Sorry and Sorry

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I want to apologize to my readers for neglecting this blog in the second half of 2025. 

One reason is that I've been very busy with my new side hustle as novelist. Since June of 2025, I have written nearly 140,000 words, which includes two complete novels and a novella. The first book, Killer Sillage, came out in September, and is available in both paperback and Kindle format. The second book, Savage Gourmand, is slated to be released in April, though I have not yet listed it for pre-order. The novella, Season's Greedy, was serialized on my author Substack, LaGue's Clues. I am also currently plotting book three in the Good Scents series of cozy mysteries. The hope is that A Murderous Accord will be published in September of 2026.

(You see what I did there with the titles, don't you? The protagonists in this series run a perfume shop in the Fells Point neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. If you're into fragrance--and you might be if you're reading this blog--you might enjoy them.)

Another reason is less fun to talk about. The current political climate has caused me to withdraw from things like social media. I still participate in Instagram and Facebook, but not to the extent I once did. I’ve unfollowed everything that reliably pisses me off. (And yet, I joined TikTok. Apart from a couple of fellow perfume lovers, Angie and Lois, pretty much everything about that platform also pisses me off.)

As I get older, I’ve realized I don’t want to be angry all the time. I don’t want to argue with strangers or marinate in outrage. Avoiding potential triggers feels less like disengagement and more like self-preservation. While my blogs are fully under my control, and contentious comments are rare, I still found myself avoiding them.

Maybe it's not healthy that I've retreated into my own fictional world of perfume shop owners and dead bodies, but it sure beats the realization that I can no longer order perfumes from Nose or Jovoy in Paris and 50-ML in Milan, or supplies for my jewelry business from China, because of tariffs. 

So if Minxstinks went a little quiet, consider this my apology—and my explanation. I haven’t fallen out of love with perfume; I’ve just been hiding in it. Stepping back wasn’t about disengaging so much as choosing what deserves my attention. Perfume still does. Writing does too. And this blog, when I let it be a place of pleasure rather than pressure, does as well. Thank you for sticking around and for coming back when I do.

Here's to a happy 2026 (fingers crossed).

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Posted by theminx on Minxstinks
Note: this post is my opinion. I am not affiliated with the companies mentioned in this post or any other companies.