Yeah yeah, I did the thing again, where I resolved to post and one thing I’ve learned about myself is that the moment I make something a rule then I balk at it. So the new Jedi mind trick is write here when I feel like it. Maybe that will mean more frequently.
At the very least, I can say that my writer brain has finally come back to life. There had been false alarms where I felt it stirring (hell, I finished a very flawed draft this way). But I’d begun to worry, a little, I broke it. BUT finally the words are flowing and the brain feels like it’s doing its story-making thing—if not more easily, then more satisfactorily! So all the deadlines are happening. (I am referring to my time off writing as a sadbattical. I’ve never been one who writes well when I’m unhappy—and it’s not that I was unhappy, because I wasn’t. But I was in a Great Period of Upheaval. Which has the same result. Now that things are Much Better, I’m writing more. And reading again at my normal speed. Huzzah.)
I also got derailed by another health crisis for Mom (she’s doing better—knock on all the wood things) and what at first felt like a doomed effort to save my beloved Lexington Writer’s Room. We started the year at a serious crossroads, with a pending decision on renewing our lease in our current space. A few of us decided to craft an open letter and then other friends and board members stepped up to help us wrap our organizational head around sustainable fundraising. Anyway, we threw a huge fundraising party with amazing readings (you can watch it here) AND we reached an agreement with a new member (David Kloiber, you’re the best!) who owns a building downtown to move there this summer in a very charitable arrangement. Meaning we are going to be GROWING and thriving and figuring out how to do what we do even better for FIVE MORE YEARS at least.
Yay. Have I mentioned the new space has a library for us to fill with books? We’re trying to figure out how to take a reproduction of the mural with us and planning to try to get the fabulous Wylie Caudill and maybe others to do art for us in the future at the new space. Anyway, there will be some expenses associated with the move, of course, not least because it’s MORE space, and so look out for details and asks in early May. But you can always give!
In this time of darkness and uncertainty when my writing and larger communities here and everywhere have been the best, biggest balm to combat the day-to-day WTF scaries, it’s been so heartening to see what’s possible and to feel like we’re protecting this community space we’ve made. Not to get too schmaltzy, but I do believe that art and stories not only can change the world, they make it worth living in, they help us endure, in good times and bad.
And then, as soon as we got through the big fundraiser….I got Covid. I seem mostly bounced back from that now, which I’m very thankful for. I also got a haircut, yesterday. My long-time stylist had to close her salon and I needed a trim so I hit up Josh for his, who he really likes (and just gave him a David Lynch inspired cut!), and booked an appointment with her. Somewhere between “I want a trim” I decided what I really wanted was a change. Despite my long hair for the last oh, decade-ish, I’ve always thought of myself as a short haired person. I quite frankly did not know how to fix the long hair or have the skills. (Thank you, drybar goddesses, over the years.)
On my drive to my first appointment with Alex Rice at South House (CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH), I saw that my pal Sam Humphries had just chopped his glorious mane and it looked great. The vibe was in the air! I already knew I was going to take off at least a couple of inches, but we ended up vamoosing more like 5-6. I love.
Miscellaneous things I dug or have been thinking about or collected over the past while:
I missed Martha Wells’ 2024 Jack Williamson lecture when it was first posted. Well worth a read in this time of AI menace: “A lot of the stories where AI want to become human are great stories. But they can also be interpreted as having to change your fundamental nature in order to be happy. Most of us are pretty okay with our fundamental nature, it's the world our fundamental nature occupies that's often the problem.”
Lynda Barry interview by Austin Kleon.
Manhattan’s cold case unit profiled; gift link.
Molly Gloss reads the last page first: “Here is something about my reading habits that I suspect will horrify many of you: I’ll read the first dozen or so pages of a novel, and then always (almost always) feel a sudden impulse to turn to the last page and read the last few paragraphs. Horrified as you are, you might be surprised to know that I seldom (almost never) actually learn anything concrete from that last page—not even, necessarily, who is still alive or who might have died, because I’ve learned that endings can trick me.”
Poem: “The Murder House” by Caroline Bird.
A New Yorker piece observes a recent trend of TV shows featuring male widowers—I’ve noticed the same, but am seeing it largely as a variety of fridging. Thoughts?
“Let Them Eat Tropes: Why Romantasy Needs to Grow Beyond Trends” by Jenny Hamilton.
That last image is a reminder to myself, from a more modern translation of Rumi. More soon…most probably,
G
Whew… that Great Period of Upheaval!! I can relate ❤️