I've Gone and Done It
Late autumn is a weird time to start something new. It doesn’t have the fanfare of January 1 or the squeaky clean start of the new school year or the soft unfolding of spring.
But here we are. Late autumn. November 1. Starting a newsletter.
Truth is, I love this time of year. Colder weather, even if it’s damp (but especially those brilliant blue skies). The blaze of leaves followed by melancholy bare branches. Reminding myself that hot tea exists and is, yes, still wonderful. Baking things. Pumpkins both decorative and delicious.
It’s also the time of year when I’m fully in the groove of the semester, the school year, the routine. There are multiple routines happening at once in our house, and at some point they stop being discrete points on a calendar and mesh into one, singular routine. I like this. I need this, actually. Slotting together a million incongruent pieces of life—grading papers, making dinner, class, kids’ ballet rehearsal, podcast recording, more papers, oh yeah I have to write—is like dumping out a bin of Legos and hoping they all magically connect together to make…anything, really. I’m not picky. But by November, it’s coalesced. At least congealed. Like a terrible 1970s jello salad, maybe.
It’s this time of year that I find I have time emerging from the overgrown brambles of my calendar, pockets here and there, sunlit and promising. I usually fill them with writing. I talk myself into sewing projects I won’t have time to finish. I make good on promises to paint certain children’s rooms pink.
And, apparently, I start newsletters.
But other things are coming together, too—I have ARCs of The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill! It’s incredibly weird, seeing something that’s been Microsoft Word shaped suddenly appear book-shaped. Pre-orders are open. So even though the release date is still in the oh-so-far-away reaches of springtime (or late mud season, depending), it’s beginning to feel very much like a real book.
I’ll be sharing more about the book, and some absolutely mesmerizing art I commissioned for it, and hopefully some giveaways, and maybe just maybe a preorder treat, here—so you can hit the subscribe button or check back. For what it’s worth—I’m also on Instagram, and I’m still on Twitter (as sporadically and badly as I ever was) and will share updates there, too.
I’ll leave you with chickens enjoying lemon cucumbers.
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