August 2023
What I'm Up To
Exciting news! My poem “Dandelion” was published in the Summer Edition of Bramble Literary Magazine. It’s my first literary publication, and I’m so very excited to share it! Seeing my name alongside all the other “real” poets is something I’ve dreamed about since middle school.
On My Desk
With summer winding to an end, I am frantically trying to finish revisions before back-to-school season starts. I’ve sent out The First Wordweaver to beta readers and am waiting on feedback, and while I’m waiting, I’m working on adding a few details to Wordweaver to make sure everything still lines up history-wise. There’s a lot to add, but I’m having a lot of fun expanding the world I’ve created!
What I'm Reading
One of my birthday books is one that I’ve been impatiently waiting to start since I got it (but I had to finish the other two books I was reading first). It’s called The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams, and it tells the story of a girl named Esme who was raised by her lexicographer father during the compilation of the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. While her father works, Esme collects the words discarded by the men--words that often related to women’s experiences. She creates her own dictionary: the Dictionary of Lost Words.
I am so excited to read this. It combines my love of dictionaries (did you know I collect them? I have [number] that span over 100 years of publication history) and my interest in the women’s suffrage movement. This story was inspired by true events, and I’m sure it will lead to another research rabbit hole. I can’t wait!
Poetry Corner
Dandelion
Such weight,
suffocating,
presses your tender
head low, crushes
the growth you have fought for,
won by rights of
fair combat. Your blades
at hand, the grass
an ally, springing
new with each new spring
as you unfurl, undaunted
by concrete or abstract
fears, you battle
with gentle persistence
to lift a golden haloed face
to the sun.
Meet North the PR Cat
Being an indie author means I have a lot of extra jobs besides writing, and it can get pretty overwhelming at times. To help, I've hired a new PR manager: North, aka Poofus, aka the only applicant for the job. (See his very professional-looking bowtie??)
North is a Humane Society rescue of unknown age (somewhere between 17 and 21 years old, if the Humane Society’s guess is accurate). North was brought to the shelter 8 years ago after he was hit by a car and found on the side of the highway. He had a broken hip that was partially healed, but it had healed wrong so the vet had to re-break and re-set it. They estimated he was around 10 years old, and figured that because of his age and the severity of his injury, he would never walk without a limp. This drastically lowered his chances for adoption.
Enter me. I went to the Humane Society a couple of months after he’d been brought in, looking to adopt a kitten. Instead, I heard a motorboat purr coming from one of the lower cages and found a pair of the bluest eyes I’d ever seen staring up at me. A sign on his cage warned not to pick him up because he was shy and had a leg injury, so I asked the front desk about him. “He’s been here a long time,” they told me. “Nobody’s shown any interest.”
There was no way I was leaving him there after that. At his follow-up vet appointment, we discovered that he hadn’t been hit by a car—he’d been shot by a pellet gun. The vet showed me where the pellets were still lodged in the muscle of North’s leg and echoed what the Humane Society had told me: he would probably never be able to run or jump again, and he would always have a limp.
That’s not what happened. Within a few months, his limp completely disappeared. He still doesn’t like to jump, but running definitely isn’t a problem (he still gets the zoomies at 3 in the morning). In fact, you’d never know he wasn’t always a loving house cat. He’s a sweet old grandpa of a kitty who loves Baby E to pieces and who constantly wants to be pet. He's a sweet, lazy grandpa of a cat, and I fully expect him to spend most of his time on the job complaining about technology and "kids these days."
Look for his first column in my September Newsletter!