I'm writing this from Ontario, which has become a bit of a hotspot for the Covid virus. Our infections are out of control and our government has tried nothing and are all out of ideas.
I remind myself that this thing has an end and that we're easily past the halfway mark. I remind myself that things could be worse. Most importantly, I remind myself it's okay not to feel okay. That's been the hardest part. Some days are terrible and there's nothing wrong with that. These are weird times.
With Covid and isolation on my mind, this update is going to be a bit scattershot, but there's a couple of updates I wanted to give.
The sequel to the Hotel has been officially sent to my brilliant editor, Alex Woodroe, and she is hard at work on making my book better. In fact, on day one of editing, a surprising thing happened. She found a plot hole that you could drive a race car through. Fortunately, we brainstormed a resolution and editing continues. This is only one of several reasons why editing is so great.
A flash piece I wrote has been featured by Flash101 and goes live today! I'm starting to submit more and more of my shorter works and it's always exciting when something is accepted. These little wins provide a lot of encouragement to keep going. You can check out the piece here:
The Hotel at the End of Time is going to be reviewed on a Podcast! This is, I think, my favorite bit of news. Out of nowhere, 3 Book Girls (https://3bookgirls.com) reached out to me to let me know they'd read my book, they loved it, and they're going to talk about it on an upcoming Podcast. Am I over the moon excited? You betcha. I've never had someone talk about my book before and I can't wait to hear it. I think it goes live this month.
Lastly, I've started learning Italian. Why? Why not. Currently, all I can talk about is children eating apples. La regazza mangia la mela. The girl eats the apple. Okay so it's not Shakespeare, but it's a start.
This is how we get through these moments. Not with huge, grandiose plans, but with little daily wins. Tiny moments of joy and peace remind us that we can do this, we can survive this, and one day, we'll see each other again.
It's not enough, but it's enough.
Lastly, reading is a great way to get through this. I've been poking around at some old favorites. Of course, I'll include the link to this great book you may have heard about, something about Hotels, but there's other stuff in there too
This is one of my favorite books of all time. If you ever wondered who I'm trying to sound like when I write, it's this guy. I love this book so much. It's basically - "what if you became God". It's a weird and funny novel and I can't recommend it enough
I never read this book as a kid and as I'm reading it now, I don't understand why anyone thinks this a children's novel. This is a deeply absurd, profoundly unsettling piece of literature that is both side-splittingly funny and disturbing. I'm really enjoying it.
Have you heard of this one? It's pretty good. It's about Hotels.
Hope everyone is keeping well. Until next time,
(blog header image, courtesy of Unspalsh, created by Branimir Balogovic -instagram.com/brandaohh)