Mood Reading

I often don't think I'm too much of a mood reader, but in November I had enough job stuff going on that I hit the wall on several books I had out from the library. Some had holds after me so they got yanked and I had to re-request. I just got one back and got about fifty percent through it yesterday. 

It's always a little bit of a relief because when my reading takes a hit I am often a cranky and/or exhausted human. So really, it's good for us all for me to be reading. 

I was talking to someone about how I found commuting by public transit made me a nicer happier human because driving made me cranky. (Well, driving with other humans on the road makes me cranky.) And while the traffic remains the same, it is someone else's problem.

Outsourcing driving turned out to be the right move for me. Though certainly it didn't solve all my problems. 

But as we head towards a new calendar flip, may you find the rest and relaxation you need and figure out how to keep on reading. 

Holidays and Work

One of the weirdest kinds of privilege to explain to people is holiday privilege. It comes up a lot with things like election day. When you start going through examples with people they start to get it. Like, are restaurants and retail stores still open on holidays? So those employees are still working. What about hospitals? Nursing homes? First responders? 

Even as an office worker who has generally not been any of these things, my last three years have been an exercise in the differences. Two years ago, Christmas was one of two days of the year the office was closed. (No, that's not a typo. Two holidays a year.) Last year I worked somewhere that took a week off. And this year, I am somewhere we get more than two days a year, and Christmas is one of the days off we get. 

So, I'm looking forward to a week with a break in the middle. Time to connect with family and other loved ones. To indulge in delicious food. 

These things are great ideas any week, but it helps to have official time off work to facilitate it. 

Whatever shape your week ahead takes, may it be filled with love and deliciousness. And maybe some reading time too. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Trying not to think too hard about what it means that the FBI knows that folks in China are trying to spy on our texts because they are just hacking the system the FBI uses.  Sure, this is fine.  Anyway, encrypted texts are great.  Pass it on. 

2. Propublica has an article detailing many of the pregnancy related procedures and the things you may need to know as we continue to criminalize pregnant people having medical procedures. 

3. What if we encouraged teens to read by having romance books clubs for teens?  Sign me up! (For reading about this.  Not trying to cosplay as a teen.)

Bay Leafs and Beliefs

I popped a few Bay leaves into a pot of beans I was making this weekend and thought about how I have become a person who has Bay leaves, and puts them in things. I've seen people spout off about how they are useless and make no difference. How it's just a scam perpetuated by Big Spice to make you believe your thing tastes better because you used a bay leaf. 

I honestly can't tell you for sure if things taste better with a bay leaf than without. I am not the person who shows up at the table and goes, oh, you used corn starch, unless you serve me something that's almost entirely corn starch. So my palette may not be super discerning. 

But I drink tea, so certainly know that boiled leaves can do quite a lot. And I have easy access to bay leaves. So I add them into things that simmer, and while I cannot point to an incredible increase in flavor definition, they definitely aren't making anything worse. So I'll keep using them. Because it sure seems like believing I am enhancing the flavor is better than believing it does nothing. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I had relatives who were in the news business in Oregon, so this story about what happened to the shell of a former paper there was both fascinating and sad. 

2. There is some evidence that micro-grids might provide important assistance during extreme weather events. 

3. This story about designer handbags is just fascinating and of course makes my bag collection look positively frugal. 

Different Interpretations

The Live from London version of the Hadestown cast album was released Friday and I have maybe listened to it a time or seven. 

I have listened to other versions of cast albums before. There are several for Les Miserables. See also Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat. To say nothing of Disney staging it's movies, and making movies of its plays. (In fairness, a huge percentage musicals are based on existing properties.) 

I also read the first in Kari Lynn Dell's Texas Rodeo series. See, I jumped into the series at book 2 and one of the characters shares a kid with one of the main characters in book 1, and he has some feelings about the events of book 1. And I loved that. That he was just a little mad and bitter about things going well for others when his life has just taken a turn. So I didn't want to read book 1, just yet. So I saved it for last. And of course, now I want to reread everything.

Because what these things have in common is interpretation. The original cats of Hadestown and the London cast have done different things, some subtle, some not. (And yes, I know there's a concept album also.)

And in the Texas Rodeo series, many of the characters all were involved in the same events, but they have different perspectives. Different feelings.

Sometimes folks get worried about their ideas in creating stuff, but in some ways ideas are the easy part. It's the execution where it gets tough. And people love live theater, or even movies, and TV versions of stories they already know because the interpretation can be different each time. And sometimes different Interpretations can reveal aspects you hadn't seen before. 

Three Interesting Things

1. A look at one program to try to reduce child poverty that is seeing some good results. 

2. A group is working on having conversations about mental health at the skate park. 

3. As we enter winter, a look back at snow in DC. 

Deadlines That Whoosh

It took until yesterday for me to hit the word count goal I had set for myself to achieve by Saturday. I of course, back in October, thought I'd not only achieve but beat that deadline, and now be in the all the relaxing things I will do and read once I'm not drafting phase. (I love that phase.) 

The thing is, the story isn't done. So more writing will happen. In this case, no one is immediately waiting for this story. It's not even next up in the publishing schedule. 

I don't like to treat deadlines carelessly, but also, sometimes a deadline has some slack. And I am trying to remind myself that I can't be at every deadline, and it's more important that I didn't stress out my wrists over the weekend trying to achieve it.

One of the challenges is always figuring out will you miss the deadline, will you need to notify anyone, and what is a realistic secondary deadline, because missing it twice just makes everyone unhappy. 

It's not lost on me that my last post was about rest and here I am talking about work again. 

Happy Monday, or whatever day it is where you are. 

Boxed Set

As newsletter readers already know, I put together a boxed set of my first two series, the City Complications and City Entanglements, so five novellas and two novels in one convenient package for ereading. If you not yet read these, it’s a great deal and for this first week I’m pricing it at 9.99 and making it available at most etailers. After that, I’m going to bump the price up a bit to 12.99, still cheaper than buying individually. It’s available in several e-bookstores, links available here. Content notes for all my stories are available here.

The Reason Rest is Resistance

I read a post that was, to sum up a more nuanced thing, about how rest is not resistance, it's a privilege not afforded equally in capitalism. Now I am not linking, because this is not intended as a dunk. But having read Tricia Hersey's Rest is Resistance, that was kind of the point. Capitalism makes rest hard, (again summing up an entire book here, go read the book). So finding rest, demanding rest, became resistance. 

I am quite sure there are plenty of people who are posting self care pics, with a #RestIsResistance, which is not quite the same. Obviously social media is not an accurate measure of anyone's life. But if anyone has taken away from the tagline rest is resistance the idea that their pedicure is social justice, then yes, that is wrong. I don't think anyone really thinks that. I know I've joked about stimulating the economy by buying things. But I am well aware that my individual purchases, while important, have limited reach. And also that if the economy is good, but I am in debt, no one is coming to fix my debt for me. 

But, on this week that contains a holiday for USians, some people will still have to work. And since I have the privilege of a day off of work, part of my plans involve rest. Because rest is important. 

Wherever you are, I wish you rest and yummy food in whatever measure you can get it. 

Three Interesting Things

1.  It turns out colds might really be because of cold. 

2. Fire has impacted three small businesses in Alexandria, including what had briefly been the area's first romance bookstore.

