Hello friends! I hope your summers are going well!

I just got home from summer workshops. This year, for various reasons, Kij and I did not teach the Novel Architects. That workshop is always a delight, both for the challenge of helping our workshoppers craft the best book they can write, but also just for the chance to meet new writers. Most of my dearest friends, I’ve met through the workshop.

BUT we only did Repeat Offenders this year, and since I wasn’t teaching, it meant I could just hang out and work on my own writing. Also spend time with those friends!

The number one thing I was working on this year wasn’t a specific writing project. I was (and still am) trying to re-engage with boredom. With my brain NOT on the internet. I’m trying to drag those empty spaces back into my life, because it’s in those empty spaces that a lot of the writing comes from.

2020 broke us all in a number of ways, and I have struggled since then with the big, complex plots I love to write. It’s been a challenge to hold it all in my head. But once the mental overhead of the pandemic went away, I wasn’t getting that brain back.

My time in Lawrence was great, though. I took a lot of long walks and intentionally didn’t listen to music or podcasts. I sat with a journal open and stared out the window. I intentionally didn’t browse Reddit, or play Wordle, or read Ars Technica, or any of those myriad things that take up the brain space and give little back.

So far, it’s been working! I finished a draft (for a book that will be launching on my Patreon soon!) and got a lot of the difficult thinking done on the Space Opera. It turns out that when I give myself space to think, and I go back to the tools Kij and I teach, those complicated plot arcs fall in line!

In other news, the garden is going great. I had a little bunny friend for most of the spring. He kept me company while I was working.

I’m still learning a lot as a gardener. This year I added garlic and potatoes to my repertoire. Pumpkins are growing, so we’ll see how those turn out. Tomatoes, green beans, salad greens continue to work well for me, but the cucumbers weren’t as successful as last year. It keeps me on my toes!

So try to hold on with me through the heat, and be well.