What I've been up to:

Still figuring out this whole newsletter thing! As you can see, design is not my forte, and I'm not even going to pretend that it is. It's early days, so the handful of you who are subscribed to this can put up with a text-heavy newsletter with few images and no video. After all, you all already know how much I hate those things :)

Here's a picture, though:

I was lucky enough to spend Memorial Day weekend in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. This was the view from the dock, where I spent time reading when I wasn't writing or hiking. I took all the social media apps off my phone and spoke to no one for 4 days while I furiously tried to whip three projects into shape so that alpha readers could tackle them. My first draft of anything is always a draft zero, and I usually think of it as a thousands-of-words-long outline rather than an actual book. Two of those projects have been sent to their alpha readers, and the third one will hopefully go out soon!

What I'm working on:

I've got a ton going on this summer. I packed my writing calendar, which is probably a mistake, because my brain shuts down in summer. It's my most dreaded, hated season. I cannot function once the temperature gets above 70F. I actually track my monthly writing progress every year, and every year I write more in October than I do June-September combined, because it's so hot and I am miserable. It hasn't consistently gotten that hot in my city yet, though, so my foolish brain thinks I can sustain a packed calendar this summer.

I've signed up for the 24-hour novel writing challenge, and even though I've failed NaNoWriMo for multiple years now, somehow my brain thinks I can do this challenge.

I'm also signed up for the Writers Workout Games, which I am so excited about because I really want to level up my short story game.

Now that I've sent 3 projects (almost) off to alpha readers, I'm excited to dig into some other WIPs I've had to neglect. My favorite one at the moment is the sci-fi novel where a galactic rock band teams up with a spy to pull off a heist.

The Latest:

Latest Listen:

I don't particularly enjoy listening to things, but I've done a lot of driving recently. I've become obsessed with two podcasts: National Park After Dark (a podcast about crimes, deaths, animal attacks, and more in our national parks), and Tooth And Claw (which is exclusively about animal attacks). Weirdly, it just makes me want to hang out in the national parks even more. I want to hike and write in every national park - anyone want to come with me??

Fun fact I've learned from these podcasts! It's much more preferable to be attacked by a big cat, say a lion, than it is a bear. Big cats kill you fast. They're interested in killing their prey as quickly as possible. A bear? Does not care if you are alive when it eats you. To be fair, bear attacks with the intention of eating humans are extremely rare, but if it does happen, the bear literally will just sit on you and feast on you. You're welcome.

(I am not a wildlife expert, please don't go seeking out bears or big cats based on the paragraph above, do your research and please don't sue me, etc.)

Latest Read:

​Life Beyond Us, which is an anthology of stories and scientific essays about alien life.

Two pictures in one newsletter! Aren't you all lucky.

Latest Watch:

​Columbia: The Final Flight on HBO. Like Challenger: The Final Flight on Netflix, this depicts the families twenty years after the disaster, as well as the engineers who tried to do something. It is spectacular and I binged the whole thing in one sitting.

What's Next:

Nothing much! Everything is happening behind the scenes: alpha readers are leaving feedback on some of my WIPs, I've got other WIPs in progress, I'm submitting short stories to various magazines, and I'm excited about the challenges I've signed up for this summer. As usual, check out my Linktree for other places you can find me, although I remain most active on Twitter.

If you read this whole thing, congrats, have a cookie. :)