3. This story of a train trip from Chicago to Miami (which I have funnily enough done in reverse) was fascinating. 

All Kinds of Writer Fuel

I wrote my characters into a corner last week and my writing pace slowed. For me, a few things are true. My pace varies. A slow day or two, I can usually rebound form pretty easily. When it starts being multiple days of a slower pace, it gets a little harder to pick the pace back up. 

Sometimes life if just like that. I had a busy week at the day job, and sometimes that just sucks up too much of my brain. 

It's also true that when I'm writing and working, I also read and watch TV less. And scroll social media more. My theory is that this is the smaller version of I don't have time to watch a movie, so I'll watch TV. Each social media post is small, so it seems a smaller lift, even though an hour of scrolling could be an hour of something else. 

A writing workshop instructor once said, if you're stuck read something. It will either inspire you to write something that good or annoy you enough to think I write better than that. Which ha. But I finally finished a book Friday that I adored, and one that I was annoyed by Sunday. And I got my writing back up to pace Saturday and Sunday. Now sure, having more time to write helped too.

But a lot of it was remembering I don't just need to feed and water myself, I also have to get some good stories into my brain. Social media sometimes provides that, and it is certainly useful for connections and other such things. But a media diet with a little more variety works best for me. 

Three Interesting Things

1.  Alan Sepinwall interviewed Aldis Hodge. 

2. There's a Black Romance Author Event - BRAE going on with free and discounted ebooks by Black romance authors. 

3. And there are some items up for auction - the auction is fundraising for Trans Lifeline.

We are the Infrastructure

One of the things that becomes true over and over when you pay attention to things that go wrong is some combination of things thing was built X number of years ago, before Y thing became more common, and now the rare Z circumstance combined to make a historic disaster.

It's often the case in everything from home repair shows to things like a ginormous ship toppling a 30 year old bridge. I watched one home repair show where after the initial assessment one of the contractors was chasing down an issue and in looking into that realized that a previous builder had cut into the floor joists and now the entire second floor needed to be torn down. The contractor showed the homeowner and said that it would actually be cheaper and safer to demolish this house and build a new one. That repairing this was possible but it would take millions of dollars and lots of time, and if they didn't love this house enough, they could absolutely find a new house for less than the cost of the repairs. 

And the same is often true of systems. This is not to say the government doesn't exist or work, but we all know it doesn't work for everyone all the time. And sure, there are charities and non-profits that fill in some of those gaps. But when Mr. Rogers famously talked about looking for the helpers, he meant us. We, the adults, are the helpers. 

And there is so much that needs help right now. There's lots of ways to plug in, whether it's donating money, or skills, or time. We are the infrastructure. It's us. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Apparently bees in the US are doing better, which is nice. 

2. Animals in the airport seems like such a cool idea. 

3. I love everything about this, Tony Hawk posted a picture of a skater in the 1970's and someone tracked her down.

7 Things About Drafting

I spent the weekend jumping into various virtual write-ins.  Lots of folks between the Rough Draft Challenge, and various other challenges going on in November are working on words.  And if you want to join me drafting, you can click that contact button and I'll get the invites and links to you. 

But I've been sharing thoughts about writing every November, so let's get to it. 

1.  It's easier for me to write with company.  What that company looks like has changed over the years.  I used to do in person write ins, because dragging all my stuff somewhere meant I was going to go home with words.  These days I do virtual write ins, and even sometimes just sprint with the discord bot.  It's useful to me.  It helps me get my butt to the writing chair instead of sitting on the couch.  Some people will tell you needing company or some sort of external thing to write makes you not a real writer.  Those people should not be trusted. 

2. A writer friend of mine said she tries not to listen to too many people about writing because she does not need extra voices in her brain telling her how to write.  I am always so curious about people's process, but I also wrote for several years before I started seeking out other writer people, so I had a good sense of my voice.  Plus I find that sometimes hearing some process that is decidedly not for me, helps me hone in what processes might be for me. Neither of us are right or wrong in our choices, there are so many ways to draft.  If you're making words, then it's working. 

3. One thing you might have noticed, was I started my draft so that Rough Draft Challenge and Global Write In call happened after I had been writing for about two weeks.  That was intentional.  For me, about two weeks in - depending on pace, things slow down.  So I planned to have the things that would encourage me to keep up my pace happen right as I knew my pace might lag.

4. There are limits to how much you can trick your brain. If you plan too many high value days, your brain and sometimes your body will protest.  There's a lot of writers who had to learn a lot about their own personal ergonomics.  And sometimes the best solution is to write a little less each day. 

5. I do not think of myself as a morning person.  But I do wake up just before my alarm pretty regularly.  And usually my cat shows up around then too, since no one has pet her for six to eight hours at that point.  (Oh, the sadness.)  But I do then grab my phone and write a few words for the story.  Sometimes it's like ten.  Sometimes I end up not using it because I forgot where they were or what they were doing when I left them the day before.  But those words help me think about my characters.  So that whether it's a day when the writing happens after breakfast or after work, I've been thinking about them already and jumping in is a little easier.

6. I used to think all the words I ended up cutting from my first draft were a waste.  I have come to realize they are all attempts to get the story moving and that sometimes the turns I discover were wrong turns are just as important in getting me to where the story needed to go.  Writing doesn't come with a GPS.  Having to make a U turn or to exit the highway isn't a failure, it's part of the journey.  For those of you who plot, same with those extra plot points it turned out the characters refused to use. 

7. Writing is hard work and we haven't even touched the what happens next part.  But if the writing bug is calling to you, you can do it.  As much as we complain we like it, I swear. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This was an interesting discussion about US Territorial power on the Pacific side. 

2. I was fascinated by this story about how those pumpable sneakers turned out to be a little bit bad for the environment. 

3. And apparently the Ravens have a sewing manager.  Fascinating. 

The Caution Tree is Down

I live on a hill. So some of the houses near me have front yards that are all hill, with some steps cut in. In one of these yards, a tree, at some point took the opportunity to grow at such an angle it was practically parallel to the sidewalk before arcing up. Almost as if the tree had to get off the lawn before it was like oh, sky is this way, cool, cool, cool. 

The tree had bent the chain link fence that presumably predated it. 

I am an average sized person and the tree was not one of the ones I needed to duck under, but perhaps it was an issue for taller folks. 

A few weeks ago someone spray painted "Caution - look out" on the tree. That seemed very kind. 

And today when I walked by it took until my second pass for me to realize it had been chopped down. 

A stump still remains. (Someone painted a smiley face on the stump.)

I don't know all the trees in my neighborhood the way I should, but even before someone spray painted words on it, this one was memorable. 

I hope it enjoys its next life. 

Three Interesting Things

1. In an interesting visualization of things, this shows each state's* (and DC's) current abortion/pregnancy policy as a maze.  You can pick one of a few to attempt to get to the end. 

2. Lebanon for Lit is raising money for Threads of Peace.  I donated a bookish chat which can be about reading, writing, gift book shopping, knitting, whatever your heart desires.  I am currently a steal, in my opinion. 

3. Sarah of Smart Bitches and librarian Robin went on an interesting journey after discovering some AI narrated books. 

*Folks, yes, I have noticed we just ignore the US territories when it comes to these things. 

