This week
My sweet, sweet dog! And other little updates.
For a few days earlier this week, I thought my sweet old dog was dying. Barbara is fifteen and a half. (The half-years really count with a senior dog.) She stopped eating or drinking water and was having trouble walking. Her breathing was labored. Her eyes got all goopy. She shook, though she kind of always shakes these days.
I put our softest blanket down on the floor and lay next to her, rubbing her ears. I tried to keep her comfortable. I didn’t take her to the vet because the vet makes her anxious and I really thought she might be in her last hours.
And then she recovered. She started eating and drinking again, and now she’s back to normal, or normal for an old lady at least. Some passing sickness? Or perhaps the sudden and precipitous drop in temperature we experienced this week was just very hard on her.
I’m grateful for a little more time with my favorite animal, and that’s where most of my extra attention went this week, rightly so.
This week in writing
I’m settling into a comfortable back-and-forth between essays and novel. I wake up and work on whichever pulls me more. I currently have thirteen late-stage essays, either on submission/in pitching or in the final stages of revision. I was hoping at least a couple of these would come out around the time of the book launch, but the writing of them takes the time it takes, and it turns out I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to submitting nonfiction. The processes and rhythms around fiction submissions are second nature to me now, but the whole essay pitching process you have to go through with some magazines… I am still learning.
So I focus on the writing part and not the publishing part, for better or for worse. I had a breakthrough on one essay this week, and those don’t happen often. It felt good.
This week in reading
I’m still reading My Lives by Edmund White and Naples 1925 by Martin Mittelmeier, translated by Shelley Frisch. My Lives is long and I’m taking it very slow, enjoying it. Naples 1925 is dense and academic, so it’s also slow going but very interesting. I’m looking for a short, quick read to add to the mix.
And by looking, I mean I have stacks and stacks of books waiting to be read next and I just need to choose one.
This week in watching
I always felt like I had seen this movie because I grew up with the soundtrack, but I watched The Big Chill for the first time last night. I am the exact same age as the characters. What would a Millennial Big Chill look like? Feels like the perfect setup for an Emma Straub novel.
This week in listening
I enjoyed this interview with Kevin Maloney on Mallory Smart’s podcast Textual Healing and immediately preordered Kevin’s new book, Horse Girl Fever.
Next up: the new Awakeners podcast by Lena Crown. Very excited about this one.
This week in Leave news
I did my final pass at the galley and the book has gone to print!
On Thursday, I had my first interview about it and may I say that
is truly the BEST, just an all-around pro? I loved talking to her about the book and how it was made, and speaking of unconventional memoir formats, if you haven’t read her true-story-in-verse, Disappearing Act, now is the perfect time.I’m putting together a mini book tour, a handful of dates in a handful of cities in the spring. Stay tuned…
Love,
Shayne