Dear Friends and Followers,

Welcome to my November newsletter, featuring updates on my publishing adventure, including my novel When Things Go Missing, as well as the new novel I’m working on. I also share reviews of books I’m currently reading and my thoughts on the literary world in general.

In this Newsletter, you will find:

• Holiday Special for When Things Go Missing
• A new Review of my novel by Sally Cronin
• Book Sirens: Free books in return for reviews
• My review of Jaquie Murray’s Survival of the Fittest series
• Opportunities for Book Clubs
• Seeking Proofreaders and ARC reviewers for my new novel

Holiday Special! My Gift to Readers

With Black Friday and Christmas shopping around the corner, I am offering readers 60% off on When Things Go Missing. It’s available on Amazon in the kindle and paperback editions. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, now is the perfect time to do so, or to gift a friend or family member.

If you have read When Things Go Missing, or have it on your TBR list, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and hope you will leave a review on Amazon. Reviews are the life-blood of successful books. They say 50 reviews are needed to move the Amazon algorithms in your favor. I have 23 so far, almost half-way there! Many thanks to all the lovely readers who have supported my novel with their reviews already.

Review of When Things Go Missing by Sally Cronin on Smorgasbord Blog Magazine

A powerful story, with brilliantly crafted characters and situations that are very relatable.

As the tagline to the title states, this is a novel about everything that matters. And that is absolutely how the story unfolds. Families are complex institutions, with pre-conceived wisdoms on how parents are supposed to behave towards each other and how they in turn interact with their children. Memories formed during childhood and the teenage years influence a great deal of our belief structure even much later in life.

In most families there seems to be one person who is the glue that holds everything together, and in this case it is Fran, who without any warning heads off on a seemingly routine chore, and doesn’t return. Initially, this leads to chaos as her husband Walter and her adult children Kay and Cal try to work out which of them is the cause behind her taking off without them. Even though Fran leaves breadcrumbs for each of them as she travels further away, the reasons for her leaving are still very unclear.

The novel then evolves from their individual perspectives as each works through all the emotions involved and battle guilt, addiction and loss. Each must find a path through the turmoil and at times things are far worse before they get better.

In part two of the book, the author has softened both the characters and their choices, and we watch as the letting go of the past, opens new doors to opportunity, finding hidden talents and new influences.

This is a powerful story, with brilliantly crafted characters and situations that are very relatable. The author has created each of them a path to follow which allows for growth and enlightenment, and takes some of them far from home, which is very enjoyable and satisfying. It is hard to believe this is her first novel, as it is masterfully crafted. For anyone who enjoys family sagas, great characters and adventure, this is the perfect read. Highly recommended.

BookSirens: Get advance reader copies (ARCs) from top publishers & authors

If you love to read, want to help authors by reviewing their books, and are on a tight budget, this is a site for you. Indie authors as well as those from top publishers and small presses offer their book for free to readers who want to review books. When Things Go Missing is available to download on this site along with hundreds of other books in all genres.

Here’s a review that one BookSirens reader (Ellen) wrote about my novel:

★★★★★ An amazing read that drew me in as if these were my own family members. Kay was so relatable for me. The entire family dynamic is relatable for my own. There was so much beautiful symbolism in the gifts Kay’s mom sends them while she’s missing. Themes of loss, loyalty, and dysfunction make this a unique plot yet an all too familiar scenario for the reader. This is certainly a book I’ll treasure.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

When Things Go Missing is included in this link to other Literary Fiction you’ll love.

My Review of Jacqui Murray’s Crossroads Series

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been captivated by Murray’s Crossroads Trilogy. I ate up the first book, Survival of the Fittest, dove eagerly into The Quest for Home, and am well into the last book, Against All Odds. I don’t know how this series will end so there are no spoilers here, but I didn’t want to put off reviewing this series, which I highly recommend.

Book Burb

Five tribes. One leader. A treacherous journey across three continents in search of a new home. Written in the spirit of Jean Auel, Survival of the Fittest is an unforgettable saga of hardship and determination, conflict and passion.