7 Things - Presented With Love

1. So, first thing to note is this book takes place almost entirely not in DC.  I know!  But it involves a Hawaiian Expo held in Las Vegas, Nevada, so most of the action takes place there.  The Expo is loosely inspired by an actual much more serious Hwaiian gathering that probably does not involve, well, we'll get to that. 

2. Helena appeared previously in Troubled by Love and Tricked by Love.  You do not need to read either of these to read Presented with Love, though,  In fact, Helena does not have time in the story to talk to any of her friends from DC. 

3. Makoa is a hockey player, although it's July so there is no hockey played in this story. 

4. Helena and Makoa hookup after meeting in an airport hotel bar near the Denver airport. I don't know about you, but the Denver airport always tries to keep me.  I've decided it enjoys my presence.  So, I am basically never surprised when people have tales about trying to get out of Denver.  

5. I am somewhat ambivalent about Christmas but I love Christmas music. And the Hawaiian versions of the Christmas songs are of course faves.  It's odd because it basically never snowed growing up in DC on Christmas (once, maybe) but it seemed just as dreamy to me - much as I love snow - to listen to people singing about sandy beaches or eating coconuts for Christmas.

6. Yes, they are doing a Christmas song themed reality show, but it is July.  I mean they are also doing this inside a fictitious hotel ballroom in Vegas, so why not? 

7. Presented with Love - a novella

When a flight snafu puts Helena in the airport hotel bar next to a hot guy, she takes full advantage. The hookup is hot, but the guy disappears on her. And when finally she gets to Las Vegas it turns out her tutu has signed her up for a televised competition based on a Hawaiian Christmas song, and one of the other contestants is that guy who ghosted her? Helena's competitive spirit kicks into gear.

Makoa is good at hockey, it's off-ice where he seems to fumble. So when he finds his mom has signed him up for a TV show, well, he's hoping for a Christmas miracle. Because Helena is rightfully annoyed at him, and he needs to stay in the competition long enough to prove he's worth another chance. Otherwise this will be his last day of Christmas. 

Amazon: https://bit.ly/3YtYSt6

Apple: https://apple.co/3A5kxOM

Kobo: https://bit.ly/4dPeawN

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/3YtrlPx

Universal Link: https://bit.ly/3YtYSt6

Write Cubed Crew Update

Hey, all!  Writing has commenced.  We've got a discord and have planned some Tuesday and Thursday evening sprint nights with more to be added as we decide.  I locked the form.  But if you want to join in, use the contact form, or DM me, and I will give you links. 

Three Interesting Things

1. There's a raffle of sorts, called Romance for Florida, which has some lovely prizes in return for donations to support hurricane relief. 

2. The US military will be converting some dishonourable discharges given during the so-called "Don't Ask Don'T Tell" era, to honorable, which allows for veteran benefits. 

3. And yes, even the conkers competition had a wee cheating scandal this year.  But also its first American woman winner. 

Canadian Thanksgiving Sale - Repeated Burn

Newsletter peeps heard about this already, but Repeated Burn is on sale through Kobo in Canada and the US for 1.25 CAD/0.99 USD. The sale is October 10-14.

It's also available to Kobo Plus folks regardless of location. And is also available at it's regular degular price on all platforms. And in paper.

Repeated Burn is the story of Raven who has a bad day that involves her ex's new ex showing up at her coffee shop after getting dumped. Raven plans to take new ex to her brother and wipe her hands of the whole thing. But nothing is ever quite that simple.

Marcus is used to helping his sister after her latest plan explodes. He finds himself intrigued by Raven. Raven is impervious to his charm. Or is she?

Kobo Canada link: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/repeated-burn

Zon: https://amzn.to/2TUtZza

Apple: https://apple.co/2SjHiZu

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3gWaAFX

Universal: https://books2read.com/links/ubl/mldGZW

Paper link: https://bookshop.org/books/repeated-burn/9798201696856

Three Interesting Things

1. As someone who inherited a lot of chairs, this story about a man who has designed his house around his chair collection fascinates me. 

2. I realize the national news is on to a new hurricane, but this reflection from an Asheville resident was enlightening. 

3. My friends and I had some fun with this what vegetable are you quiz. 

On the Clapotis

I read Knitty's piece about the Clapotisfest, and had the immediate urge to cast on for one. I did. I have. The Clapotis pattern came out a bit before I had the sudden urge to knit again.

I always say again, because I had learned as a kid, but at the time I only learned the knit stitch and also didn't know how to bind off, and so I knit some rows on a pink scarf for a while, and then moved on to something else. 

Anyway, I discovered Knitty in my search for patterns. It's wild to describe the nascent search engine days of the Internet, the pre-Ravelry days, of trying to figure out a pattern or a technique. 

Anyway, once Ravelry had started, some local knitters and I did a knit swap, where we would each buy something lovely for each other at Maryland Sheep and Wool. My swapper gave me Brooks Farm yarn, in a lovely cherry red color that was both perfect, and a color I never would have picked for myself, which is the joy of swaps like that. 

Again, in the nascent days of search engines, even the nascent days of Ravelry, being at Sheep and Wool was wild. Almost every booth had a Clapotis as a sample. It's a pattern that is easy to knit up, makes most yarns look great. I saw one person ask a staffer what pattern it was, and the staffer said, "Oh, we'll give it to you if you buy the yarn." I did, um, find that person and explain it was a free pattern. (In defense of this nameless staffer, they may have been thinking of another pattern, there were multiple samples hanging up.) 

Nowadays you see a wide variety of samples. And I certainly have discovered other patterns through samples, I even bought a pattern book due to a sample. 

I had the chance to meet Kate Gilbert years later at a writing event. We talked knitting, and other things too. I have only met a few pattern designers, but being knit famous must be a wild experience. 

I am very much a person who loves a new challenge so mostly enjoy knitting new patterns. But some patterns are great enough to knit again. 

The Clapotis is such a perfect blend of interesting enough to not be boring knitting, not so much you can't chat or watch TV, and also still looks interesting once you are done, that non-knitters are impressed you made that yourself.

Someone in one of my Ravelry groups once said someone has knit a Clapotis in every yarn you can think of, including fun fur. It may not still hold quite as true. But it is a great pattern. And I thank both Knitty and Kate Gilbert for bringing it to us. 

Three Interesting Things

1. The Asheville Blade had some links to resources both for those affected by Hurricane Helene, and those looking to assist.  In general local groups are going to need cash.  Government resources are there, but often tend to take time.  To get a sense of the creativity to getting resources into the mountain, there's a group that sent supplies via mule.  (West coasters tend to scoff at East coast mountains.  But they are tall enough.) There's also a romance and other writer fundraiser coming up, more on that once it's in place. 

2. One of the things that happens anytime there's a disaster like this is that you discover things like, the Carolina mountains are our best source of quartz. 

3. In other news, the world's largest pupusa was just recently made in DC.

Wanna Write With Me?

This is a repeat for newsletter folks, but I am going to start writing something on October 15th and hoping to wrap on about November 30th. It turns out this is 45 days, not 90, like I said in the newsletter. I can math. 

The plan is to do some sprints/co-working type stuff. If you want to write along side me, for some or all of that time, I've got a form here to try and gauge everyone's preferred way for notice and participation. 

No rules about what you write, how many days you participate, or any of that. 

