Something to do. Someone to love. Something to hope for.

Immanuel Kant's Rules for Happiness

Dear friends,

    As I prepare to begin my fifth line of treatment this summer, Immanuel Kant’s ‘Rules for Happiness’ keep coming back to me...quietly, insistently, like a compass pointing home:

Something to do...

Books, books, and more books!

    If you know me and Jim at all, you know we pour ourselves into our work...and we’ll have a lot of exciting news to share about what’s coming in June.

    First, we are so grateful that our publisher has returned the ebook and print rights for three beloved Nik James novels, which we are now bringing home to our May McGoldrick readers. Beyond the Silver Moon, Beyond the Eclipse, Beyond the Christmas Star are retellings of the Caleb Marlowe novels...this time told through the heart of his relationship with Shiela. Revised as historical Western romances (PG-rated), these three books follow Caleb and Shiela from their first meeting all the way to their ‘happily ever after’.

    Also, the next installment of our cozy fantasy mystery Second Street is coming in June. Ocean, Skye, and the full cast you fell in love with in First Street return to Harbor View with another mystery to unravel. We cannot wait for you to read it!

    And this Saturday, we have a BookBub special deal on The Promise. The book that first put us on the USA Today Bestseller List over twenty years ago. It remains the best-selling novel of our career, and it holds such a special place in our hearts. If you haven't read it, there has never been a better time. We’ve down-priced it for you right now!

Someone to love...

You already know who you are!

    Jim, my sons, my daughters-in-laws, and our grandchildren are the light of my life — every single day.

    And then there is you. Our readers. Some of you have walked alongside us for over thirty years, through books and through life, through the highs and the lows, and you have been a true rock in our career and in our hearts.

    We love you more than words can convey.

Something to hope for...

A cure — for me, and for every cancer patient.

    I hope for a cure, not just for myself, but for every person living with cancer. And as I've always believed, actions speak louder than words. If you feel moved to do something, please consider supporting cancer research. That is where change is made.

That is where hope becomes possibility.

    Thank you for bringing so much happiness to our lives.

For the Hearts That Hold Us Up...

Dear Friends,

This week holds two celebrations here in the US that are very close to our hearts: National Nurses Week (May 6–12) and Mother’s Day (May 11). We couldn’t let either pass without speaking from a deeply personal place.

As someone living with serious health issues, I have been supported again and again by nurses who show up, not only medically, but humanly. They are the ones who notice when you’re frightened before you say a word. The ones who advocate fiercely on your behalf when you no longer have the strength to advocate for yourself. The ones who offer a hand, a kind word, a knowing look and somehow make the impossible feel survivable.

To every nurse reading this: thank you. Your compassion is not a small thing. It is everything.

And then there are mothers in all their forms. The ones who raised us. The ones who chose us. The ones fighting battles of their own while still showing up for everyone else. This Sunday, we’re thinking of all of you with so much love and admiration.

As a small thank-you to everyone, this week only, every ebook in our store is 75% off.

Whether you love sweeping Scottish Highland adventures, Tudor court intrigue, heartfelt women’s fiction, or pulse-pounding contemporary thrillers, we hope there’s a story waiting to comfort, distract, inspire, or simply give someone a few precious hours away from the noise of the world.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR EBOOKS FROM OUR BOOKSTORE

What's your story?

Hello dear friends—

    What's your story?

     Ideas are always in the air. A piano has 88 keys — and yet from those 88 keys spring millions of combinations, millions of pieces of music, each one entirely its own. Writing is the same. The raw materials are finite. The stories are not.

    The short story that first planted the seed of our collaborative writing life was born from standing witness to Hurricane Gloria battering the Newport coast — the wind, the chaos, the strange stillness that followed. The novel that launched our career grew out of Jim's doctoral dissertation. And every novel since has grown from a single moment of ‘what if?’ — an event, an occasion, a crack in ordinary life that let the light in.

    This past week gave us a new kind of ‘what if?’.

    We traveled to the US east coast…

    We went first to Connecticut to visit family and Jim's mom who turns 100 this year, then south to Philadelphia for the Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC) Annual Conference, one of the country's most powerful gatherings of patients, thrivers, survivors, caregivers, and advocates.

Walking among hundreds of people who are navigating the same disease — some newly diagnosed, some years into survivorship, some walking alongside someone they love — was humbling in a way that's hard to put into words. You felt the weight of every story in every room. And the courage.

    I was honored to sit on a panel for ‘Tending the Inner Self, a writing workshop’, exploring how the creative act — journaling, storytelling, putting words to the unspeakable — can be part of healing. We talked about writing not as performance, but as witness. As a way of making meaning when life asks hard questions.

