An Update, a Confession, and a Request

Since We Last Connected…

It has been far, far too long since I last reached out. More on that below, but for now, here are a few of the latest publishing highlights.

First, I’m thrilled to announce that A Year With Mama Earth will be translated into Italian and published in Italy! I am so eager to see the translation. I hope it’s as well received there as it has been here.

Also, at some point last fall my first book of poetry released. I say “at some point” because my collection was among Flying Ketchup Press’s inaugural releases, and since FKP is a brand new venture, a few technical hiccups led to several revisions to the initial release. I think the final, perfected version of the book was available in December? I hope you’ll check out the trailer below.

 

Writer’s Life

Unanticipated Everything.

I have a confession.

I’ve been silent, haven’t shared a newsletter in 18+ months. There are several reasons, reasons I didn’t fully understand until I saw the documentary The Social Dilemma which was all about the algorithms that drive what you (and I) see on social media, and the obsession with ways to increase engagement and capture interest whether a person is interested or not. I didn’t share because I didn’t want to clickbait my life. 

I had a complicated relationship with social media to begin with. Sure, I love connecting with people, but so much of what I see is like those advertisements that sneak in amongst Instagram posts, deceptively like an actual photo but in reality just a marketing ploy, or it’s like the irresistible headlines screaming for a click. It’s obvious to me—the advertisers want those likes, clicks, views—yet it’s far less obvious to my children, even my teens. They’re being manipulated and have no idea… The thought of turning my life into a spam post or headline? Yuck.

The truth is, 2020 has been hard. For me, you, most of us. But so was 2019. Our lives turned upside down in early August when our youngest, 18-month-old Emeric, had a febrile seizure (you can read the story of his seizure here). When I wrote that piece, I could not have imagined it was just the beginning. 

Emeric had always been different. He was our Space Cadet, our late-to-do-everything baby (late-er, since all my kids have been late to hit milestones). It took that medical emergency for me to slow down and really, truly look. Something was … odd. I started collecting video, scheduled a neurology appointment, took him in for tests and more tests. Following weeks yielded an abnormal MRI, and a second major seizure, and an epilepsy diagnosis. That second major seizure was the day before Thanksgiving, and by Christmas we’d also had a 3 days inpatient EEG. I ended 2019 exhausted from unhelpful (ok, terrifying) Google searches and fitful nights watching the baby monitor with one eye open just in case. Surely 2020 would be better…

And then 2020 happened.

Who would believe we’re now sliding toward 2021? I am grateful that Emeric has been free from any massive seizures for almost a year, and that all of us have been mostly happy and healthy despite the stresses of lockdown, financial drain, and an ankle injury that required surgery. 

I realized recently that stress pulls me inward. I don’t want to put on a happy face for social media. Nor do I want to trivialize my fears, anxieties, stressors by turning them into sympathy fodder or clickbait or memes. So I went silent. And in that silence I found peace, and also uncertainty.

I’m unsure of the role that social media will play going forward. I’ve already decided to delete myself from some platforms, but what of my blog? Remember the days when blogs were full of relevant and thoughtful essays or personal journal posts? Now the blogosphere is little more than a thousand infomercials all yelling at once. 

I hate infomercials.

That’s all to say … eighteen months. Quiet. I’m not sure yet what I’ll do. I may let the world sell their affiliate links and hash out their political and social debates without me. Then I can get back to, you know, writing books. And on that topic…

 

Works in Progress

What am I working on now?

I’ve had a busy and exciting 2020! I completed a draft of a young adult novel early in the year, then cut 100 pages, then rewrote much of it, and finally shaped it into a form that’s ready to submit. It’s about four sisters and is sort of a contemporary, darkly humorous, dysfunctional Little Women meets Mean Girls that addresses issues of bullying, body image, identity, and mental health. Exciting? I hope so! My agent just started the submission process, so now I wait and bite my fingernails, catch up on laundry, and write newsletters. 

Well, actually, I wrote a book for early readers before writing this. Yes, my other agent is submitting a cute, sweet novel (potential first in a series for 6-8 year-olds) for the religious market.

I’m not going to say anything about 2021 in relation to 2020 (because I made that mistake once already!), but in my heart I’m thinking it: good things ahead. For all of us.

And now a request.

If you’re still with me, thank you. I would love to hear from you! I would be especially grateful for your feedback about my blog. Is there something you would like to see there? Perhaps a resource I could create for you or your classroom, a book you’d like me to review, or questions you’d like answered (assuming I have answers. What did I eat for breakfast? I, uh, hmmm… *shrug* I mean, breakfast was a long time ago.)? Just tap Reply and you’ll reach me directly!