An Important IRL Announcement

AND BURN'S COVER REVEAL! <3

Mahalo,

I am writing this edition of The Writer Gal Letter listening to Matthew Mayfield’s Fire Escape. And, tbh, I’m trying to see how much news can I cram into one teeny letter. Because, Postmate, ALLLLLL the things have been happening over the last two weeks and I might need two TWGLs to tell you all about them!

First of all, my heart and prayers are with all the people fighting the wars - in Kabul, in Kyiv, and everywhere else reported and unreported. I’m trying to do my bit for those affected but more on that in a few days!

But life has to go on so, without burying the lead, I’ll start off with THE MOST IMPORTANT news!

I’m going to be moving houses, Postmate!!!! :D

Actually, our apartment complex is going to be completely demolished and rebuilt from the ground up into a brand-new fancy skyscraper (they’re talking 25 floors+). The development happened two weeks ago and I’ve been googling apartments ever since then to build an aesthetic!

Truth be told, I’m extremely nostalgic and a little sad to move to a new place because all of my books, all of these newsletters, all of my successes and failures and heartbreaks (oh, I have had those, Postmate) have been contained in the rooms I call home. To leave it is a hard decision. But a good one!

A new home brings with it new energies, new adventures, and newer joys. And I’m ready for some joy, aren’t you?

Here’s the first joyful news.

Giveaway Updates!

Congratulations, Rene Mirsky! You’re the winner of last month’s giveaway. I’ll email you to get in touch with you over the next steps!

Don’t lose heart, Postmate. Because this month’s giveaway is here now!

This is again a quiz. A super simple one. Just answer the questions on the link with the pink button and get to it. And may the odds be ever in your bookish favor.

Question of the Day

Let’s talk favorite books. I haven’t shared this story in a lot of places so you’re probably hearing it first. So I basically became a writer because I read everything Nora Roberts wrote from 1981 to 2013 (I moved on to a million other authors since then), but she is my *goddess* and my holy grail dream is to sit at a table with her and sign books side by side - once someone revives me from my fainting spell ;). BUT, my most-favorite NR couple - Mia and Sam of the Three Sisters Island series - came to me like this.

I used to frequent this second-hand bookstore since I was 1ike 14 and had pocket money to spend. It was basically travel money but I walked to and from school and saved it up and spent it on books, as we do :P This continued when I went to college and was as frugal with money so I could spend it on books. (This was all before I had a Kindle so it was all paperbacks).

I blitzed through everything Miz Roberts wrote in the “Little Shop”, bought them all except this one book titled - Face The Fire. Which, for some reason, I never touched. I read the other two books in the series and kept putting off Mia and Sam’s book. One reason I gave myself? The book was on the topmost shelf of the place (it was like three hundred books tall) and I had so many others I could read.

Until…one day, it was a hot summer day, I asked the bookshop owner to ask his helper to climb the ladder and get it for me. I was filled with this electric urgency to read this book, right then, right that day.

Postmate, I read the book in one night. Actually, I might have read it in four hours. Four breathless, insanely hopeful, super incredible, heartbreaking hours. I cried and wept and cursed and blushed (I was like 18) and fell madly in love with Mia Devlin and Sam Logan. They are, to date, my secret stan couple in the universe and I am DYING to write a couple as incredible as Mia and Sam. But I’m telling you today because I want to hear from you.

Do you have a story about how a book or an author came to be your favorite?

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What I’m working on right now?

BONUS SCENES! The paperbacks are being formatted this week (I was out of commission the week I was sick so work is slightly behind schedule) and need long, juicy epilogues for all them couples. So I’m happily plotting where are they scenes for all the Aarti V Raman-verse characters :D

BURN: Also, Nihaal and Mili are here and in my head…Scroll down to see what I mean. I have a teeny but delicious excerpt for you.

AUDIOBOOK: I am doing a full rewrite of the office rom-com coming later this year. And, after inhaling rom-coms like they are french fries, I finally cracked the plot, Postmate! Yayy to the writing now.

