later in the week.

I didn’t watch as much as some weeks because I messed around with social media and how to promote my books and also with the new job stuff.

Yesterday and today I am watching some of my favorite YouTubers, including Just A Few Acres and Forgotten Way Farms.

What I’m Writing

I’m working on book two of the Gladwynn Grant Mystery series and this week I will also be writing more blog posts. In September I will be working on Cassie from the Apron Strings book series. That book comes out in August of 2024. If you are interested in knowing more about this series, you can join our readers group on Facebook, which you can find HERE.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.