u/JonD_writes

Just two weeks to go until the release of 'The Improbable We Can Do Today', and the first batch of author copies has arrived, which is so exciting! I'm relieved and delighted that they look great.

And I spent a very pleasant hour or two at the weekend successfully avoiding any actual writing of the follow-up by making 100 bookmarks to be given away as freebies with any in-person sales - three designs, one based on the book cover and the other two on artwork of the two main characters. And tassels of course. GOLD tassels. The best kind of tassels. 😆

It feels almost unreal to see something that's only existed in my head or on screen for so long actually physically present in the world! 😲

I'm working away on the second, companion collection of stories 'The Impossible May Take Slightly Longer', but it's so lovely to see my first book actually in print (even if the publishing date is still a month or so away).

I'm currently looking for ARC readers for this first collection, if anyone fancies small-scale, character-driven cosy (or cosy-adjacent) fantasy stories told from the perspective of a disabled protagonist who is capable, complex, and central to her own narrative, where the stakes are personal rather than world-ending, and where kindness always matters.

If you’d like to get a free advance copy, you can download the ePub (or PDF) via Bookfunnel or Booksprout. You don’t have to be an ARC reader already!

Bookfunnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/fad4k0r0qh

Booksprout: https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/280190/the-improbable-we-can-do-today-a-collection-of-cosy-fantasy-mystery-stories-about-resilience-ingenuity-love-belonging-and-gentle-justice

If you do, it would be lovely if you’d consider leaving an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads on or close to the publishing date of June 1st. Thank you!

Blurb:

Meriva Secaret was once the very best of thieves. Until she lost her limbs.

Now, in the ancient, rain-drenched streets of Draffe, where temple bells mark the hours and secrets lie behind every door, she makes her living as a researcher and investigator, finding what was lost, fixing injustices, outwitting the powerful… and still occasionally stealing just the right thing from just the wrong person.

Her speciality is small problems with big consequences, puzzles and predicaments whose solutions require observation, ingenuity, and, above all, the ability to see people as they really are. Meriva is very good at seeing people. Perhaps because those people all too often don’t see the real her, but only what she no longer has.

What she does have is a mind like a lock-pick, an ex-thief’s instincts, and attitude to spare. Plus an ex-mercenary partner who loves her as she really is, and an absolute determination to live life on her own terms.

Told from the perspective of a disabled protagonist who is capable, complex, and central to her own narrative, this full-length collection of cosy fantasy mystery stories speak about resilience, ingenuity, love, belonging, and gentle justice. Whimsical, warm and often wryly funny, they are for readers who enjoy small-scale, character-driven fantasy where the stakes are personal rather than world-ending, and where kindness always matters.

Triggers:

Meriva, the MC, lives with a significant disability. So the stories, while mostly whimsical, humorous and firmly positive in outlook, contain references to:

• Acquired disability (limb loss, referenced throughout)
• Ableist comments, attitudes, and microaggressions (occasional, and challenged within the narrative)
• Well-intentioned but intrusive questions about disability (occasional) 
• Past trauma: fire, building collapse, bereavement (occasionally referenced in thoughts or speech, never depicted graphically)
• Grief and regret (occasional) 
• Brief, mild physical peril (occasional and non-graphic)

 

Publication date:

1st June 2026

ARCs available:

Now

Please submit by:

On or soon after publication date (June 1st)

Link to ARCs:

Bookfunnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/fad4k0r0qh

Booksprout: https://booksprout.co/reviewer/review-copy/view/280190/the-improbable-we-can-do-today-a-collection-of-cosy-fantasy-mystery-stories-about-resilience-ingenuity-love-belonging-and-gentle-justice

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I really hope you enjoy the stories, and thank you so much for reading!