Do you want an early copy of THE PROPOSAL?
Happy Friday, friends! I have good news and bad news for you this week. The bad news is that you're going to have a wait just a little while longer to read my second book, THE PROPOSAL, which now comes out on October 30th. (October is my birthday month, so I'm delighted that I have a book coming out in the best month of the year). I hope you all please go ahead and preorder THE PROPOSAL (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indiebound, Powells, Kobo), which is about about a public proposal gone very wrong, witnessed by Carlos (Drew's best friend from THE WEDDING DATE), and what happens next. But here's the good news: I'm giving away advance copies of THE PROPOSAL to a lucky few of you! All you have to do is be a subscriber of this newsletter, and hit reply and tell me you'd love to read an early copy. I'll keep this open until next Friday at noon Pacific time, so if you have friends who you know are dying to read it, forward this email to them and tell them to subscribe! I'll choose names at random, and email you back next Friday afternoon if you win to ask for your mailing address. Thank you all!
My recommendation this week is not sexy at all, but it's improved my life tremendously: sleeping in wrist braces. Last summer, while I was deep into working on THE PROPOSAL, and also on a computer all day as well for work, I started having a lot of wrist problems. It hurt to type, it hurt to scroll through my phone, and it was when my fingertips became numb while I was doing nothing that I realized I had to figure out what to do about this. So I went to the doctor, who sent me to a physical therapy class where I learned lots of exercises and how to sit etc. etc. but the single thing that has made my wrists so much better is wearing these wrist braces every night to sleep. (This is because, as I learned in that class, that many people sleep with their wrists curved, and wrist braces force them to stay straight in your sleep). I am still on a computer for far too much of my life, but this summer I am deep into working on my third book, and my wrists feel mostly fine. Also, take breaks and do wrist exercises and if you use a mouse, switch back and forth which hand you use it with, but use the braces, even though it is hard at first to get used to sleeping with them.
Last night was the RITA awards at the annual RWA conference, and the fantastic Alexis Daria won Best First Book for her delightful book TAKE THE LEAD. It's about dancing, and reality tv, and celebrity, and love, and it's super hot and fun, AND it's on sale for $1.99 on Kindle right now! It's the perfect book to read this summer.
Okay look, I know I gave you a panzanella recipe last year, and I try to not do recipe repeats in this newsletter, but I'm going to give it to you again now, because it's the height of tomato season and panzanella is my favorite way to eat tomatoes. This is very similar to the recipe I gave you last year, though I've been doing it slightly differently as of late, so I've changed it some, but also, panzanella is a thing you can tinker with in many different ways and it stays delicious. One thing I almost always do is add a nectarine, because I think the tomato/nectarine combo is so good, and it adds some sweet/tartness that's great with the olive oil and bread and tomatoes and herbs.
Panzanella
5 or 6 good tomatoes (Heirloom, early girl, whatever)
Also maybe 20 or so cherry tomatoes if you want
Red wine vinegar or lemon juice, a teaspoon or so
Olive oil
Salt
Corn on the cob
A red bell pepper (my favorite peppers for this are the sweet Jimmy Nardellos, which should be out in farmers markets, at least in California, soon)
A nectarine
A cucumber, sliced
A part of a baguette or any crusty bread
A ball of mozzarella, cut or torn up into bite size pieces
Basil, sometimes parsley
Cut up the tomatoes into bite size pieces, and throw them and their juices all into a big bowl. Add a healthy sprinkle of salt, the vinegar/lemon juice, and a glug or two of olive oil. While that sits around and gets all delicious, cut up the bread into bite size pieces, and toss the bread with some olive oil. Either toast the bread in a hot oven, or toast it in a hot skillet for a few minutes until the bread is crusty. Cut the corn off the cob and throw it into a hot pan with some salt until it browns a little, maybe two or so minutes, and then add that to the bowl with the tomatoes. Cut up the pepper and the nectarine in bite size chunks, and add to the tomatoes. Slice the cucumber and chop the basil and toss them both into the bowl. Finally, add the mozzarella and the bread to the bowl and toss everything, check to see if you need more olive oil or salt, and toss again. Eat, or bring to a party (if you're bringing this somewhere, you can do everything in advance, just wait to combine the bread with everything else until a few minutes before you're ready to eat).
Have a great weekend, everyone! And remember, be a subscriber to this newsletter and reply to it in order to be in the running to win an advance copy of THE PROPOSAL!
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