That Doesn't Happen Here

Years ago a writer Donna Britt wrote a column about catching herself searching for details in a crime story to explain why this wouldn't happen to her children. 

Asheville, North Carolina, a town I have had the pleasure to visit once, and hope to visit again, was listed as a climate proof place to move in an article recently. And then, well, hurricane Helene dumped about thirty inches of rain on it and it's surrounding areas, and it turns out being on a mountain doesn't save you from that.

We all want to believe we are safe from that thing. This summer I was standing at a bus stop when I got a tornado warning on my phone. I was pretty sure being at a bus stop was not where one should be in a tornado, but walking back home was going to take longer than waiting for the bus, so I stayed put and really hoped I wasn't going to end up on the news.

When DC had that earthquake a while back, some office buildings evacuated. They - some of them at least - later advised employees that that was the wrong protocol.

We all need to figure out what happens if it floods, what happens if there's no water for a while, no power. September is actually, National Preparedness Month here in the US. That's not a funny coincidence, it's actually because about now is when a lot of the big storms hit.  Whether you live where they are called typhoons or tropical cyclones or hurricanes, climate change is bringing bigger, better, stronger storms. Oh and fires too. Fires.  

While I joke that if we could just construct a little series of levers and pipes, so that any time there was too much water somewhere, we could move it elsewhere, the actual plan is multi-pronged. We need to figure out our go plans. Our shelter in place plans. And we need to work on everything we can so climate change doesn't get even worse. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Teen Vogue talked to independent bookstore owners about their concerns about book bans, and the books they wish everyone would read instead of banning. 

2. Approximately a third of former NFL players surveyed think they may be suffering from CTE. 

3. A number of statues in London are getting baby slings (which honestly, why don't we decorate statues more) as folks push to get paternity leave recognized.  In addition to the serious need for better parental leave, it's an interesting reminder of the people who are often left out of these statues. 

Banned Books Week

Last week I went to two virtual, yet local book events.  Virtual events are great for those of us who can't plan our schedule always to count on rush hour traffic - which sadly affects the buses too - to work in our favor, to say nothing of folks who worry about packed rooms for reasons of illness or accessibility. 

And both of them are things that would or have been challenged.  So, short explainer.  This is pretty USian, so folks in other countries will want to talk to their local library for what their process is.  But in the US, there are a lot of libraries, in schools and in communities.  Different libraries have different focuses, there are different books in an elementary school library than in a university library or a community library.  Community libraries in the US are paid for by taxes.  (Mostly.  In some places, the municipality has defunded the library and it is existing on grants or community fundraising.)  I bring up taxes because I think of libraries kind of like sidewalks.  Yes, my taxes paid for them.  And so did my neighbor's taxes, and the people across town, and so on.  So yes, I have thoughts about what sidewalks should be where, which ones should get repaired and how.  But I also understand this isn't just about me.  Ideally the sidewalks should work for all of us.  I may not need curb cuts, to allow wheeled things, but it makes sense to me that this helps wheelchair users, stroller users, and even folks with wheeled suitcases. 

So, I may not want to read a certain book.  I may not want a child I know to read a certain book.  But challenging a book in a library means I want no one to read this book. 

Many of the recent challengers have admitted they haven't read the books.  They are just being told this list of books is bad, and are marching into their library.  I hate this on behalf of those books, some of which are delightful.  (I have not read all of them.) But librarians in the US are also being asked to be event planners, educators, health specialists, and a number of other things.  Of course book selection and curation is part of their core job.  But disingenuous challenges add to their burden.  And the concern is not that they might remove a book.  The concern is that they might stop getting certain books to save on challenges.  Because challenges take time. 

I am part of Authors Against Book Bans, so obviously I have a point of view on this.  I sent my library what I call a love letter this year, detailing the ways that they have been helpful to me, and calling out specific branches.  If you are looking for an easy thing to do, may I suggest writing to your library.

Now back to my earlier note - the two events were with Connie Chung and Hope Larson.  Chung's memoir called Connie discusses racism, sexism that she experienced as a Chinese American working in the 1960-1990's and beyond.  She mentions ways that lawsuits related to civil rights led to her being hired. Books like this, that detail discrimination, and ways that legislation removed some of the barriers people faced, are being challenged in some places. 

Hope Larson created, among other things, the graphic novel adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time.  A Wrinkle in Time has been challenged because Meg punches a classmate. I re-read it as an adult and really adored how Meg is so angry at the unfairness and injustice that she sees.  Meg is also smart, has trouble learning the way that the teachers want her to learn, she's also isolated by the town's gossip about her father, and protective of her youngest brother.  She contains multitudes, but she also just gets to be angry.  So of course, the book gets challenged. 

I also keep an eye on local races, looking for politicians I expect to provide support for libraries. Sometimes politicians focus on big picture items, even in local races, but you can always email them and ask for their views on libraries.  When tough economic times hit, libraries sometimes get forgotten because people don't often yell about them as much. Being the person who reminds your local electeds that you love libraries takes only a little bit of time.  And it will help support your reading habit.  Win, win. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Yoon Ha Lee talked about the odd way being an Asian American writer can be both a benefit and a cage. 

2. Washingtonian did a lovely piece on the ways that being a bike messenger has changed in DC. 

3. One study into chronic pain in cats found that crocheted hats helped with the electrodes. 

The Journey

In romance reading spaces we talk a lot about the journey. If I present to you main characters that hate each other, it's not a shock to discover they learn to like each other and fall in love. If the main characters decide to fake date, it will likely not surprise you that much to learn that they develop real feelings. 

I am a huge spoiler-phobe, but some things are not really spoilers. 

I was listening to the Proxy podcast, and they talked about the use of proxies in restorative justice. (Quick note: the episode itself contains discussions of sexual assault.) Restorative justice is a process through which those who have harmed, and those who have been harmed work through how they can come to a place of healing. 

I think our society sometimes tries to leapfrog to the end. Like, yes, you were harmed, but I'm sure they are sorry, you should forgive them so you can move on. And yes, moving on is a good idea. Eventually. And sometimes the person who harmed you is not ready, or dies, or is otherwise unavailable to provide anything like closure. 

But skipping to forgiveness, or declaring something closed doesn't do it. There's still a process. I have to tell you, I often hate having to stew in my feelings. Or let time do some of the work. (Time? What? Ridiculous.) But the journey. 

Because a story about people meeting and then skipping ahead to them being happily in love is not a satisfying read. I could just read wedding announcements if I wanted that. (Not that there's anything wrong with reading wedding announcements.)

And I think that's also why I like the third act breakup. It isn't the only way to structure a romance. But in relationships, people harm each other, often unintentionally. One way to signal that these people can survive these bumps, is by showing them hitting a bump, and then showing them figuring out how to repair it. 

Getting to see the specific ways characters address this is interesting to me. And I wouldn't want to skip past that. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This Marshall Project piece about drug testing of folks giving birth, and how it often creates false positives because folks don't necessarily know not to eat poppy seeds the day before they give birth, was interesting.  Also it mentioned that famotidine, which is something I've recently started taking can cause false positives, which I hadn't heard about.  Guess it's fortunate I haven't had to be drug tested lately. 

2. Jaggerspun is closing at the end of the year. 

3. And an odd set up circumstances led to a player making history being the first baseball player to play in the same game for both teams.

