A few months ago, it was brought to my attention that my blog had achieved a somewhat wider readership than I’d previously realized. While it’s true that the entire point of this new site is to assist in getting my work before a larger audience, this still came as a bit of an unpleasant surprise–these were not the readers I had in mind! And I had some questions…some feelings….about which of my followers might have contributed to this unexpected expansion of my audience. So I went quiet here for a little while, pondering how best to proceed. But I’ve taken it in now and decided I’m on board: the more, the merrier! It’s such an old habit, going silent for fear of other people’s reactions, and the whole point here is to do the opposite of that, to embrace the “no fucks left to give” spirit of this stage of life and just say whatever is in me to say. And it’s not only the habit of shrinkage that’s kept me from posting here: there has, in fact, been quite a lot going on. I’ve been working on multiple writing projects, and I went to Tunisia, and my oldest child returned from living abroad in time to see my youngest child graduate from high school, which has meant lots more time with my children in general and my daughter in particular. My garden is going gangbusters, I have chickens now…I am busy all the time, but for the moment, alhamdulillah, it is all the best kind of busy-ness.

And, since we’re on the subject, I’ll just throw out a few recent bits of good news. The other night I was telling my Muralist friend about the weirdly misspelled and ambivalent email I got from an agent who has expressed considerable enthusiasm for my novel manuscript. I told him that it left me confused and discouraged because on the one hand, she quoted me back to myself and gushed about how much she loved what she’s read so far, but on the hand, it’s taking her forever to finish, and she made a comment about this not being precisely the genre she knows best, which is definitely not what the bio on her website says and feels like the beginnings of a rejection. He reminded me that in cases like these, the truth is often much more quotidian (and less personal) than we imagine: “Maybe she’s getting a divorce right now. Maybe she’s taking care of her sick mom. Maybe one of her kids is on drugs. Who knows? It probably has nothing to do with your book.” I told him I’d responded by mustering all my self-confidence. Keep reading, I emailed her back; I promise you, it has everything you are looking for. Everyone who’s read it has told friends about it. You will not be disappointed; the final third is a wild ride. He loved hearing this, which I knew he would because he’s the person who’s been teaching me how to take my own work seriously and be my own best representative for years now. “As artists, we have to hype ourselves up. We have to promote our own work. You did the best thing you could do in that situation, which was to tell her, Lady, look: you will be lucky to represent me.“

And so, in that spirit, I’ll note that in addition to this agent, I heard from another recently who also requested the full manuscript. I have a short story appearing in the current issue of a literary journal that probably a hundred people will see, but it’s another credit I can put in my query letters. I have a memoir piece coming out on Substack next week, and I am very near finishing a short story I’ve been working on for a while now about two friends driving cross-country to get one of them an abortion. And, as you might’ve seen last week, I wrote another poem. Which is of course not the genre I know best, but it feels good sometimes to knock something out like that and feel like I captured–what was the definition they gave us back in high school? A poem is a moment of intense emotion, recalled in a period of clarity? Something like that. Every fucking day is intense emotion in this timeline. The periods of clarity are few and far between. Maybe when the next one comes around, I’ll go back and revise. And maybe the more I focus on my recent wins, the more I will have to look forward to.

Happy Jupiter cazimi and Full Moon in Aquarius, folks! Here’s to all of us who are trying to put ourselves out into the world in new and terrifying ways.