Actually let’s just get this out of the way now, because if I sign out of tumblr who knows when I’ll be back. So have an oddball list of updates:

1. Borrowing this idea from a good friend: please tell us something that made you happy this week. There’s so much ugliness right now, let’s find the bright spots where we can. Pet a happy dog at the park? Great! Read a book you wanna rec? Also good! Heard a song you haven’t heard in ages & remembered how much you liked it? Perfect. Just something that made you smile.

1b. In regards to the ugliness: I am trying–for now–to keep politics off of this tumblr. Please do not take its absence here as apathy or ignorance. It’s just that tumblr is not my preferred social network by a long shot — I come here to take a breather and sanity break when I’ve exhausted myself screaming and raging elsewhere.

2. Finished the latest draft of Elysium & bribed asked two people to read it. Will spend the better part of the week going through their notes and tweaking things. Then the fun part happens where I have to print it all out and give it yet more line edits before appealing to reader #3.

3. Speaking of fun, my younger sister – who has recently joined us here in Portland – asked me the other day if writing was fun. She’s finishing up a really intense grad program in fine arts, so maybe the question was born from that exhausted & stressed part of her. I told her No, but I remember when it was. My goal for 2017 is to recapture that feeling.

4. One of my BFFs is going to self-publish a book soon! I’m hella excited for her, and I’ll probably talk your ears off about it once she’s got more info out.