Mi Tierra

Before we start talking about this book, it's worth noting I am incredibly biased. Doesn't make me wrong. But still. 

I first met Adria Quinones on Twitter, we talked writing and plotting. We met in person when she came down to DC for a book event.

At some point she invited me to join the create night she held. It has originally been held in person, but schedules and various other things had moved it virtual. This was very helpful when the pandemic hit, because it was one thing that felt normal. 

So when she announced she had written an early reader in verse, it seemed right. The story, also beautifully illustrated by Mrinali Alvarez, is a love letter to cities, to neighborhoods where you see your neighbors, and to the idea that we all have different things that feel like home to us. 

I confess, I don't read a lot of early readers these days, but this one I loved, and not just because it was written by my friend. 

I was able to travel up for her launch party in New York this past weekend, and celebrate with her. 

Bookshop link for the book here.

Three Interesting Things

1. It's been a while since I've been to the Maryland Renaissance Faire, but this peek into life there, was nice. 

2. This sculpture put up by the Choctaw nation is lovely, and the story behind it is too.

3. I have been watching the US Open, so this peek into doubles teams was fascinating. 

How to Frame Things

I had to get a new phone.  Before I had the new phone, I tried to log into my phone account and figure out what my options were.  My phone carrier wanted me to verify myself by typing in the number they just texted me.  Except, the whole reason I needed a new phone was because I did not have the old phone. 

I called, from a different number obviously.  And I was told that I would need to go to a store.  Now, I get why having the phone was one part of the verification, I was just a little surprised that they didn't have another option.  Even on the website, if you clicked the option to report a lost or stolen phone, it asked you to type in the number they texted to your device. 

My phone carrier has my email and my address, but none of those were options.  When I went to the store, they verified my ID.  So, yes, it makes sense to me that that would require an in person interaction.  Certainly I do not want them to shut off my phone just because any old person calls in and reports the number.  But being told, nope, you'll need to go to a store, sounded odd, and almost like they had no plan B.

Anyway, that's how I spent part of my long weekend.  Fortunately I had been meaning to upgrade my phone soon. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Project 2025 has some specific plans that affect those of us who are fans of books and reading.  This post sums them up.

2. I confess I am mildly obsessed with this story of an office mountain climbing retreat where they left one coworker behind and search and rescue had to be called in. 

3. Jason Reynolds walked a reporter through his bookshelves.  

Also, the wonderful L. D. Lewis is sponsoring a grant to emerging Palestinian Creators in the Speculative Arts, and there is also an option to contribute to a second grant, as well as info on applying here. 

Writing is not Publishing and Vice Versa

Regardless of the manner or ways in which you publish (assuming that you do, or intend to), writing and publishing are different. Not just because they are different steps. But also many parts of publishing are outside your control. Sorry, my control freak friends, but it is true. 

And so the things that you can do to separate the processes in your head will help. You may never want to write anything that doesn't get published. You may never write anything that doesn't get published. But various things from weather, to reader taste shifts, to wild world events, will impact sales in ways you cannot prepare for. 

So you need to know why you write. The answer can change over your writing career. It can be the joy of storytelling. It can be the burning need to get these impatient characters out of your head. It can be the love of setting up and revealing a puzzle. It can be many things. 

But if it's to be a bestseller, or to make oodles of money, you might or might not. And if a story doesn't perform the way you had hoped, and you plan to keep writing, you need to know how to be a writer. 

Three Interesting Things

1. This article looks at the latest ebb and flow of folks of color, particularly Black folks, in publishing. 

2. This article looks at the ways that fandom has gotten a little weird.

3. This article about dumped orange peels is from quite a few years ago, but I found it fascinating because I hadn't really thought about what happens to all those orange peels when they make all that juice, and because sometimes manufacturing dumps do kind cool things. 

"Soft Power" at Signature Theater

Content notes: onstage stabbing, use of prop guns, discussion of race based violence and racial micro-aggressions. 

In a play where the main character has the same name as the playwright, and that character has a fever dream, well it's hard not to describe the show as something of a fever dream. 

I am going to confess that despite being a musical lover, I have never seen "The King and I". I have seen "The Book of Mormon" which is a similar white person goes somewhere to teach some non-white people that they are wrong and eventually they both learn from each other plot. 

So a flipped version where a person of color, an Asian person comes to teach the Queen of the US sounds cool. Except our leaders are elected and in 2016 we did not elect a queen. 

So when the playwright character gets stabbed and passes out, he dreams of a version of himself meeting the producer who hires him to write the show, and they then meet a Hillary Clinton who is running for President. 

The show is a fever dream and yet, like some dreams where you wake up and go, yep, I know where that came from, it's not wrong. It's weird, but interesting. It gets at the exhausting way we handle our democracy. There's a song about the electoral college that has a supreme court justice dancing with a sparkly gavel. Every gun used is painted a bright red, white, or blue. It also finds time to talk about assimilation, heart vs duty, and the things we learn from our parents. 

The cast was wonderful. Daniel May captured the optimism and duty of Xue Xing. And Grace Yoo sang and danced her butt off as Hillary Clinton. 

There's an interesting choice during two numbers that involved tapping, to have instrumental tapping, which I would love to know the story behind. The answer may well be, it was a dream. Dreams are weird. 

Note: I attended a masks required show. 

Three Interesting Things

1. We just had a tornado warning here last week, so disaster prep is on my mind.  While tornadoes and hurricanes are different, some of the things it can be useful to consider ahead of time are similar.  So, I appreciated this story about hurricane prep.  It's pretty US focused as far as the links, but the steps are similar for everyone.

2. For the olympics and paralympics, Paris has - for now - become easier to traverse for the disabled. 

3. And I've been enjoying the reveals around Banksy's latest series. 

Goals

The olympics wrapped and one of the things I loved about the track portion of things, was that they listed things like who had a season best time, a personal record, a national record, and so on. There was one race where almost everyone on the track hit a season's best. 

There are so many goals you can set for yourself, and it can be useful. I tend to be a lost in the trees person who forgets about the big picture forest, so setting goals can give me something to aim for.

But goals are helpful if they are maybe a bit of a reach and also achievable. There is one gold medal, but there are season's bests possible for everyone. 

And then, let's hope these athletes also have both celebration and rest in their plans.

It can be so easy to hit a goal and then go set a new one and forget to pause an celebrate that goal. 

To borrow from an old ad campaign, when people ask what's next after you hit a big goal, you should say you're going to an amusement park. Or the beach. Or the library. Whatever cool amazing thing that you do to celebrate that step. 

Because after all that work, you deserve a treat.  

Three Interesting Things

1. If you noticed that US women gymnasts seem to be lasting longer as gymnasts, this article talks about some of the reasons for that. 

2. I was intrigued at this idea of a national tenant's union.

3. And with the caveat that I am friendly with the author of this piece, an abbreviated look a dragons and romances, and some dragon romances.  Note: title, while starred, alludes to an NSFW word. 

Your Pace is Yours

I talk a lot in writing about figuring out your best pace. That writing communally can be fun, because having people around you doing the thing is fun, not because matching their pace is always the best idea for you. 

