Nearly there, badges, dinosaur

Approximately-weekly news, #85

May 06, 2026

A BOOKSHOP SUMMER is out in paperback tomorrow!

But we’re not talking about it today. It’s getting its own newsletter tomorrow. Actually, let’s say tomorrow-ish, just to be on the safe side…

And how is the new book going, you ask? Let this photograph of my desk tell the story.

If you’re thinking ‘hmmm, it looks as though Stephanie is very, very nearly at the end of the draft and has decided to abandon all semblance of order, tidiness or indeed cleanliness* until she gets there’ then you’d be right.

Please imagine me whispering this to you**: I think I’m going to be really pleased with this book, once it’s properly done.*** I’m expressing things I’ve only groped at before, and what’s on the page is closer to what’s in my head than I’ve ever managed in any other novel.

Something else about this novel: I have handwritten and then dictated parts of it. The dictation software is pretty good, except when it comes to Loveday, which baffles it in a new way every time.**** Here are some of the ways:

Love day
love Day
Love-daze
Love I
Love they
Lefty
Lofty

And - my favourite, and definitely not Loveday’s -

Lovely.

This has made me laugh a lot, and reminded me of writing THE CURIOUS HEART OF AILSA RAE. Regardless of how often I thought I had added the names to the dictionary, my heroine Ailsa was autocorrected to Aisle and my hero, Seb, became Sea, every time.

The Lost For Words Bookshop has merch and is open for business! You’ll find the store here. And when next we meet there’s a good chance I will be wearing this:

And carrying this:

I’ve also had some pin badges made. Cute, no?

These aren’t in the store. You can only get them from me, and I’d be very happy to send you one as a gift. Just drop me your name and address and I’ll put one in the post.***** If you’re buying a signed book from me, I’ll add one to the parcel.

There we were, thinking Harris was wantonly digging holes, when it turned out he was actually conducting an archaeological dig. I was humbled indeed when I took a peek in the Dig Zone and found he had unearthed an actual dinosaur.

We have therefore had a negotiation****** about the Dig Zone and agreed that, for the duration of No Mow May, I will be leaving that part of the garden alone in the interests of research, and then we will Revisit. (I don’t hold out much help for myself as a Revisitor.)

We are lucky enough to live near The Alnwick Garden, and one lovely evening in April we went to wander under the cherry blossom. It was busy busy busy, and to see so many people delighting in this brief season was joyful. We got fish and chips on the way home; it was very possibly a perfect evening.

Before I go and write the last couple of thousand words, how’s this for a sky?

And how’s this for what you would find if you looked up ‘relaxed’ in a visual dictionary?

Until tomorrow-ish,

Stephanie xx

*of my desk, not myself

**For reference, I have a nice whisper, a bit soft around the edges. More of a kindly-driving-instructor whisper than a newsreader whisper.

***Another draft from me, then one following notes from my editor, and it will be broadly there. Then a line edit from my editor, a copy edit, and several proof reads, and Bob’s your uncle, Fanny’s your aunt.

****I’ve even added it to the vocabulary, to no avail.

*****While stocks last, and if you live a very long way away I might ask you to pay for postage.

******Is it a negotiation if you are the only one who moves their position?!