Hi friends! Sorry for not checking in more often in February—truthfully, it was kind of a rough month for me. For whatever reason, be it the world or work or Mercury Retrograde or just my brain, I was really struggling through some low feelings and just didn’t feel up for much more than trying to get my work done. I started feeling better and had more energy just in time to get a terrible cold and a one-two punch from allergies. Lemme tell you… not ideal timing to have congestion + shortness of breath!!

I’m glad I listened to my instincts a few weeks ago and decided to buy some extra cold medicine and basic things I was missing in my pantry; I didn’t really consider the coronavirus to be a major threat at that point, but the different reports about its spread made me give my medicine cabinet a closer look. That Dayquil has really come in handy over this last week! As someone with a mild form of asthma, allergies and colds can really knock me out, and I need to be better about staying on top of things like, you know, keeping a ready stock of basic cold/flu medication.

Speaking of weird “I’ve got you, girl” moments from the universe… I had to bring Tennyson to get his teeth cleaned at the vet last week, and as I was driving home my tire pressure alert came on and showed that one of my tires was significantly lower than the others. There’s been a ton of construction/remodeling in my neighborhood, so I wasn’t at all surprised to find out that there was a nail in the tire… but I WAS surprised to find out that two of the tires had dangerously low tread on them. Needless to say… it was an expensive day for Alex, but I’m glad I got it taken care of as we’ve had more rain than usual and something worse could have happened if I hadn’t gotten that one tire checked out.

My editor for LORE left for another publisher, but the new editor, Hannah, sent me a nice batch of notes that I’ve mostly worked through—I’m waiting on some early reader feedback, but it should finally be going into copyedits next week! Just knowing that’s on the horizon has been a huge morale booster for me. I turned in the first draft of LORE at the beginning of March 2019, and I think the part of me that’s very goal-driven and forward-focused has struggled with still intensely working on it a year on from that date. This book had two huge revisions that were largely rewrites, and while I LOVE revision, I can’t deny that that level of intense work on such a long book (nearly 600 pages) over so many months was pretty draining emotionally and mentally. It left me feeling like I was stuck in a loop I couldn’t really break out of, and it made me constantly question if the story was any good, even though I do truly love it. It was such a weird headspace to be in, and of course it was compounded by me putting a ton of pressure on myself. The book has come SUCH a long way from that first draft and I’m really proud of it… but I’m definitely feeling better about it finally moving down the publication pipeline and being able to work on something new.

In other news, I’m about to update my events page because the Tucson Festival of Books was sadly cancelled this year due to the coronavirus outbreak. I think that’s going to be the case with a number of major events this year, which, selfishly, really makes me sad because it means I won’t get to see you guys at the usual places and it’ll be even harder than ever to promote books. I have the Brightly Woven Graphic Novel out this summer, but I’m even thinking ahead to LORE coming out in early 2021. What a strange time in our world—there’s just so much uncertainty and we can’t know what the next few weeks will look like, let alone months. There have obviously been outbreaks and pandemics throughout our history and even in more recent years, but they’ve always felt so distant from our day to day lives, either because they happened centuries ago or on different continents.

I hope you guys are taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally. 2020 has already been A LOT and we’re only a few months in, but it’s teaching me a thing or two about living in the present and expressing more gratitude for what I have, for my life, and for the health of my family and friends.