The sports coverage may be better where you are, but USian Olympic coverage always refers to being a silver medalist like it is a massive disappointment. And when it comes to writing, done is done. First draft, edited draft, polished draft, they mostly just need to get done. Sure, sometimes there are deadlines. But no one who reads a book they picked up in a bookstore thinks, hmm, I hope this was written more speedily than the book over there. 

Are there limits? Sure. I've met people who have been changing the commas in their draft for about two years, and that doesn't feel productive to me. Sometimes you have to quit a story, or say your going to quit a story. And sometimes a story has a fundamental flaw and you have to decide to rewrite it from the ground up or just write something else. 

But that first draft, that first attempt to tell the story, it just needs to get done. And done can honestly be in the eye often beholder. Done can mean having "insert fight scene here" in part. 

Speed to the end of the draft is only one measure of it, and I enjoy watching my little graph line go up as I draft.

And if it bums you out to see other's finishing faster, perhaps it helps to think of yourself as one of the other gymnasts. Imagine being the gymnast who is not Simone Biles or sub in your fave athlete here. All these other gymnasts showed up to compete. And they still did their routines after Biles did hers, already knowing that no matter how perfect they were, they could not beat a person who has actual moves named after her. But they still did it. And some of them had their best days ever. 

You don't have to be the Simone Biles of writing. There is only one of those. But there are so many books. And have you met readers? They love books. They are waiting for your story too. Because even the fastest writer doesn't write enough to keep a reader happy for a whole year. 

Three Interesting Things

1. NPR's Code Switch talked about how book bans can mean kids never see some types of characters. 

2. A new book looks at the early twentieth century Olympics, and how one swimming race brought together three very different swimmers, including a Hawaiian swimmer more known for another Olympic sport.  

3. Speaking of other Olympic sports, the story behind this surfing picture is amazing. 

When to Pause

There is a lot of sports happening right now, you may have heard. One of the things that fascinates me about sports is about how it ties into our hustle culture. How, you get injured, but are praised for working through it. How we don't just reward going fast or high or far, but going beyond what your body says.

Studies show that taking a break actually helps you work better. There are days when you cannot push through, cannot go farther. 

And creative pursuits can be like that to. Showing up counts for a lot. There are days I thought I didn't really want to write, but I did. There are days when I thought I wanted to write and yet got very little. But showing up helped because the focus on the story let me figure out why I was stuck. Or at least figure out that mt characters were stuck so I could work on figuring out why.

But there are also days I just can't. Whether I have a headache, or a lack of energy, or something else. And the trick is learning when to push, and when to go get cookies and come back another day. 

Three Interesting Things

1. The summer olympics are on, and you may have heard it's very hot on the northern hemisphere.  This article looks at how athletes are strategizing heat. 

2.  People are taking their cats out on leashes.  (My cat has said, absolutely not.  But yay for other cats.)

3. Apparently out of office messages are getting some new style. 

Too Much of a Good Thing

I listened to a podcast about hydration, and one of the guests mentioned that over-hydration has similar symptoms as under or dehydration. I take several medications that cause dehydration, so try to hydrate, but of course just like watering plants, it's a delicate balance.

I should note, I once killed a cactus. 

It does seem silly of the human body to reuse the same symptoms. After all, how can you troubleshoot if the results aren't same?

In some ways, hydration becomes like other things, something you need to be aware of. But spending too much time worrying over it, is likely to stress you out.

But if someone would invent those little soil moisture monitors for humans, that would be very helpful.

Three Interesting Things

1. So, climate change is making days ever so slightly longer. 

2. A friend pointed me to this story from earlier this year, about a generation of woman named Connie. 

3. And someone pointed me to this artist who makes incredibly realistic embroidery.

Backup Skills

Some of the newer metro trains in DC, have a digital map, that updates to show the next station, and the next few after that. They are positioned in the middle of the train, so are visible from much of the train. The trains, even the older ones, have an automated voice announcement, so there are other ways to figure out where the train is, short of memorizing stops. 

Now, I started using this system as a tween. There were announcements, but they were not reliably loud or clear enough in the train car you were on. So I got used to looking out the window at stops and finding the helpfully large signs in the station so I could make sure I hadn't missed my stop. Didn't always work - sometimes I was at a really good part of the book and missed a few stops - but at least meant I usually noticed soon.  

One day, I was on one of the newer trains, and I heard an announcement for a stop that I thought we had already been too. And I had that did I go the wrong way panic moment. I looked up at the automated display. And then I looked out the window. And I realized the automated display was three stops behind. So then I just kept reading the signs at each stop.

A few stops later I heard someone behind me say, "Oh the announcement is saying the wrong stop." And the person next to me bolted up and went, "Crap, I missed my stop!" and raced off the train. 

Now this is not a don't rely on automated systems rant. This is not even an I am smarter rant. The point I am going for is that this was easy for me to solve, because I didn't grow up with the automated option. I had a backup already. 

Whereas people who grew up able to google things, able to rely on the automated announcement, then have to build a backup on the fly when that option fails them. 

In retrospect, I wish I had said aloud that the automated announcement was wrong, so that more people on the train would have had more time to correct. It was silly of me to assume everyone else had already solved the problem. And if they had, my announcing still would have hurt nothing. 

But as we watch sites that used to be reliable disappear or get taken over by inaccurate AI posts, we will all need to work on sharing our plans for figuring things out. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Maggie Tokuda-Hall shared the speech she gave at the Minidoka Pilgrimage. 

2. Nicolas Cage, who starred in a movie about a book by Susan Orlean, was interviewed by Susan Orlean, and they had a fascinating conversation. 

3. I really enjoyed this interview with drag queen Pattie Gonia about making being outdoorsy more inclusive. 

One Million Steps

My day job does things like team walking challenges, and I have mixed feelings about them. But they are good about adding alternative options like, read a chapter of a book, or eat lunch without looking at your phone. 

And so they sent out an email saying we had all walked a million steps. And as things like Romancing the Vote wrapped up, they had similarly reminded us that yes, some items went for thousands of dollars. But the bulk of their total was made up of 5 and 10 and 25 items. 

And all of this is a reminder that things that need to be done or changed or fixed happen in small steps, happen often when we team up with others and work to make things happen. 

That the seemingly big changes, are just lots of little changes adding up. 

Oh, it turns out writing is like that too. 

Bid for Voting Rights

Hey all, it's a short week in the US and also Romancing the Vote. I donated a handknit shawl that I think is pretty cool: https://www.32auctions.com/organizations/74830/auctions/164081/auction_items/5470656

There are so many great items. Many are available to non-USians. And there are a ton of things (maybe even a few by me) set to drop during the auction.

If you can bid, please do. If you cannot, please spread the word. 

And after we raise money, lets hope we all get a little rest in this week. 

Three Interesting Things x 2

I've been adjusting to a new schedule and just did not get as far as posting end of last week, so here we are with extra things. 

1. This story about digital collections at the Library of Congress told part in comic form is very cool.

2. Mo Farah talked a little more about his running career and his journey to find more about how he was trafficked.

3. This is an older story, but I had not even heard that some people should get different sized vaccine needles, so, if this is news to you, here you go.

4. This story looks at how a new licensing requirement in Hawai'i is impacting traditional birthing practices. 

5. I found this story about the proposal for warning labels on social media useful. 

6. Oh, and remember when media was full of teens doing fake baby experiments for health class?  Apparently, they actually increased teen pregnancy. 