RELEASES FOR 2022: I want to be absolutely SURE of the dates (with a one-week leeway) but I think we have a schedule for the year, Postmate. More on this next month! :D

BURN’S COVER AND A HOT EXCERPT!

THIS IS BURN’s COVER, POSTMATE!!! Isn’t it scorching hot and incendiary? Just like Nihaal and Mili’s relationship that is going to, guarantee, melt your heart :D

What is Burn? Enemies to lovers’ tension. Formula One behind the scenes madness and goss. Small-town secrets and rumors. Smart lawyering. A forced marriage made in hell. Slow burn with notched-up heat. Forced proximity. Bickering sibs. Reluctant best friend heroes (think Anthony and Simon from Bridgertons). And *family drama*

Don’t believe me? Then let me present you with this excerpt…

After the race…

There was only one way to describe him. Fucking naked.

Mili’s heart pounded a jungle drum in her ears while she stared at the expanse of outrageously toned, exquisitely perfect, mouthwatering flanks of Formula One racing’s golden boy. His thighs were sculpted things of hard marble sewn with honey brown skin that flexed each time the water hit his striated back. And his buttocks were perfect moons of hardness and flesh. Delicious.

He was whistling tunelessly as he showered in the glass cubicle of the hotel bathroom, the door carelessly flung open. So anyone, her, could wander inside and get an arresting eyeful.

Don’t look down, Mili.

Mili looked down. Spit dried in her throat when she saw the outrageously, perfectly beautiful specimen between his legs. And had the most explicit vision of what it would be like if she went inside right now, got down on her knees, and took him in her mouth, the warm water of the shower cascading around them both.

Wet warmth rushed between her legs. Tightening the skin under the loose pants and lacy shell cinched at the waist by a hand-tooled faux leather belt. Slicking her core against the silk of her Cosabella thongs, while her nipples peaked against the matching silk of her bra.

She drew another sharp breath. As excitement and anger filled her veins.

What the fuck was she thinking? Mili Iyer did not kneel for anyone. Certainly not a man. Not even a man as sexy and perfectly built as this one. And definitely not this man. Her nemesis.

Writer Gal Recommends

Watching the following three police procedurals

• Jack Reacher - I’m 1000% going to write a fine, action-and-adrenalin-filled romance for the current Mr. Reacher, Alan Ritchson. He. Is. Muse-worthy!

• Murderville - Hilarious and full of the best cameos! Will Arnett is a class of his own when it comes to comedy. (Also, he has a podcast with Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes which I’m so happy to have discovered).

• Anxious People - Based on the bestselling book, Anxious People is definitely one of the year’s Top 5 TV shows for me. It’s sweet and contemplative with deft storytelling! Do not miss it.

Reading, haha, Jack Reacher in Lee Child’s Killing Floor. It’s not romance. But it is incredible storytelling and world-building and there are like 20+ books in the series so you can catch up on them all while waiting for Burn to release :D

Writer Gal’s Writer Pals Present

In this edition, I have new releases galore from my writer friends. All guaranteed to delight and excite you!

First up is Aidy Award and Piper Fox’s incredibly hot, super fun, college romance starting incredibly hot (like Jacob-level hot) wolf shifter romance Heart Throb Wolf. And THE HEROINE IS A ROMANCE WRITER LIKE ME!

Then there is a scorching hot mafia romance with Posey Parks’ Ruthless Mafia Boss. If that cover does not convince you to get this book baddy, I don’t know what will.

Last up, Fiona Murphy has a brand-new release, Javier. It’s a billionaire-nanny romance with distinct Jane Eyre feels (I always think all nannies are Jane Eyres 😀) and that cover is swoooon.

There are more for-nothing events for you to check out and discover new authors for you. Happy reading!

That’s it from me for this edition of The Writer Gal Letter, Postmate. The next newsletter will have CHAPTER TWO of the newsletter novella - No Other Love - and more Burn updates (maybe even the paperback cover) and many more bookish announcements.

Till then stay safe and awesome.

xx

Aarti