Chased by a ruthless enemy, Xhosa leads her People on a grueling journey through unknown and dangerous lands following a path laid out decades before by her father, to be followed only as a last resort. She is joined by other fleeing tribes from Indonesia, China, South Africa, East Africa, and the Levant, all similarly forced by timeless events to find new lives. As they struggle to overcome treachery, lies, tragedy, secrets, and Nature itself, Xhosa is forced to face the reality that her enemy doesn’t want to ruin her People. It wants to ruin her.

The story is set 850,000 years ago, a time in prehistory when man populated most of Eurasia, where ‘survival of the fittest’ was not a slogan. It was a destiny. Xhosa’s People were from a violent species, one fully capable of addressing the many hardships that threatened their lives except for one: future man, a smarter version of themselves, one destined to obliterate all those who came before.

My Review

Not since reading Clan of the Cave Bear so long ago have I been caught up in a series that takes us back to the root of our humanity, where it all began. This series gathers the various strands of our cave-dwelling nomadic cousins from the far corners of the earth and brings them to a crossroads that becomes a melting pot, forging the species that eventually dominates the earth and creates the civilizations of our common heritage.

Here we get glimpses into humanity’s most basic and brilliant discoveries: how to capture and maintain fire to keep us warm, how to cover ourselves with animal skins prepared in such a way as to not rot, how fashion a spearhead and fasten it to a shaft, how to keep wounds from festering and treat pain, and how mutual care and grooming between clanmates and the copulation to sustain the race gives rise to what we now call love.

And all this is told through fascinating characters that we come to love, and in some cases dread. At the heart of the story is Xhosa, a young woman of fierce determination and wisdom who comes to lead her clan when her father dies, how she partners with the brilliantly brutal warrior Nightshade who covets Zhosa’s power, as well as the gentle Pan-do, leader of another migrating clan who joins with hers. We meet Pan-do’s neurodivergent daughter, whose soothing songs mimic the sounds of the forest, even while her crippled body struggles to keep up. And Seeker who talks to the stars who tell him where the clan must go to find their new home.

As Xhosa’s clan travels further north, they meet Hawk, the charismatic leader of a clan with advanced survival skills that help them survive the colder climates where they travel. And eventually they meet Wind, outcast from the clan of the Big Heads, the homo-sapiens whose advance warcraft drives away or dominates the other clans whose lands they conquer.

Through three books we follow Xhosa’s clan and those that merge with hers, as well as splinter groups, from what we now call central Africa up through Egypt into the fertile crescent and across Europe to the Spanish plains. Along the way we encounter earthquakes and floods, wildfires and famine, cannibals and slavers. We learn what “survival of the fittest” really means, what true leadership demands, and get a glimpse of how the heart, stamina, and ingenuity of our most distant ancestors lives on in us, enabling us to survive the equally brutal and challenging times we live in.

Kudos to Murray for this well-researched and riveting story of our ancient beginnings. It gives me hope that we too, despite our flaws, can and will survive even in these turbulent times, which, after all, are not so different from what our earliest ancestors encountered.

Calling all Book Clubs! Let’s Meet Up

“When Things Go Missing is catnip for book club readers. Brasket is a gorgeous writer who explores complex family dynamics in a raw yet sympathetic way.” 

Dianne Emley, Los Angeles Times bestselling author

If you belong to a book club and think When Things Go Missing would be a good fit, please let me know.

 Reading Group Questions and Topics for Discussion can be found at the end of the book, or you can download a copy of the questions HERE.

I’d love to meet with your book club either virtually, or in person on the Central Coast of California. Or your book club might enjoy listening to a podcast author interview where I talk about my book, how it came to be written, and also about our sailing adventure and new books that I’m working on.

Seeking Proofreaders and ARC Reviewers for This Sea Within

I’ve been hard at work on my next novel whose working title is This Sea Within. It’s the first book in my romantic adventure series set in Central America and will be published in 2026. It’s already been professionally edited and now I’m looking for a skilled proofreader before formatting the book. Preferably, I need someone who can work in MS WORD. If you are a proofreader or know someone you can recommend, please let me know. I’m also looking for early reader-reviews for when my advanced reader copy (ARC) is ready, if this might interest you.