The Ripped Bodice Summer Bingo Recommendations

The Ripped Bodice released their Summer Bingo Board, and I have some suggestions.  As is often the case, they have a few I think you just have to stumble over, or have an incredible memory for. And a few that are giving me angst because I know I've read something with that,but what was it?  But here we go. And yes, I did include myself as one of the suggestions.  

Love in a bookstore: The Mistletoe Motive by Chloe Liese

Bet/Pact to Find Love: Bet on It by Jodie Slaughter, The Summer Love Strategy by Ray Stoeve

Magical Academy: How to Succeed in Witchcraft by Aislinn Brophy

Title Includes a Name: Sammi Espinoza's Last Review by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Olympics: Aiming High by Tanya Chris

Pen pals: The Neighbor Favor by Kristina Forest

Time Travel: Throwback by Maurene Goo

Diners, Drive ins, and Dives: Shake It Up Mickey Chambers by Charish Reid

Duel: Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

Cover has an animal on it: Oh hi, my freebie short Cocker on the Porch fits this. 

Runaway Bride/Groom: Wedding Crasher by Mia Sosa

Lighthouse:

Drag: 

Fish out of water: Wish Out of Water by Holley Trent

Motorcycles: Nowhere but Here by Katie McGarry

Astrology: Summer of Supernovas by Darcy Woods

Protagonist smells like home:

But Daddy I love him!: You Made a Fool Out of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi

Dragons: There are so many, but Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison is an option.

Amusement Park/Carnival: Zyla and Kai bu Kristina Forest

Cursed Love: Revelle by Lyssa Mia Smith

Grumpy/Sunshine: Fake it Til You Make It by Siera London. 

Lost Treasure: Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura, After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

Art Gallery:

Bias and Privelege

In going back to revisit some of the posts from around RWA's newsmaking, I realized I alluded to something about DEI programs. 

I do want to be clear. There are great DEI and DIBs and other programs. I have been in some. 

But some programs are a little sanded down. And so what can happen goes something like this. The program will talk about things like unconscious bias, how we all have it. It happens to everyone. 

And yes, unconscious bias does happen to everyone. We live in a racist and bigoted society. And so those things seep into everything. Being not racist and not bigoted takes work. 

But if you don't also discuss privilege and power structures, then its easy to walk away thinking oh, we're all a little bit racist, and so people can be racist about me too. And that's not true for everyone. 

I can be personally biased towards doctors who speak French, but that is not something that our whole society is designed to support. If I say I simply am more attracted to blondes, so much of our society is set up to reinforce that. 

And I can be a person of color and still be racist. I can be a woman and still be sexist. Our societal structures are designed to support all that.

So in a DEI training that just teaches we all have biases and should look out for them, well, it's not wrong. But that lesson on it's own does very little to help me unpack those biases. 

Tara Describes the Tony Nominated Plays and Musicals Badly

Technically these are one sentence descriptions, but, yeah, no claims to accuracy here.  This is done with love and appreciation for all the hard work that goes into making theater.  I only counted those nominated for best play, musical, or revival of one of those

. 

Jaja's African Hair Braiding - A day in the life of terrible immigration policies, and hair. 

Mary Jane - Being a mom is super hard. 

The Mother Play - Mothers are a lot. 

Stereophonic - Making art with other people is so great and also so hard and awful.

Hell's Kitchen - Not-quite-Alicia-Keys is coming of age. 

Illinoise - Campfire tales with dance. 

The Outsiders - In the 1960's it was hard being a parentless boy. 

Suffs - What if we let women vote, that would be cool.  I'm sure no one will oppose that.*

Water for Elephants - What if you really did run away to be with the circus.

An Enemy of the People - What if you tried to warn people of a deadly risk, and they got really mad. 

Appropriate - Sorting through a dead relative's things always leads to drama. 

Purlie Victorious:  A Non-Confederate Romp through the Cotton Patch - A preacher has a plan to win back his inheritance from the plantation owner. 

Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club - One needs a good place to relax and sing, when there are Nazis and political upheaval going on outside. 

Gutenberg! The Musical! - Two guys try to pitch a musical about Gutenberg. 

Merrily We Roll Along - Telling a story about friends breaking up backwards, so it seems happy.

The Who's Tommy - PTSD can sometimes result in excellent pinball skills.

*I know.  It's two sentences.  Oops.  My bad.   

Three Interesting Things

1. Some of the survivors of the Sandy Hook shooting are graduating high school, and they talked about that. 

2. While it sounds a little like a sci-fi plot, they are airdropping special mosquitos in an attempt to help preserve some special birds in Hawai'i. 

3. A hotel fire alarm went off in Dublin, Ireland, and one of the hotel guests made a point to meet the fire fighters, a man named Henry Winkler. 

7 Things about Tricked by Love

1. Side characters in books are always fun because they can be like cue balls, bouncing off the other balls, and resetting the table.

2. Making them main characters is always a little tougher, because now they need internal thoughts and feelings. 

3. When I wrote Hot Bartender, and created Lillian (Zane's sister) and Xavier (Zane's friend and eventual co-worker), I had no additional plans for them.

4. But well, Lillian apparently had plans. So when in Troubled by Love, Lillian mentioned a secret relationship, I realized I had to write that.

5. As with my other books, this book stands on it's own. The only thing you will learn from reading Tricked by Love that is that the couples in Hot Bartender and Troubled by Love are still together. Also, timewise, Tricked starts before Troubled but ends after it. 

6. Is there a museum date in here? Yup. And food? Yup. And a reference to DC's dinosaur, aka dinosaur butt?  Also, yep.

7. Lillian doesn't date bartenders. Xavier doesn't do secret relationships. They are both about to break their rules.

Lillian's brother is a bartender, and the bartender circle in DC is too small for her to date within that pool. She meets a hot guy on the customer side of a bar and goes home with him. When she discovers he is a bartender too, she decides they never need to meet again. And that works, until he shows up to Thanksgiving dinner.

Xavier's family drama means he likes things clear and upfront. But he never forgot Lillian, and when they end up seated at the same dinner table, he decides he'll agree to just about anything for another chance with her.

Except secret relationships never stay secret for too long. When Lillian's brother and Xavier start looking into working together, Lillian and Xavier are either going to need to go public or end things.

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3VrcBza

Apple: https://apple.co/454n0nP

Kobo: https://bit.ly/3RdOgdQ

Barnes and Noble: https://bit.ly/3X0PInw

Universal Link: https://books2read.com/u/mdwRYw

Bookshop: https://bit.ly/4aKZiy2

Three Interesting Things

1. As someone who has worked in benefits, I have a lot of thoughts about why hospital pricing transparency would be hard, but that doesn't mean that it isn't a great goal.  NPR talked to Fat Joe who has been working on this issue. 

2. In other healthcare news, there's a possible tooth regrowing drug that's about to go into testing. 

3. And it has come to my attention that a new cat color has been identified and named salty licorice. 

"Long Way Down" at Olney Theatre

Content notes: On stage death by implied gunshot, grief, frequent use of prop gun, including pointing at the audience.

I listened to a podcast about resilience after natural disasters where they interviewed mental health specialists who had gone to Puerto Rico and talked about meeting folks for whom this was like the third or fourth life disaster they had faced. 

