Goddamn, how is it already time again for a newsletter. I’m not ready. I’m gonna try to keep this one pretty short.

GARDEN UPDATE:

The tomatoes have taken over. We have a half dozen winter squash that are coming due and another bunch of zucchini that are springing up out of a plant that I thought was on it’s way out. How miraculous. Also, I bought a “sweet-hot” pepper plant that produces these beautiful little gems, that look like petite bells. Gentle readers these seemingly innocuous peppers will melt the flesh off of your face and set fire to the remaining bone. I saw god, and he smited me with the fires of a thousand suns on every goddamn tastebud. I saw the color of numbers. While cutting them up, and rinsing out the seeds the oils from the pepper dispersed into the air like the worst homemade pepper spray and I spent the next hour coughing out the insides of my lungs.

But they’re pretty good in a burrito.

We’ve gotten some decent carrots, and the kale and greens are really good but there’s not a lot and I’m not well schooled in how to reseed in a timely fashion but we’ve eaten some and not worried about getting the shits.

The crows are sassy as ever and they will now show up in the afternoons upon occasion, to yell at me. But when I come out with treats, they just continue to converse without seemingly wanting anything. I am building a reputation as every time I go out to talk with them someone is inevitably walking by to hear me yell “Well, I don’t know about that, maybe your being dramatic” to the treetops. I expect the little men in the wagon will come to take me away shortly.

OTHER STUFF:

I’m currently writing this on the retreat and I have to say, if you’ve never ran away to the mountains to get a little work done, then you’re missing out. Even if you don’t do it with a group its worth investing the time. Just to get away, to be amongst other writers, (or even just alone) you will see a benefit. I’ve already made some good progress and its not even a full day in. I think I’ll surpass most of my goals.

I’m gonna take a free Master’s Class with Laura Pritchett through Western Colorado University. It’s all about a deep dive into setting. That’s happening in September and here’s the link if you’re interested. WCU CLASS

WRITING/EDITING:

Eight Nights in Everpine Vally is coming out OCTOBER 20th!!! My anti-Hallmark Holiday novel about a Jewish Carpenter living in a Christmas town, who falls into cahoots with a Feminist Studies professor. It’s ridiculously a middle finger to the schmaltz of the holiday frenzy, but despite that, it’s also really heart forward and sweet. There’s a cranky aunt, a has-been cheerleader, shenanigans, and a little spice. Speaking of that, due to the nature of the project, all the books had to be closed door, but…being that I believe in real, complicated, satisfying relationships, I did write a “deleted scene” for this book. I will have it available in my November Substack. I’m trying to figure out how to make it available to just those who purchased the book, but I’m not that tech savvy.

My edits for “FaeSpawn” (mythology-based, contemporary fantasy, set in the Ornkey Islands north of Scotland and south of Scandinavia) are back on for this retreat. But I’ve made some changes to the over-all arc of the series so I’ll need to go back and redo and clean up some of the earlier work. I’m telling you, real writing is not always a straight and narrow path. It’s like going on a spontaneous walk on your retreat that turns into a hike, and you maybe get a little bit lost, meet a moose, go a mile and a half out of it’s way and don’t make it back as soon as you were supposed to… yep… Writing is unpredictable and sometimes sketchy. You often have to backtrack, recheck your compass, take a deep breath and just head in the right general direction. Even if you end up creating your own path and stumbling into someone’s ski chalet drive way. Eventually we all make it home.

I’m about 80 pages into the process of transcribing all of the poetry I’ve written over the last few years for an anthology out next year (possibly from a publisher). I’m trying to get up to the 100 page mark over this retreat and have about fourteen more poems to go I think. Some aren’t going to make the final cut (no matter how much editing I do, there are poems that are just not meant to be out there), but I think I’ll have a lovely little book at the end of it.

I’ve started something new, again. Because my computer does this stupid thing where it randomly updates and anything not saved gets eaten. I had 1000 words that I loved, poof, gone. So I started over last night, begrudgingly, and I think these might even be better. But I saved that damn file seventeen times just to be sure.

READING:

I finished “The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin”, by Alison Goodman. It was fantastic and held up to the same brilliance as the first. I hope she has another coming out soon.

I finished “Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves Through Dark Moods” by Mariana Alessandri. It was good. It was an interesting counterpoint to the overtly and often disgusting ‘just smile more’ movement of believing all things good are light and all things negative are bad and that we should force ourselves out of sadness, grief, anxiety, and depression. Rather, Alessandri reminds us that it is in those states that we find our own humanity, our empathy, and break down old versions of ourselves to grow into something deeper and stronger. It was a little whiny at times, and self-obsessed, but you know what? so am I.

I’m currently reading “Cinder” by Marissa Meyer. It’s been really interesting and fun. A spin on the Grimms fairytale, in a future dystopian world, where Cinder is half cyborg and might hold the key to erradicating a particularly nasty disease that’s afflicting and killing a lot of the population. There’s a whole series and I’m really enjoying it.

I also have “Existentialism is a Humanism” on my bedside table (by Jean-Paul Satre) I haven’t opened it. It intimidates me. Maybe tonight.

EVENTS

Not much yet to speak of. I will be attending the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writer’s Gold Conference, in the beginning of October, so if you go, come by and say hi. I won’t be teaching this year, but I’ll be in the vendor hall with the Writing Heights Writers table. I’m looking forward to seeing and talking with some writers there.

We (not the royal ‘we’ but the ‘we’ of Writing Heights) will also be collaborating with Grove Creative Collective, on a class at the end of October (20th) about improve and writing. Check out the link here: IMPROV WITH GROVE

CLOSING:

There was a point last night at our first retreat dinner, where all of the ladies (no gents signed up this time) were talking and laughing until our bellies ached and tears were in our eyes, when my angry little heart and my convoluted soul felt so wonderfully at ease and at home. There is something absolutely priceless about being together in a room of friends who have sat in your seat, have walked in your path, and have struggled and rejoiced in the same ways you have. There’s something about being surrounded by strong, intelligent, caring, and funny women who are glad to share, happy to help, and listen without judgement or need to push their own agenda. To just be together, seeped in our own little worlds, and coming up for air and good company has been healing to me in a lot of ways I didn’t know I needed. A few of the members here are my age. A few have more years of experience, but I love the way we all come together in joy, and in support. I have learned so much from them about the kind of person I want to be. About the person I’m becoming.

If you don’t have a writers group, get one. It doesn’t even have to be mine. But you’re always, always welcome here.

Now, I’ve gotta go. I’ve got writing to do.

WRITING HEIGHTS REGISTRATION