Anu Recommends #38

New flash fiction, a book recommendation, Neil Gaiman art, and a small business shoutout

Hi and welcome to the Storyteller!

I must say that it feels strange not writing to you all every Sunday, but I’m happy to share that I’ve been working on a lot of pieces for the paid subscriptions, and should hopefully be able to launch that soon. Stay tuned.

As a heads up before we begin, this issue is too long for email according to Substack, but where it cuts off in your email, there’ll be a note of where you can click to view all of it.

Ruby Whispers: a short Halloween treat

Many of you who follow me on social media will have seen the announcement about my upcoming flash fiction. For everyone else, I’m excited to share the news that my fairytale-inspired flash fiction, titled ‘Ruby Whispers’ will be published on Tuesday, October 31, 2023.

This gorgeous cover is by—who else—Shivani Khot!

Synopsis: A magical flash fiction set in modern-day Salem on All Hallow's Eve. Are you ready to meet John and Ruby Noble, and discover their fated love story?

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‘Ruby Whispers’ is currently available for preorder at the following links—

India: https://www.amazon.in/B0CLVNMS5L

USA: https://www.amazon.com/B0CLVNMS5L

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/B0CLVNMS5L

… as well as most other countries’ digital storefronts on Amazon.

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Those who preorder it will get a bonus micro story of mine emailed to them, so please message/email/DM/text me with a copy of your preorder 😊 And since I’ve already had a few questions about this—even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can buy and read the story via the free Kindle app for Android, iOS, your desktop, laptop, or tablet. If you have any further questions, you know where to find me!

I wrote this last year but didn’t feel like it was quite ready yet, so I let it sit (away from my eyes) for a few months. Until I recently made final edits. It’s rather different from my shorter fiction so far, but I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it.

October in the Chair

If you read Issue #36 of this newsletter, you might remember the quote I shared from Neil Gaiman’s short story, ‘October in the Chair’ and why I said that I associate the Trigger Warning collection with fall or autumn—

“His beard was all colors, a grove of trees in autumn, deep brown and fire-orange and wine-red, an untrimmed tangle across the lower half of his face. His cheeks were apple-red. He looked like a friend; like someone you had known all your life.”

Well, voilà! Shivani has once again entered the chat with her version of him 🤓 Her instagram is here, go tell her how gorgeous it is!

Friends Don’t Fall in Love by Erin Hahn

I was introduced to Erin Hahn by a publishing friend (*waves at Notes From a Life in Fiction) when he sent me her debut, a young adult title called You’d Be Mine, which he’d worked on and thought I would enjoy—guess what, he was right!

My review of You’d Be Mine from June 28, 2019 is linked below, if you’re interested.

booksinboston

A post shared by @booksinboston

Erin was also the guest of honour in the OG Storyteller issue #5 back in 2020!

Since then I’ve read and enjoyed all of Erin’s work, including her adult fiction debut last year with Built to Last. That book introduced us to Lorelai Jones, a side character who is one of the protagonists in Friends Don’t Fall in Love. I’d loved the glimpses we’d gotten of Lorelai in BTL and was thrilled to get a chance to read the new book in advance, which I finished in 2 days before sending Erin very excited messages (😂) about the fact that the YBM gang shows up here and plays a prominent role. Since I read it as early as I did (end of May), I had no idea about these special appearances, which became common knowledge a bit later, when Erin started posting about it. But I’m not complaining because the surprise was so worth it 😋

Friends Don’t Fall in Love was released on October 17, so if the blurb and my mini review below grab your attention, you don’t have to wait to read it!

Publisher’s blurb:

Erin Hahn’s Friends Don’t Fall in Love is about long-time friends, taking chances, and finding out that, sometimes, your perfect person was right there in your corner all along.

Lorelai Jones had it all: a thriving country music career and a superstar fiancé. Then she played one teenie tiny protest song at a concert and ruined her entire future, including her impending celebrity marriage. But five years later, she refuses to be done with her dreams and calls up the one person who stuck by her, her dear friend and her former fiancé’s co-writer and bandmate, Craig.

Craig Boseman’s held a torch for Lorelai for years, but even he knows the backup bass player never gets the girl. Things are different now, though. Craig owns his own indie record label and his songwriting career is taking off. If he can confront his past and embrace his gifts, he might just be able to help Lorelai earn the comeback she deserves—and maybe win her heart in the process.

But when the two reunite to rebuild her career and finally scratch that itch that’s been building between them for years, Lorelai realizes a lot about what friends don’t do. For one, friends don’t have scratch-that-itch sex. They also don’t almost-kiss on street corners, publish secret erotic poetry about each other, have counter-top sex, write songs for each other, have no-strings motorcycle sex, or go on dates. And they sure as heck don't fall in love... right?

My thoughts:

This is easily my most favourite adult romance written by Erin Hahn (her debut YA very closely nicks it to that top spot—which is why I was delighted to see my favourite characters from that book return to play significant supporting roles here).

Friends to lovers can be a tricky trope and there were a few times I just wanted the two to sit down and talk about their feelings. But there were very understandable emotional hang-ups, fears, insecurities, and a lot of history between Lorelai and Craig so it felt ultimately fulfilling to see them work through these issues and find their way to each other as romantic partners from best friends.

As with You'd Be Mine, Hahn's YA debut, there's a lot of music content (country music, in specific) and this Nashville-based story only reminds you how the author's already skilled ability at writing about music and the industry has been honed since YBM. Because Lore has moved back to Nashville from Michigan, the other two in the best friends trio, Maren and Shelby don't get as much in-person page time with her (though Maren gets significantly more than Shelby—I can't wait for the former's book; there were a few allusions in this one as to what it could be about), but there is enough other found family in the supporting cast of characters here, including Craig's business partner at the studio, who shine and make this a very compelling world to be a part of.

If you have Spotify audiobooks, Erin recently shared the amazing news that one of the songs from the book, which she wrote (she writes all the songs that appear in her books) has been produced and recorded specially for the audiobook.

erinhahn_author

A post shared by @erinhahn_author

Small Business Shoutout

You may remember me recommending simulationstation23 in Issue #2 last year. Simran has recently announced that she’s doing a custom limited-edition release of Diwali money envelopes for Mumbai.

If you’re interested, or know folks who would be, do reach out to her via instagram to order them (the envelopes can be personalised, if you so wish). I’d recommend taking a look at her custom prints, cards, and stationery, as well. I ordered thank you cards from her last year and can personally vouch for the quality of design, materials, and her customer service.

An example of what the envelopes will look like

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That’s all for today; let me know how you’ve all been!

As always, please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on, rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue 😊 Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it.

Take care and I’ll see you on November 5th, with a very special interview!

Anu

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You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.