April 2026

Dear ,

This winter, I began feeding the birds.

If the memes are to be believed, I’ve entered the final stage of millennial grandma hobbies right on schedule. But it might surprise you that it took so long for me to acquire a single birdfeeder, given that growing flowers and feeding birds tend to go hand in hand. Perhaps even more surprising if you knew how much of the National Audubon Society Pocket Guide of Familiar Birds of North America I memorized as a child.

But bird feeders would attract squirrels, and for much of the past ten years, I had a dog who not only loved to hunt squirrels, but was capable of clearing the backyard’s six-foot fence. When she passed in late 2024 (miss you always, beautiful girl), it took some time for my limbic system to not hit DEFCON 2 at the sight of a squirrel in the yard. It wasn’t until this past January, when I saw that temperatures would be reliably in the negatives, that I put out some suet and sunflower seeds.

For weeks, they sat empty.

My mother assured me it would take some time for birds to find the feeders. But the whole point was to support them during these cold days, I wanted to say. My intentions clearly didn’t matter to the birds, and I didn’t see a single visitor to the feeders through most of frigid January. When at last I saw a gray squirrel working on the suet, I was just relieved it wouldn’t go entirely to waste.

But slowly, slowly, the birds have arrived.

I do, of course, have the standard collection of bickering house sparrows and starlings — yes, they’re invasives and no, I don’t have it in me to deter them, if I even knew how. But there are others: a couple of gentle mourning doves, both a downy and a red-bellied woodpecker, the occasional solitary junco or chickadee. My favorites are the house finch pair, who always arrive together; more often than not, he faces out from the feeder and keeps watch while she eats. By the end of the month, the crabapple will be in bloom, and if I’m lucky, the cedar waxwings and Baltimore orioles will return.

It’s a small joy, a hobby that rewards patience and awareness. But it’s only a small effort, too; it takes no time to hang and fill the feeders, and compared to books and plants, black oil sunflower seed is incredibly cheap. I’m sure that longtime bird enthusiasts could recommend optimizations to my setup, better feeders or seeds that won’t appeal to starlings or different ways to hang the suet. I know that my couple of feeders don’t make a bird paradise.

But there is something to be said for small efforts.

That’s hard to remember these days, when this administration rains a metric ton of bullshit into the world every hour and it feels like only mythic, monumental effort could stop it. And certainly there’s well-earned fatigue around the idea that individuals must sacrifice and adapt when corporations waste and pollute with impunity. Massive, collective efforts are needed, and will continue to be needed.

And yet, my backyard is worth caring about. My small effort may be nothing in the face of global climate change and habitat loss, but it’s something to my house finches. I won’t abandon my little corner of the world out of despair for the rest of it. And if we were to string enough of these small efforts and small joys together, would they not become something important? Would the ripples not grow and connect and create something greater than the sum of its parts? Don’t our small efforts lead us to larger ones, allowing us to grow in confidence and knowledge and experience?

Are you making any small efforts or reaping any small joys these days? I would love to hear about them!

News and Events

On Monday, April 13th, my UK cover will be revealed!

The UK edition gets not only its own cover, but its own title: FAWN. The team at Transworld has created something truly, truly special with the final cover, so eerie and so reflective of the heart of this book. As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve also made a set of gloriously haunting ARCs. Those are currently being sent out on an extremely limited basis (and only in the UK), but you, my dear reader, will have a chance to win one next month. More on that soon!

The cover reveal will happen on Instagram at 10 a.m. Eastern on Monday. My biggest challenge this weekend is to distract myself so I don’t just watch the clock until then. I cannot wait for you to see it.

Your April Story: Break the Rules

In an old house tucked away in the forest, a predator learns that there is always something with a bigger mouth and sharper teeth. (Wish fulfillment? Who, me?)

Until next time,

-C