A Letter from Caitlyn Paxson

Dear Reader,

In the blink of an eye, it’s autumn again.

I’m afraid I’ve fallen rather far behind in my updates from the Island, but there has been lots of excitement here and I’d like to share a few highlights from August and September.

But first, today I had the enormous pleasure of revealing the UK cover of A Widow’s Charm! I feel so lucky to have three beautiful covers for this book. Here they all are, looking very convivial together: Canada, the US, and the UK!

As I mentioned last time (and will likely not shut up about for the next six months), you can pre-order A Widow’s Charm from any region here.

Way back in August, my dear friend (and fellow writer) Jessica Wick came to visit me, and we had a very splendid time running around the Island together. She was kind enough to do a Wreath of the Month frolic with me and I made and dried two flower crowns in advance for the occasion. They’re a mix of all sorts of things—herbs, marigolds, zinnias, hydrangea, and celosia.

I think we look rather like Anne Shirley and Dianna Barry, all grown up but still whimsical!

In September, I was honored to be a guest at the first ever Cavendish Literary Festival, where I met so many other amazing authors and readers. I came home with a stack of books which I hope to be able to share with you soon, but I’m afraid I am very behind on my reading at the moment because I am eyebrows-deep in revising my own Book 2!

I do have to take a moment to recommend one book that came out back in the summer if you’re looking for something eerie and atmospheric for the haunting season.

I’m a longtime fan of Silvia Morena-Garcia, and I really loved this new book, which entwines three stories about witches. One is the story of a graduate student at a small new England college named Minerva who is writing her dissertation on a mid-century gothic novelist and begins to suspect that perhaps the novel she loves was not entirely fiction. The second is the story of that novelist, and the disturbing events that led her to write her book. And the third is the story of Minerva’s grandmother, whose uncanny experience with a witch back in Mexico still haunts her family. The three stories blended together perfectly for me, and I especially recommend this book to any of my fellow Marlboro College alumni who might be reading this newsletter—I don’t know if Morena-Garcia ever visited Marlboro, but her fictional college sure reminded me of it! There are peacocks!

In garden news, it was still a banner year for tomatoes, which made me very happy, as it had been a couple of years since I last had much success with them. I was chatting with a woman who works at my local garden centre, and we agreed that it’s rare to find a cocky gardener, because every new season always brings its surprising successes and its humbling failures!

We had a light frost last night and are expecting a heavy one tonight, so I picked a few final flowers and bid farewell to this year’s cutting garden.

And as we say a final goodbye to summer and welcome in the quiet time of the year, I’ll leave you with a picture of the garden back in August—a perfect, twilight moment.

Until next time, wishing you the best books and the most berry-full brambles,

Caitlyn

I write this from the traditional unceded territory known as Mi’kma’ki, and I am grateful to call Epekwitk my home.