STORIES FROM MY DESK | June 2025: A Monthly Update on Writing, Reading & Watching

What I've been creating and consuming in the past month.

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I’ve started to wind down for the summer. I’ve learned over many years of doing this (and sometimes learning the hard way), that I have to take a few weeks away from being online in order to come back refreshed and reinvigorated.

Summer is my least favourite season. I don’t enjoy the humidity of the English heat and the way our houses are built to trap warmth inside (plus we have no AC) and I also don’t enjoy the media creating anxiety about the summer. Words like ‘furnace’ and ‘blow torch’ and ‘heat bomb’ just adds to my already low level anxiety about the season.

I’ve written about why I don’t enjoy it here, but in short it’s because I associate summer with sad times.

I’ve seen a few people talking about how summer makes them feel sad.

Everything Looks Rosie

, over at

Sow, Grow, Harvest, Rest

has just published a piece about why summer can be hard and it kind of sums up everything I feel. She writes:

…there are others who struggle in Summer, who experience a seasonal depression that actually happens when the days are light or long not dark and short, or who - like me - have trauma associations that will forever be tied to a Midsummer that seems beautiful on the outside but is rife with sensory associations and triggers.

Taken from Why Summer can be hard, and how I'm learning to slow down in the busy season by

Everything Looks Rosie

And yet, I love going on holiday and lying in the sun. I know, it doesn’t make sense.

This year has also been a big year for my daughter. She has finally completed all nineteen of her GCSE exams, attended her prom and had an induction into sixth form. She’s finished the school year, except for a couple of events in school this week so I feel like my parental duties over the past few months, supporting a hardworking and occasionally stressed daughter have come to an end - for the time being.

This is a midsummer montage I put together back in 2018 as I tried to look for the positives in the season:

CREATIVE UPDATE (online stuff)

Last month I wrote about upping my platform game. Putting more energy into growing my social media platform now my book proposal was out there looking for an agent. I did go back to Instagram for a while, but I am so out of practice, I simply forgot to post! I haven’t even posted anything on Substack Notes recently, I just don’t have the inclination or the energy.

YouTube brings me the most subscribers to my Substack and is the platform I most enjoy. So I’d really like to start making videos again. I also received a message on my YouTube saying they wished I’d do more long form videos. After my summer break I hope to return.

REFILLING THE CREATIVE WELL

We’ve had a couple of trips out this month.

My daughter and I are big fans of Fleetwood Mac. Unfortunately we’ll never get to experience seeing them live. But, there is a tribute band called Rumours of Fleetwood Mac, endorsed by Mick Fleetwood himself, who do a bloody excellent imitation. I highly recommend if you see them advertised at your local theatre. (They don’t just tour the UK, they also go to europe and the USA.)

And then the main event. We drove up to Liverpool at the weekend to see Lana Del Rey. Now, if you’re on TikTok there are a lot of people saying she’s not good live, that she came on late, that she ‘only’ does a one hour thirty minute set. I am not a fan, it’s my daughter who loves her, but I came away having really enjoyed the show and full of admiration for this talented woman. She is a true artist, a poet, a storyteller. And she was amazing. She’s inspired me a lot as a writer as she does what she wants to do, where her art takes her, despite the ‘demands’ from certain entitled fans. Below are two clips, Henry, come on and Summertime Sadness - my two favourites from the evening.

WRITING UPDATE

I did a U-turn on my writing plans. I had intended to put together another non-fiction book proposal BUT, when writing my evening pages it came out that I wanted to return to my novel. So that’s what I’ve been working on and I’ve been really enjoying it.

I’ve been documenting some of this novel writing process in the junk journal diary series I’ve started.

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READING UPDATE

Because we’re in the summer season I’ve been numbing my thoughts by scrolling on my phone. I know it’s not good for me, I know it makes my anxiety worse, and I’m trying to stop but I’m on a dopamine hunt. Which is a roundabout way of saying, I’ve not been reading.

I have started the May subscription from British Library Crime Classics. Cat and Mouse by Christianna Brand. I’m enjoying it so far.

Actually, I tell a lie. I have read a complete book. Miss Beeton’s Murder Agency by Josie Lloyd and I did enjoy it. Alice runs the Good Housekeeping Management Agency, supplying discreet domestic staff to luxurious townhouses and grand country estates. When Camille Messent urgently needs a new housekeeper, Alice sends Enya, a bold young woman with stellar references and fluency in French. But Alice's quiet New Year's Day is shattered when news breaks that Enya has been found dead.

Alice then goes on to investigate and solve the murder using the contacts she’s made via the agency. I think I’d give it a three and three quarters out of five. Almost a four but sometimes it felt a little bit, ooh, that’s lucky you know someone who can do that for you. (You can tell I need a break as I can’t think what word I need.) Contrived, maybe?

Substack Newsletters That I’ve Enjoyed/Have Made Me Think This Month

Taylor Jenkins Reid's $40 million book deal is bad for writers by

Jansplaining

Can Emily Henry Write Her Way Out of the Box BookTok Built? by

Smart Romance by Rena Rani

WATCHING UPDATE

High Potential (Disney +) is a police mystery series (season two coming in autumn) with a twist. It stars Kaitlin Olson as the cleaner in the police department who has an exceptional mind that she uses to help the police to solve cases. I really enjoyed this.

FUBAR Season Two (Netflix)

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Monica Barbaro this is a ridiculous action packed mystery. My husband is a huge fan of Arnie but even he thought it ludicrous at times with lots of ‘filler’ content that didn’t drive the plot forward. But if you want something lightweight, to switch your brain off and occasionally funny then this is a good choice.

Matlock (Sky Witness/Now)

Starring Kathy Bates we’ve literally just started watching this series and so far so good. Madeline "Matty" Matlock (Bates) is in her seventies and has returned to the workplace - namely a law firm where she helps solve cases. But is everything as it seems?

WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED FROM ME

My Substack is three years old!

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