Hello, scribblers and scribblees. I know I said these newsletters would be few and far between (and I meant it!) but I just so happen to have two things releasing within two weeks of each other; hence, you're getting this email hard upon the heels of the previous one. Apologies for that. I promise to procrastinate in the future. And as always, you can expect typos and curse words, because you can't take the Megan out of the Megan.

When you crack open The Undercutting of Rosie and Adam, you might take a moment to notice the dedication:

"Who is this Amanda person?" you might wonder. Well, that would be my fellow author, critique partner, dear friend, and absolute ride or die: Amanda Sellet. 

Amanda and I met through mutual writing friends at our local authors gatherings. To be honest, she is so intelligent and so evidently the sort of person who has her shit together that I found her a little intimidating. We sort of hovered in each other's orbit until the fateful day we discovered that both of our children, who are the same age, were obsessed with Dungeons & Dragons. My eldest kept trying to get his buddies to start up a campaign, but he couldn't get any takers, and Amanda's daughter was a DM, happy to welcome a new player into the fold. 

So one Sunday a month, I would take my son to Amanda's house, and since Amanda lives 45 minutes away, I wound up camping out until the day's playing was done, which, as it turned out, was hours. Amanda and I started writing together and sharing publishing experiences with each other, and we quickly realized that we are basically the same person.

And so a beautiful friendship was born, because our kids our magnificent nerds.

I know I existed on this Earth for well over forty years without Amanda, but I'm not too sure how I did it. Now, nothing I write sees the light of day without first passing muster under Amanda's astute editorial eye. We celebrate our professional and personal triumphs together. We scrape each other off the floor when the publishing industry smashes our little egos into sad, flat pancakes. And we laugh our asses off a lot, because, not to brag, we're both kind of hilarious.

And selfishly, I get to read everything Amanda writes before everyone! She's an incredible writer. The wit! The language! The sweet tender feels! The jokes! I am not exaggerating when I tell you that she is a comic genius. It never ceases to amaze me that I can read several drafts of an Amanda Sellet book and cackle at the same lines every single time. In the adult market, she is currently writing a series of modern day retellings of classic Hollywood screwball comedies. Her book, The Odds of Getting Even, which comes out one week from today, is Amanda's take on The Lady Eve, and it is glorious. And if you happen to have an Edelweiss account, you can request her upcoming young adult book, Flirting with Murder, which is sure to charm your socks off. Or you could treat yourself to anything in Amanda's backlist -- all of her books are smart and funny af, in my opinion. Oh, and definitely subscribe to her newsletter; it's way better than mine.

This is the part of the newsletter wherein I gush about something that makes me happy in the hopes that it might bring you a little joy, too. I'm going to talk about two things today because, to me, they dovetail nicely. 

The first is the Netflix series The Residence, a Shondaland production starring Uzo Aduba alongside a stellar cast. It's a murder mystery set in the White House, but not in the Oval Office--the body is found in the residence (hence the title). The president's mother-in-law discovers the body of Chief Usher A. B. Wynter in the billiard room, and apparently, the case falls under the jurisdiction not of the FBI or any other federal law enforcement agency but of the D.C. police force. Enter Cordelia Cupp, the brilliant, world famous detective who is working as a consultant to the Metropolitan Police Department. I loved every single thing about this show. All of it. I gulped it down.

The second thing that has recently brought me joy is the book Who Is Government?: The untold story of public service, edited by Michael Lewis. It's a series of essays by well-known writers, highlighting a handful of people who work for the federal government (or at least they did at the time of the book's writing -- insert sobbing here). Every chapter is fascinating and, in some cases, moved me to tears. I cannot recommend this one enough.

I think what struck me about both The Residence and Who Is Government? is the quiet celebration of people who dedicate their lives to public service, often in roles that go unnoticed and unrecognized. Let's take a minute to appreciate all the hard-working people who serve the public at all levels of government--city, county, state, and federal--because they really do make our lives better in ways large and small.