It's Friday - What Can Possibly Go Wrong?
A weekly newsletter from Jodi Taylor
This week we have:
Exciting news from Jodi
The Sands of Time Writing Competition: TEMPORAL ANOMALY #4127 by Ricard Kelly
A Murder Out of Time — Afternoon Tea, Murder Mystery & Book Launch with Jodi Taylor - almost sold out!
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: College of Shadows by Mark Wells💙📚
The Book of the Month is Doing Time by Jodi Taylor
There’s plenty to read this week and you can see everything new on the blog too. CLICK HERE for the blog.
Word has come down from on high. Well, from a gin-ridden yacht in the English Channel actually – but it’s much the same thing.
Could I write something for the Friday newsletter?
‘What? Now?’
‘Yes. Deadlines, darling.’
‘About …?’
‘Whatever you’ve been up to.’
‘Well, I banged my head on a cupboard door and nearly knocked myself senseless. I fell off the bed trying to kill a clothes moth. And I might have tried to strangle my brother outside my front door.’
‘That was because you were working out a plot line …?’
‘If that’s what you’re comfortable with, yes.’
‘For heaven’s sake, Taylor, we’re trying to market you as normal. What have you done that’s normal?’
‘The Windowsill of Death is living up to its name. Lettuce plants, lemon balm and mint – all dead. Dead and gone. Completely dead.’
‘How on earth can you kill mint?’
‘Apparently very easily. It barely lasted two days.’
‘What happened?’
‘It went black. Gangrene, I think.’
‘Well, don’t mention any of that.’
‘OK, what shall I mention?’
‘How about the new three-book contract and what books are involved?’
‘Don't you want to talk about this year’s Christmas story first?
‘No, that will be in next week’s newsletter.’
‘All right - well, tell them about how Frankie and I are discussing where to put the body on the cover. How much blood and so on. It’s Christmas so it has to be tasteful.’
‘OK, and by the way, is your brother OK? You know after…?’
‘After what?’
‘The attempted strangling.’
‘Oh… Um… Sorry – my phone’s ringing. Must go.’
Next week, we’ll reveal all the details of this year’s Christmas story and then, week by week, which full-length novels are included in the new three-book contract and when they’ll be published.
TEMPORAL ANOMALY #4127 by Ricard Kelly
Martin Blackwell was having a thoroughly mediocre Wednesday. In fact, he was having a thoroughly mediocre life. Not bad, mind you. Just spectacularly average. He had a job in middle management at a company that made plastic bits for other plastic bits. He had a modest flat in Croydon that he shared with a cat he’d named Chairman Meow. He drank exactly three cups of tea daily (breakfast, mid-morning, and after dinner), never exceeded the speed limit, and possessed precisely seven pairs of identical grey socks.
So when a letter arrived unaddressed in his letterbox with only "Temporal Anomaly #4127, a.k.a. Martin Blackwell” on the front, he initially assumed it was yet another creative attempt by estate agents to make their junk mail stand out.
The envelope was constructed of a peculiar material. Not quite paper, not quite metal, and with an iridescent sheen that shifted colours when viewed from different angles. He almost binned it, but Chairman Meow took a particular interest. The envelope was not on the face of it the sort of thing the cat generally showed interest in. Food, sleep, and expressing disdain for Martin's existence was the Chairman’s usual ambit. Said existence seemed mostly, if barely, tolerated for the simple fact that the cat could not operate the tin opener.
“Alright, you furry little dictator, I'll open it,” Martin muttered, nudging the cat aside.
Dear Mr. Blackwell (Temporal Anomaly #4127),
You have been identified as a Class Three timeline disturbance, and your presence is required at the Bureau of Chronological Corrections. Report to Platform 7∂ at King's Cross Station tomorrow at precisely 11:37 AM.
Do not be late. Time waits for no man. Though in your particular case, that axiom requires several footnotes and appendices, and has been the subject of at least one peer-reviewed research paper.
Punctuality is of the essence.
Regards,
Ms. Evangeline Sharp
Senior Temporal Compliance Officer
Bureau of Chronological Corrections
Martin blinked, read the letter again, and then set it down on his kitchen counter.
Author interview with Grace Blair
What inspired you to embark on a writing career, and how did your journey as an author begin?
Watching "Murder She Wrote" featuring Jessica Fletcher as a writer who traveled. I said I want to do be writer like Jessica and travel.
Can you describe your writing process? Do you follow a structured outline, or is your approach more organic?
My approach to writing is more organic and intuitive.
Which authors or books have significantly influenced your writing style and thematic choices?
Jodi Taylor "The Chronicle of St. Mary" how Jodi finds fun ways to keep Max and her compatriots in trouble. Also, Ken Follett "Pillars of the Earth". Ken has a method of twist and turns which keep me engaged.
A Murder Out of Time — Afternoon Tea, Murder Mystery & Book Launch with Jodi Taylor
This event is now almost sold out but there is still some availability on Sunday 28th September 2025
Five star review for The Official Reading Companion and History Briefings for The Chronicles of St Mary's Series available in hardback, paperback and eBook.
Just want I needed! It's hard to keep track of all the books in the series and this guide is a great reminder of what jump happened in which book, who all the characters are etc. It is also really interesting to read the background history to many of the jumps.
If you have enjoyed the Companion Guide please leave a review
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: College of Shadows by Mark Wells💙📚
You'll love Mark Wells's atmospheric tale if you like haunted heroes, unspeakable horrors, and parallel worlds. College of Shadows is the engrossing first novel in the Cambridge Gothic YA urban fantasy series.
Have you enjoyed this book too?
The Book of the Month for May is Doing Time
