Once more into the fray
Once more into the fray
The second book saga and all the good that (genuinely) comes with it
I keep a lot of things on my desk. I have lip balm and hand lotion, a yellow monster finger puppet, a cube-shaped pug, a Quirrel figurine from Hollow Knight, a candle, a crystal skull, a ring dish, a color-coded remote for the cloud hanging in my office. Pens and scissors and coasters and headphones and sunglasses and a glass of water I forget to drink while I’m writing. On and on.
It’s mostly here at this desk that I’ve been writing and revising the first section of a new book, a YA+ murder mystery that’s probably as much about the guilt and pressure survivors face as it is about the power of secrets. (Who knows? Not me! Not yet.) For a time, I said my brand was grief. Maybe that’s true. Maybe that will always be true. Maybe I will always be pulling at the same button on the back of the same cushion of the same ugly armchair in the half-lit basement in my mind.
What is a brand though, except an arbitrary category in which to fit? I’m a marketer and a big part of my job is to not only capture an idea, but evoke others in the process. To manifest curiosity and new ways of thinking, sometimes, about the same old thing. I believe the same is true of us as storytellers; we are here to be more than one thing—to mine ourselves and our lives for stories that show every shade.
“Good enough”
When I was first thinking about this new book sometime last year, I had the same immediate, nagging fear I have when I get what I think is a really good (and technically ambitious) idea: Am I good enough to deliver on it? To see it through? To follow where it leads?
Unfortunately, I do not say to myself: Sure, why not? Why not me? It was my idea!
I know that the former questions will remain mostly unanswerable for me—until the book is written. Having survived the publication of one book, I know there is a world in which I can do it again. Stupidly, simply, that’s enough.
DA at a discount this month!
Speaking of… I just found out that the audiobook of Disappearing Act (written by me, narrated by me, chaos induced by me) is 50% off until April 30th! Plus, the cover is different and you can look at it while you’re on a treadmill or on a train! Or wherever you go to listen to me pronounce “conch shell” the correct way, which I’m sorry to say is “conk shell.”
A YA+ memoir in verse that’s just right for National Poetry Month! And only $6.50! You can get it for yourself, a friend, or a very specific kind of enemy.
What else is going on?
I’m also glad to say, obnoxiously without saying more right now, that I have an essay in an anthology coming out next year that means a great deal to me. It is—drum roll please—a lot about grief (let me have this) and a lot about love.
Events/teaching coming up:
I’m reading in Philly at beloved Tattooed Mom on Monday, April 15th at 7pm with Warren C. Longmire, Michael B. Tager, and Pantea Tofangchi. Come for the words, stay for the candy cocktails and pierogis!
As part of Writing Co-Lab’s incredible summer camp, I’m teaching an hour-long generative writing class (all levels, anyone welcome). It’s a special set of virtual programming and I’m thrilled to be part of it. Learn more, enroll, be there with us via Zoom!
I’m also building out a school visit section of my website soon, for anyone who’s an educator (teachers, librarians, professors, what have you) and would like me to visit their class in person—Philly, Phillyish, NYC, you get it—or virtually.
Some things I read and/or watched and loved recently
Hot Springs Drive by Lindsay Hunter. Talk about a book that does it all. And I mean all of it. Every horrifying, sexy, sad, sick, funny, mean-spirited, and big-hearted thing. I was introduced to HSD when Lindsay and I read together last fall and I remember laughing along as she read and then, remembering the premise centers on a murder/best frenemy kind of thing… Hoo boy. I was immediately hooked. I stayed hooked.
Parakeet by Marie Helene-Bertino. You know I loved Beautyland and so I had to read Parakeet, especially after
described it to me as a perfect novel. (I now go where Shayne goes; she is my personal algorithm.) I was bowled over by the lyricism and the twisty way the plot unfolds. I was crushed and then I was cured. This is a book for siblings. For anyone!The third and final season of Sort Of. I love what Bilal Baig did not only with the character of Sabi and their journey but also all the softness, seriousness, and generosity in each storyline. In each character. Those headphones! That baby.
The first season (?) and/or standalone series Constellation. Season 2 isn’t confirmed as of my writing this and while it doesn’t need one, I would be very into it. I would watch Noomi Rapace do anything. Give me creepy multiverse sci-fi family drama, add Jonathan Banks, and I’m there.
To all that! And more.