    But what moved me most was something simpler. Throughout the conference, people kept being asked the same question — asked to pause, look up, and answer:

    "What's your story?"

    Not your diagnosis. Not your prognosis. Not your treatment timeline.     Your story. What brought you here. What you carry. What you hope for. It's such a small question, and such a vast one.

    It reminded me and Jim why we write. Every book we've made began because someone — or something — had a story that needed to be told.     A storm. A dissertation. A grief. A joy too large for silence. The form changes. The impulse never does.

    So, we want to ask you — our readers, our community, the people who have walked with us through all these pages:

    What's your story?

    We'd love to hear it. Hit reply and tell us — one line, one paragraph, or one page. What moment made you say, ‘what if?’  What event cracked your life open, or closed a chapter, or began one you didn't see coming?

    Every great piece of fiction starts somewhere true. Maybe yours starts here…

FREE EBOOK FROM OUR ONLINE STORE!

A MIDSUMMER WEDDING

A Highland storm. A forced marriage. A passion they cannot deny...

Their marriage was two decades in the making. Elizabeth Hay is young, educated, and has her own ideas about her life. Alexander Macpherson is a Highlander and a pirate and not about to be tied down to some delicate court flower. But honor dictates they go through with the betrothal arranged when they were still children.

Now the wedding ceremony is only a week away. Each wants to put an end to the nuptials, but fate has a way of bollixing the best-made plans. As the biggest storm in memory sweeps through Scotland and the floods leave them swimming for their lives, Elizabeth and Alexander must face up to the one thing they never expected.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE EBOOK FROM OUR ONLINE STORE

I Had No Idea… (They Actually Surprised Me!)

Hello dear friends—

     They surprised me!

  And if you know me at all, you know that’s nearly impossible.

   Jim always says I can read his mind (and it’s true). So planning anything behind my back? Nearly impossible.

   But my suddenly very sneaky husband somehow did it. With the help of two of our friends, he did it. For weeks, Jim apparently walked around the house saying “la-la-la” in his head whenever I tried to mind-read him.

   When I entered the room that night and saw everyone, I had to walk right back out. Tears. Overwhelmed. Grateful beyond words.

   Have you ever been truly surprised like that? 

Over the years, we’ve tried to surprise you too.

  Not with parties…. but with our stories.

   Somehow, over three decades, we’ve written in just about every genre imaginable:

✨ Young Adult
✨ Fantasy & Time Travel

✨ Pirates
✨ Cozy Ghost Stories
✨ Scottish Historical Romance
✨ Contemporary Fiction
✨ Thrillers

✨ Warriors
✨ Lawyers

   There’s something here for practically everyone.

   If you haven’t explored our backlist in a while, this might be the time.
   We’ve included a 25% off coupon in this newsletter — and if you’d like to share it with a friend, that would mean the world to us.

   (Word of mouth is always magic.)

On the health front…

I had another stent replacement last week. I try to put up a brave, positive face — but I won’t pretend each surgery isn’t getting harder to recover from. Next week I begin radiation. We’re hopeful it helps with the bone pain.

   As I travel this cancer road, people often ask, “What can we do? How can we help?” Jim and I are deeply moved every time.

   In December, a young author friend of ours, Elizabeth Briggs, died of colon cancer at just 45. Her family shared words that struck straight through us:

   “If you would like to support Elizabeth’s family, please honor her by buying her books… Some part of her will always be alive as long as her stories have readers.”

   Cancer robs us of so much — our energy, our plans, sometimes our identities. It takes from families emotionally and financially. It interrupts the work we love.

   So I’ll say this gently, while I’m still kicking around (slower, but still kicking):

   If you’re an author, maybe one day there’ll be a ‘Nikoo’ character in your book.

   If you’re a reader, maybe you'll recommend one of our stories to a friend or share this newsletter.

   If you're looking for a book for yourself or a friend, you'll use the coupon at our bookstore.

          Here's the 25% off coupon code…    THJVU9Y9I0  

   And you'll keep reading our stories…   

That’s how a writer will always remain alive. 

Thanks!

Happy New Year to our precious family and friends!

Happy New Year to our precious family and friends, 

As we step into 2026, we’re wishing you good health, deep peace, big laughs, and lots of love. May the year bring fewer worries, more reasons to celebrate, and just enough chaos to keep life interesting…but not enough to require a spreadsheet.

We’re so grateful for you, for your kindness, your support, and for being part of our lives. Here’s to showing up for one another, holding each other close, and finding joy wherever we can.

We’re so grateful for you, for your kindness, your support, and for being part of our lives. 

Here’s to showing up for one another, holding each other close, and finding joy wherever we can. 

Wishing you a Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year!

With love (and optimism),

Nikoo and Jim