I had a chance over the holidays to sit down with the wonderful book, Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Wall Kimmerer. The book weaves together Wall Kimmerer’s experiences and knowledge from the multiplicity of her identity in a way that takes the reader on a journey through scientific knowledge, history, and cultures. Wall Kimmerer showed how her approach to teaching changed as she grew more confident that the ways to reach her students also meant reframing the paradigm. She challenges the western approach to scientific knowledge, the patriarchy and the hierarchy of academia, and the view of nature as driven by their value as resources. She does the by demonstrating that humans are in a relationship with other entities; a plant, a rock, an ecosystem, have their own knowledge and abilities. The book frames ways to consider knowledge and viewpoints and encourages all readers to consider their relationship with land usage and how it is a fraught conversation.

After finishing the book, I was left with a great deal to ponder and examine. My parents garden but in my own adult life, I have never attempted to keep plants. To read and hear about all the knowledge within the cycle of chestnut trees, as one example Wall Kimmerer uses in her book, furthered my understanding.  Her book showed how many natural cycles have been disrupted and knowledge lost. Humans have a hand in the disruption and the destruction. Humans will be needed for the solution.

Happy New Year!

I spent New Year’s Eve playing a Sherlock Holmes game, where my parents and I looked for a conspiracy at every turn. I also spent some time thinking about resolutions, about what I wanted to accomplish this year. It is an odd time to consider goals, to plan, to consider how to step away, when events in the world, and in the U.S., without stop.  

Yet, I am attempting to carry on and, in some ways, have tried position it in my brain as a way to rebel. There is a lot I cannot do so I do what I can. I wear a mask, I try to avoid populated gatherings, I vote, I donate money. I also write. I plot and research for my next book. I’ve started journaling, and a quilt, and planning my next trip.

Self-care has been a buzz word, I have no proof, but I’m guessing its popularity tracked right after the time burnout became a part of mainstream conversations. Like many things, self-care has often been positioned as a way to increase purchasing. Self-care as in new bubble bath, wine, sneakers. Self-care as code for eating healthy as code for losing the weight. Self-care as a new skincare product because we all deserve it. Maybe that’s my experience based on the ad algorithms and a sign I spend too much time scrolling through social media.

At its heart though, self-care does suggest the need to check-in. Check on those standing calendar appointments, check on those spiraling thoughts, the people and support systems in your life. What’s working? What’s not? What’s missing? What’s too much? This self-reflection is new to me, and while I’ve done it previously it’s normally in reaction to event, to when I’m feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or when I’ve already through it and realize wow, I was not doing good for a while there.

When I had migraines on a more regular basis, my doctor told me to keep a journal. I was supposed to record when the migraine hit, symptoms (aura, nausea, pain scale), along with triggers I could identify. There is something about being purposeful about my emotional state in much the same way that has gone a long way to helping me. Getting stressed or annoyed? Take a deep breath. Write it out on a piece of paper. See what I can change and then put in the steps to do it.

If there is anything 2020 has taught me, it is the need to be purposeful with myself and finding out what I actually want to spend time and focusing on and what I don’t.

First, here is a distracting photo of the two batches of cookies I made yesterday: chocolate chip and snickerdoodles. The recipes for both come from typewritten index cards from my grandmother.

Now on to the hard bit:
Almost two months, I updated the blog with the next book. I also (foolishly) put out a release date of October 31.

You may have noticed no book.

This process, as I have alluded to before, all comes from me. As a self-published author that does this for her own benefit that means every step in the process is done by me. There is a lot I enjoy about it, but it also means when the rubber hits the road, it is also all on me. The release date for October 31 was ambitious. A part of me really wanted to be done so then I could perfectly segue into National Novel Writing Month. In the end, neither happened and I’m instead just sitting down to write this blog post.

I don’t like not meeting deadlines--even self-imposed ones. If this experience, and really year, has taught me anything it is to appreciate the small moments over the bigger ones. Setting the date for October ended up overwhelming me, and I did nothing instead of the something I had managed over the previous months. I hope everyone is also learning to give themselves some grace in not being able to accomplish everything their hearts and minds want too. I am definitely still learning.

Once I have a more concrete date, I will make sure to update all the things. I hope to also begin sharing with you more about the book and the cover art! I’m excited for the story and hope to have it to you soon!

Check-out the blog next week for more about creation of the cover and in the upcoming weeks for excerpts and snippets!

I used to have a hang-up(s) about yoga. I never thought I would be one of those people. In my head, people who did yoga filled out to a caricature of expensive cloths, expensive classes; naturally skinny people that go to yoga and then brunch. I never begrudged them the brunch--I will never begrudge anyone brunch, brunch is great. It’s probably easy to tell the hang-up were mostly my own insecurities in that yoga seemed like a black box. I wasn’t flexible. There were so many kinds, and I’m not a huge fan of group classes to start. It’s also fair the craze that swept the nature originally likes to call back to roots of a practice that is part of a Hindu religion. What I’ve found on the score shows mostly what we practice here in the U.S. is only loosely based on what is practiced in the religions--but, still a name is a name is a name.

