Dear friends,

We're having a very Willy Wonka year around here: "We have to get on, we have to get on! We have so much time and so little to do! Strike that. Reverse it."

First up for this month's newsletter: new story! The Seed of a New Dream is available from Sunday Morning Transport. It's free like all their July stories are free, but I can also give you a temporary subscription link to read some of the paywalled things from this magazine’s other months, if you haven't used it from when I included it last month. Magazines thrive on subscriptions, so if you enjoy these, you can definitely sign up for more.

The slightly alarming thing about this story is the number of people who have written to tell me how much it reflects their own work experiences, particularly in nonprofits. Since these people are not in fact crafters of artificial dreams, I have to think it's the social dynamics. Which: friends, I'm sorry those are familiar. I'm not sorry I apparently got it right, but: hang in there, keep trying.

(It's a very "hang in there, keep trying" story.)

Next up: we are getting closer to my novella, A Dubious Clamor, every day! I now have the finished author copies sitting here in a box in my office. So beautiful. There's still time to preorder and get a cool sword sticker and an entry in the harpy plushie drawing. I have to finish arranging some things about the launch party, but I know it'll be September 17 at 6:00 at Moon Palace Books in Minneapolis. More details next month! (I finally broke down and made an events page on my website. Soon there will be more events on it. What, like, telling people useful information? Is that allowed?)

I feel so grateful for author friends Stephanie Burgis, Macey Levington, and Lawrence Schoen featuring A Dubious Clamor in their recent newsletters in one form or another, and there's more yet to come. Newsletter features, guest blog posts, and of course all the lovely amazing blurbs I've gotten! I know that when someone agrees to blurb a book, they are putting their own reputation out there with that book, and I do not take for granted any one of the lovely blurbs I've gotten. They make my publisher's job easier, they make my job easier, and they give me genuine joy, every one.

I had a grand time at Readercon in July, and the aforementioned Macey made me such an amazing present:

Yes! It is a hand-bound copy of the ARC of A Dubious Clamor! All its details are so perfect, there is a sword in the umbrella stand in gold on the back, there are lovely William Morris-y endpapers, it is so tiny and such a wonder. Usually I am telling you about things related to my writing that you, too, can have, but you cannot, this is a uniquely lovely thing my friend made just for me, and it is only my sense of preserving it that has kept me from hauling it around in my handbag and showing it to grocery clerks, gas station attendants, and random neighbors walking their dogs.

I have every hope that August will also contain small delights and thoughtful friends, and I wish the same to all of you.

Excelsior,

Marissa

Tzatziki Salad 

I love salads, and I love leafy greens, but I probably make a salad that contains leafy greens under 50% of the times I make salad. Some people's minds are blown by this while others find it totally normal. Anyway, here's a vegetable salad that doesn't have leafy greens that will make some people in some US regions nervous this summer.

I'm starting with a recipe for the tzatziki-esque dressing--leaving the cucumbers out because there will be a lot of chunks of cucumber, but you can put it in if you want to just make tzatziki and use it multiple places, or you can even do storebought tzatziki to make your life easier.

1 c. Greek yogurt

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 t lemon juice, more to taste

1 t olive oil, more to taste

Small bunch chopped fresh mint

Small bunch chopped fresh dill

Stir all this together and set aside.

Drain a can of chickpeas and rinse well.

Seed and coarsely chop 1-2 cucumbers, peel if you like it that way.

Halve a whole bunch of cherry tomatoes.

Seed and chop a bell pepper (I used yellow for color contrast, do what you want)

Chop 1-2 carrots or several baby carrots.

Cut up about 1/4 head of cauliflower.

Mix all this together and then dress with tzatziki-esque dressing above, or with actual tzatziki. Taste and add more lemon juice, salt, or pepper as needed. Any of these veg can be left out or substituted for some other veg you like that's good fresh. Or you can just eat tzatziki with a spoon. I'm pretty sure at least one of our godchildren did that at the last picnic, and he seems to have come to no harm.