The Magic Nutshell

October is here! It's time for sweaters and crackling fires and pumpkin pie and... a climate crisis heat wave. I just got out all my knits and candles and squishy throw blankets, only to endure a couple of swampy, Florida-hot days. In October. In Michigan.

This is the third year in a row we have had a sweltering heat wave in October. It does not make me feel the hygge. I feel... I feel...


...more like death metal Greta Thunberg, yeah.

So I decided that, instead of burning up fossil fuels and warming my house by cooking dinner, my family would explore a different Scandinavian concept: ísbíltúr, the Icelandic national pastime of going out for ice cream.


We ate ice cream for dinner. Outside. In October. In Michigan.

Today, it has finally cooled down outside--for now. I got out the velvet pumpkin basket stuffed with hats and gloves and put it in the foyer, by the mosquito repellent and the flip-flops. You never know what you might need on the walk to school.

No matter the season or th…

My favorite season is here, and I'm taking a short break from working on my book to bask in the joys of fall. Beautiful autumn days are too precious to waste! I'm renewing my vow to be a Hobbes as part of my 2019 mantra to Be Bestial.


I'm taking author Kate Angus's advice to give myself a fallow period, even if it's short. For the next week or so, it's going to be stormy outside, which is both detrimental to outdoor activities and kind of exciting and inspirational, so I'll be back at my writing desk. If all goes well, I will soon be working on my agent submission documents!

It turns out my husband is a fantastic alpha reader. Who knew? We've been married for 13 years and have known each other for 21. And last weekend was the first time I ever had him alpha read for me. Turns out he's the best creative partner I could ever hope for and that he still has the ability to surprise me with hidden talents and acts of love.

My husband is not really a fiction reader. He probably hasn't read a novel since high school AP lit class. It's not that he doesn't love a good story, it's that he doesn't like sitting still long enough to read a book or watch a movie. He's a very active and extroverted man, and he'd rather have a conversation or a real-life adventure than read a book. He's kind of like Gaston if Gaston weren't an asshole.

So until now, I haven't wanted to bother him with requests to read my writing, because reading novels isn't his jam, and also because I've always harbored guilt at how much time I spen…

Tonight, the lunar fall begins! Behold the Harvest Moon on the night of Friday the 13th, which hasn't happened since the year 2000 and won't happen again for another 30 years! I'm so excited because fall is my favorite season. Summer is generally when my anxiety peaks, and I question my whole life and my existence and whether I am an idiot for spending so much time writing books that might turn out to be incredibly silly and ridiculous.

And now the Harvest Moon finally comes, and with it a marvelous reminder that some of my favorite kinds of art and media are silly and ridiculous. Lindemann has released their latest video, for "Steh auf," which feels like a direct message to me from the universe to quit mainlining the Weltschmerz, stand up, recommit to my 2019 resolution to Be Bestial, and get my own silly and ridiculous work completed.

Like, I have no idea what's going on with this small stage / looney bin / Mongol invasion, but I like it. This resonates wit…

I'm more than halfway through my edit of Hollow Charm! The working title of my book refers to a sort of necklace, and there are a lot of necklaces in the story. I have cut over 5,000 words from the last draft but left in all the necklaces.

Why? I don't know. Honestly, I'm not sure if they symbolize something or what. This book is weird. It's one of those things I've created without trying to analyze it too much as I go. I like it that way, wild and instinctive. There's a lot of flow in it. And jewelry. There's gold jewelry and amber jewelry, but the most important jewelry in the story is made of garbage and human hair.

In real life, sometimes I like to wear piles of random necklaces. I like to mix valuable materials with apparent junk in a way that tells an interesting story.

I like things (and people too) that are beautiful in unexpected ways.

That's what I hope Hollow Charm will be when I'm done burning off all the stupid adjectives and vestigial …

Girls really do grow up faster than they used to! My baby has just started third grade. Here she is looking like a tiny tween. Some of the girls in her class are bigger, taller, and older looking than she is. This is the new reality of girls in elementary school.

My daughter has given away nearly all of her toys and set up a neat and tidy homework desk stocked with notebooks and pens. She's more interested in Minecraft than My Little Pony now, but she still prefers to run around and play with other kids outside than to sit with a device.

Sometimes people ask me if I'm sad that my child is growing up so quickly. So far, not really. She was a very cute baby, but every year older is easier and more fun for me! We haven't yet hit peak enjoy-it-while-it-lasts.

She gets herself ready for the day. She can help with more chores. She sleeps in until about 7:00 a.m. (It used to be 5:00.) She still wants me to read to her at bedtime, but now it's horror chapter books rather than…