All that to say, I didn’t get it. I didn’t want to get it. Then I hurt my knee and was worried about the high-impact running causes on the joints. The physical therapist had cleared me but I still was slowing working my way back up to doing any exercise besides walking. Then I went and watched the Chicago Marathon. Definitely, an endorphin rush, and I wasn’t even the one running. So I decided I’d get back into this running thing. Then the pandemic happened. Chicago, rightfully so, closed down the lakefront trails, the parks, people were encouraged to stay indoors. Then it rained. I needed to do something and I figured yoga would be a low impact way to trick myself into doing something and I could work my way up to other stuff. Whew, boy.

I started on youtube and found a playlist with thirty days of yoga (yogawithadrienne to give credit where credit is due). It took me two months of listening to my body and working my way through moves that were unfamiliar to me and yet also shapes I had done in other ways. Then I continued it. Another thirty days of daily yoga practice. Now yoga in some fashion, energetic, or  stretching, 15 minutes and up is something I like to do every day, and with a few exceptions, I’ve met it. I think I’ve been able to stick with this practice, even with everything in my life and in the world, in that it continues in the soft vein and I’m also seeing results. Not just in ways I thought, liked increased flexibility, but also in less wrist and back pain. The amount of actual muscle tone is also a surprise. When this is all over, I’m still not sure I’m quite over my block about in-person class, but I think it’s skills and an activity that I want to continue.

Hope wherever you are that you have been able to find new ideas, practices, activities to help your well-being!

One of my first courses in earning my degree at library school brought up ethical conundrums a librarian may face. Having never really considered this before, I was surprised by the many different ways librarians are challenged. From the books, and other media, to possible restrictions on sites that may be accessed by computers, all are ways to either help or create barriers to community.

I recently thought back to those as I am fact-checking my current historical fiction. Needless to say my search history would not give anyone pause, but it was interesting to reflect that before the internet my searches--some already frustrating--may have been even more so. My searches have led me as far as afield as when tea, and what kinds, would have been available in Britain during the 1810s--which lead me down some rabbit holes and I now know more about the Opium Wars and how that interacts with the larger history of trade. I now know more about gin, champagne, and bourbon as well. Those led to more interesting results.

But what my searching has shown me, is there are a lot of really passionate people in this area. A lot of the culture, clothing, housing, has come from blogs in addition to other sources. A lot of digital archives of census records and museum archives has helped provide detail and depth in ways that surprised me. The internet has helped make a lot of passion projects reality. In thinking back to my librarian training days, I am reminded that the ability to access information is a privilege hard-won whether that information is on the popular form of decorating or on accurate maps.

My wonderful readers, I have updated my Coming Soon page here on the blog!
Mainly because the muse is the director, and I can only sort of quietly nudge her back into the lanes I thought were mapped out.
To that end, the third and fourth books in the Ravanna Series are drafted. The third, Bone Marrow, is more or less complete--yet I am struggling with moving it forward. When I wrote the story the plot went in a particular direction. Those books in general are written in an odd way, and it did so sort of wild. I am struggling what to do with it. Until, I get it planned out, there can be no third or fourth book. So they are planned. They will continue--just without any definitive time.

The second book in the New Devils has a title, and I really thought I would start writing that second book immediately. That’s what I did with the Ravanna Series--in fact I really wrote straight through books 1-3. That has not happened so for now there’s a title, I am excited for that universe--just not right now.

So the big news actually, is the next book is (tentatively because this year has been a mess) scheduled to release October 2020. I’m pretty confident where I’m at with it and hope to stick to my guns. That means watch this space for the cover reveal and teasers and count down! The book, Middle Ground, is a historical romance. I can’t wait to hear about what you think of Eveline and her story!

In general, I’ve been sticking to one book published every two years. A part of me would like to go faster, but then my brain tends to decide it doesn’t what to write, and also kind of would like to talk to other people. As always the book writing, editing, formatting, proofreading, cover designing, all happens around everything else.

More details soon!

Last week was a bit of a heavy blog post. It’s fair to say it’s a topic I could stay focused on, but it’s also true this blog--written mainly for me, let’s be honest--helps catalog my creative output. It’s own privilege to be sure. But I think I’m walking a fine line these days with the mental well-being. Hope is its own dangerous tool, and I am trying my best to cultivate it. To be fair, we will probably go adrift to other topics, because no one lives in a vacuum and I feel that way certainly with art. All that to preface, the blog will still stay mainly a space focused on the writing and other projects. All that to say, I am trying to take my joys, my gratitude where I can, and attempt to acknowledge and work through the guilt my current privilege affords me.

My joy of the week, of the month, of the year was my first ever review! I got the notification and literally braced myself for a bad one--for someone who didn’t like my work, or rated it with only a star and no comments.

Instead, deep breath, a person actually out there in the world somewhere took time to a) read my book, and then b) actually write a thoughtful, positive review. I am still floating!!! Like they had a favorite line and everything!!!

For those who are even remotely curious, yes, seeing those reviews, heck just getting the reports that people actually download the books, yes, it makes my day. I know my work isn’t perfect, but sending it out into the world just fulfills me so much as a person and knowing other people are seeing it makes me want to run and hide but also scream for joy.

Any bright spots for you this week?