It was an accidental choice on my part, I just picked next episode on my way to the theater, but in many ways it was apt. 

I listened to the audiobook of Jason Reynolds "Long Way Down" years ago. 

It was turned into a one man play that I never managed to get to. But the story of Will who hops in an elevator with a gun after his brother is murdered, intent on evening the score, only to encounter ghosts of his past - well a one man play made sense. 

The book is short, making use of prose and wordplay in creative ways. 

A musical did not seem as obvious a choice. But we all know I love a musical. 

For the musical, we get to spend more time with some of the characters. We get to know Sean, Will's brother, and his mom, quickly in the first song. So that when Sean is killed in the third song, it's heartbreaking, even though you knew it was coming. 

The set design was fantastic, using a whirling, twirling elevator cage that fills up with ghosts. 

There are lovely little details. During one flashback moment, when Will remembers talking about grief with his mom and his brother, his mom sings about not pushing grief away, while Sean dances and teases Will behind her. 

And Will's uncle wears a Washington Bullets hat. 

The songs cover a range of styles. 

This was a really fascinating show, that adapted the source material in an interesting way. 

For those who haven't engaged with the material before, the book, and this musical version fall into what I often call conversation plays. Which is to say, it's about the questions raised, not the answers. It's a great story, but the ending is intentionally open ended. (Two theater-goers at my showing spotted an actor leaving and tried to get him to give them the answer. The actor wisely, but kindly, refused.)

So, you may want to go with a friend so you can all talk about it after. 

Covid note: Olney Theatre does not have a mask requirement, but they do have MERV air filtration that runs prior to and during the show, per their website. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I have not had a chance to watch "Malihini" yet, but appreciated this profile of filmmaker Ha'aheo Auwe-Decker about the diasporan Hawaiian experience and challenging the frameworks of storytelling.

2. RWA blamed DEI and the pandemic for their recent bankruptcy filing, and Smart Bitches has the recap if you want to really go back to why their membership plummeted. 

3. The PWHL doesn't have a DC area team (yet) but they just capped off their first season.  Go hockey!

The View From the Couch

I sat on my couch yesterday and watched out the window as a giant dark grey cloud covered half the sky. There had been some rain earlier, but not much, compared to the day of rain that had been originally predicted. 

I got up and peered out the window, to make sure I wasn't just missing the rain, but no, it was dark, but not currently raining. The wind had even died down. There were flashes of far off lightning, but far enough off that I couldn't hear the thunder. 

I kept watching. I'm not sure why. I was indoors, as was my cat. (My cat is always indoors, unless we are en route to the vet, to be clear.) I had no plans to be outside. Witnessing the exact moment the rain started, if it started was not going to change any of my plans. 

Sometimes it feels like you have to watch. You have to personally witness the thing. And hey, I love live theater. I am not going to say witnessing a thing cannot be cool. It can! 

But sometimes, when it is something you cannot affect or change, witnessing it is not always necessary or helpful. It can be cool, if you enjoy storms. 

I still care about the weather. I thought good thoughts for my unhoused neighbors. I certainly thought about those who were facing deadlier storms. Who lost power. 

But after making sure I am fed, and rested, I'm going to focus on the things I can help with, can affect, and let the rain do what it's going to do. 

Three Interesting Things

1. CHatGPT allegedly using a voice that sounds like Scarlet Johansson after asking her if they could use her voice is sort of the issue with so much of what we are calling AI.  It's trained on stolen data. And the stolen data seems to still be there. 

2. This local painter talks about how the city has changed since the 1980's and why he thinks painting is one way to document all of that. 

3. This family bought an octopus, and good thing their kid was super into octopuses, because said octopus was pregnant. 

Seemingly Simple Crafts

It has been fun watching people make friendship bracelets, a thing I did kind of constantly as a tween, learning to make 4 and 6 and 8 strand ones. I never knew the names of the stitches, but figured through trial and error, and tips from friends how to make many different styles. 

Recently I suddenly decided I needed to make potholders. And I ordered all the things, and now I have made an absolute ton of potholders. Okay, I have made like 16. And am debating ordering more loops, though I do also have some cotton yarn, and you can use yarn.

I'm still knitting. And making sweaters and shawls and such. But the joy of a potholder I can complete in a single evening, is really fun. 

I had tried getting into weaving before. The discovery that warping could take a whole evening kinda killed it for me. It's a me problem for sure. (There's a local class that has you do your first project on a pre-warped loom, which I thinking clever. Gets you hooked on the end result first, then you learn about the process.) 

But I also do not have to be a weaver. Oh but wait, I just made 16 potholders. I am a weaver. Just not the kind of weaver I thought I was going to be. But these are pretty. And they make me happy. And I do have plans for the potholders. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I really enjoyed Ashley C. Ford's podcast about the choice to become a parent, and appreciated this post where she talked about being an important adult in other kid's lives.

2. I confess, I was not really part of the "Blues Clues" generation, but this story of Steve meeting the now adult toddler who was part of the focus group that picked him, was adorable. (I originally typed licked, which was wrong, but then was it? Have you met toddlers?)

3. I continue to love this siblings series, including this piece about these Kenyan boys that have decided the key to education is community support.

It's Not the Remote Part

We're seeing a lot of back and forth about remote work, and office leases, and in person collaboration, and employee loyalty. 

And I think people are confusing remote work issues with things that are not entirely related to remote work.

Although, sometimes they are. I worked for a company where my entire office went remote, and then I got put on a team where other than myself and one other team member, they were not remote. They were getting one telecommute day a week, and were not allowed to have more. It was awkward to say the least. 

As such, we had team meetings where some of their questions were about the physical space, a physical space I had never (and still never) seen. They had contests involving listening to music in the hallways, that I could not participate in. We had large meetings, where a VP would come talk to us, and the VP would have to be reminded not to walk too far away from the phone, since some of us were listening in.

There were programs my co-workers had, that no one knew how to provide to me, or even who I should ask about them. 

I found out there was a group chat when my manager bragged that the team was so connected that we were all on a group chat. (I did get added the next day.)

When they moved to video meetings, another VP stood up and said this office space is the future of our company. Only for them to ask us to explain three months later why so many of us assumed they were planning to remove remote work.

And they posted no new job positions with a remote work option. Zero. 

So yes, as a remote worker I felt disconnected and not always valued. But it wasn't the lack of commute or the relaxed dress code holding me back. It was because I was disconnected. Because the company culture was built around in person collaboration and they did not know how to adapt it for remote, and honestly weren't trying. 

I've worked with other teams since, and plenty of us figured out lots of ways to stay connected across countries and timezones. To have weekly meetings and group chats that included everybody. To answer questions about tech and provide options for people to gather and even meet people not on their direct teams. 

Now certainly, not every job is suited to remote work.  But just like some meetings could be an email, if the only reason for in person gathering is collaboration, then it's time to consider altering the collaboration styles. 

Three Interesting Things

1. These high school students came up with an additional proof for the Pythagorean Theorem using trigonometry. 

2. I can pick up pens but not coins with my toes. But this next part of the sibling series talks about how such dexterity is often genetic. 

3. The  local student encampment was pepper sprayed and cleared early yesterday morning.  I have been reading student and faculty accounts.  Worth noting, there is an auction going on to  help raise money for people attempting to evacuate Gaza.