My Winter of Revision & Hibernation
Here we are, somehow already flying through 2024? Although, looking back at January and February, they did take their sweet time. But now suddenly it's March, and spring is starting to creep up here in England, and I've reached some exciting milestones I wanted to take a second to celebrate.
The biggest one is that I completed the Smooch Pit mentorship program, and I think my novel BY ALL THE SAINTS AND STARS (aka Venice Book) is the strongest its ever been. I managed to trim the word count to a more acceptable length, and I've started querying it, which is very exciting.
I wanted to reshare this instagram post I made a few weeks back, since it sums up how I felt sending Venice Book out into the world after holding it so close to my heart for so long.
After working for so long on my first novel Raven Book, and pouring so much time and effort into that story, it was emotional to then focus only on Venice Book afterward. But think it's also the book of my heart. I've heard of other writers having multiple "heart books", so I think I'm in the same boat now.
I'm really proud of all the work I put into Venice Book over this past winter, and I hope it finds its place out in the world.
Now I'm feeling ready to shift to a new project, although this time I can't decide between two ideas 👀 (knowing me, I'll probably try to work on both, or procrastinate on one with the other...) I do know that I want to take everything I've learned from working on RB and VB for so long and apply it to these new stories, which means having absolutely rock solid outlines.
I'm looking forward to exploring new worlds and new characters though, and getting back into drafting, so I'll hopefully have more updates for my next post.
Now that spring is finally springing, I'm excited to start planting some of my favorite flowers and things in our backyard. It's still a bit too chilly at night to plant everything outside yet, but I've got lots of pots on our sunniest windowsill with jasmine, two kinds of roses, and forsythia, and I've started some tomato seedlings.
Next up I'll be doing zucchini, basil and spinach, but I'm waiting until April to start those seedlings indoors. Basically I'm leaning back into my Samwise Gamgee era, and I'm hoping I can keep things at least alive, if not thriving!
We're also enjoying the regular entertainment provided by the birds on our backyard feeder. I got it for my partner for christmas, and it has a camera to record little snippets of each birds' visit. Well, they've been coming so regularly he's had to turn off the notifications. These little dinosaurs are relentless.
Their record is emptying the whole feeder after about a day and a half, so we're pretty sure we're feeding most of the neighborhood now. But we're loving it.
Otherwise I've been trying to stay safe with COVID at its highest levels yet, and keep informed about all the absolutely unfathomable atrocities happening in Palestine and Sudan and Congo. Everything really does feel hard and helpless and hopeless, but I keep trying to hang onto hope, no matter how small.
I remember sharing that brilliant line by Sara Danver in my last post too, that “hope does not require my certainty, only my commitment.” It's a scary thing, especially for a type-A worrier and planner like me, but we have to believe in better days coming. It's the only option, right? Anything else is giving into the despair, and giving into what all the fucked up powers-that-be want, which is for us to be too demoralized to do anything.
As hard as it is, and as awful as things feel, we have to fight back, and speak out, and try to do whatever we can with whatever we have, right now.
So please keep calling and posting and sharing and emailing and faxing and shouting from the rooftops. You can click this website every day to help support UNWRA, or donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund here. Please keep masking if you are, and start wearing a respirator everywhere you share air if you haven't been—it's not too late to care about your own health and others'.
We are all we have, so we have to work together to make things better.
I know serotonin is hard to come by these days, but I've shared some things that have brought me joy below, and I'd love to hear what's keeping you going lately. Thanks for reading, and Free Palestine.
~M
Recent Favorite Reads
I've been absolutely blessed to read so many amazing manuscripts by writer friends lately, and I wish I could shout about them all and tell you to go buy copies, but they're not out (yet)!!! Seriously though, I'm so grateful to get to experience the worlds they've created with their brilliance, and to be able to share this wild writing journey with them.
One writer friend whose books ARE out is Joyce Chua, and I'm absolutely on the edge of my seat reading the final installment of her Children of the Desert trilogy, EMPIRE OF GODS AND BEASTS. This whole series is incredible, but this one is not.letting.up. The layers of intrigue? The world building that gets more expansive and epic with each chapter? The soft romance between Rose and Wei??? My fav morally grey gal Windshadow?? Please check out this series and all of Joyce's books, they are fantastic and I'm so thrilled her books are out in the world to be enjoyed!!
Follow Me to the Yew Tree by Desiree M. Niccoli was a devastating novella I stumbled onto from one of Desiree's instagram posts. She shared some art made by the incredible Winter of Her Discontent, and I was immediately drawn into one of the character's knuckle tattoos that read "Hold Fast" (IYKYK). The novella did not disappoint, it was heartfelt and searing in its depiction of a condition the author has herself, but it was also a beautiful (and spicy) romance! And I loved the lush Irish folklore woven through it.
I also read The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza, which I feel should be essential reading for anyone, but especially folks from the US. Reading about her experiences as a black woman growing up in America, and working as an organizer in her local communities was fascinating, insightful, and challenging, and this book has made me rethink how to approach community-building.
This short story Hecate's Daughter by Jo Tiddy floored me with its historical detail and raw emotion. The witchy atmosphere has stuck with me, and so has the ending.
I'm also rereading some art history books to get back into the headspace of one of the WIPs I want to work on, including a deep dive into one of my favorite artists 🤓
Links & Things
I've been following Neghar Fonooni for a few years now, and her instagram and blog posts always provide such a welcome dose of cosmic wisdom. This post about the sunk-cost fallacy and how to be a quitter (with certain things) hit me especially hard. Her recent post about Women's Day and Palestine is also essential reading.
I'm back with more substacks from Frankie—this post is about how we all have a duty to care for and be stewards of the land on which we reside—and from Kayti—about being a woman with rage. As she writes: "Sometimes, you pick up an artichoke and throw it at a wall. You’re not actually mad about the artichoke or your children fighting over a salt shaker. It’s the many moments in which you were not allowed to feel what you needed to feel. The anger compounds, like Jenga blocks, before the final tipping weight. It eventually topples, and it is not quiet when it does."
This post by Kate is brilliant, and provides so much food for thought on "Cultivating a Healthier Relationship with Reading".
I shared this substack last time for its dreamy (and not-so-dreamy) insights into what living in a French chateau is really like, but this slightly different post really resonated. It's easy to feel that our everyday lives don't really matter, when we're just trying to get by and live as best as we can with the hand we've been dealt. But our lives, our stories do matter. So if you can start recording things (digitally AND physically), even just for yourself, please do! As a historian, I always think about how it's the everyday stories of regular people that really move us when we study history. So why not give yourself the same chance to be remembered?
And last but certainly not least, I hope Nicole's blog is at the top of your follow list. Her Allyship posts are always so well-researched and curated, and she's going to have some exciting news coming up this year, so make sure you're subscribed/following her to stay in the loop!
New Music
I've been getting into some house/EDM remixes lately, like this one (which I've just discovered is an ABBA cover? My world has been rocked...)
This song has been on repeat (in my head and on my spotify) ever since I heard it.
Leave it to a Bastille song to give me a boost any day.
This song has also been on repeat, and is now a canon song for Venice Book.
Here's another catchy French/English tune I'm obsessed with.
And this one by Tom Walker is a banger, and very relatable.