it's the biggest week in american birding
I love that I name-dropped the Biggest Week in American Birding in The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, because now when I gush about the Biggest Week I can claim I’m also marketing my book 😌
okay, technically the Biggest Week is over, because it ran May 8-18 this year. but today’s only May 19, so I’m gonna talk about it anyway
if you somehow don’t know this yet despite reading my newsletter: the Biggest Week in American Birding is ten days during the first two weeks of May in which birders flock to Northwest Ohio (punintended) from all over the country and even the world to see the warblers during migration. warblers are colorful little songbirds, and during those first few weeks of May you can see up to 36 species at once, all in one region.
it’s also peak migration season for other birds. many of Ohio’s summer residents have returned by now, too—including American white pelicans, which as of last year have been documented as nesting in Ohio for the first time in I-don’t-know-how-long.
basically, it’s a great time of year to be in Ohio if you’re a birder. plus everything’s in bloom, so it smells glorious outside (unless you have allergies, rip you in that case), and it’s all green and beautiful.
it was a really wonderful moment when I realized, “hey, Keeper takes place partly over the first two weeks of May!” and added the Biggest Week to the book. my friend got to that part while beta-reading and went, “nerd. not the character. you. you’re the nerd.”
nerd I may be, but we embrace the cringe in this household 😤
anyway, here are some pictures I took earlier this month (sadly not of birds, but at least you get to see some pretty flowers because springtime in Ohio)
june events
Wine & Words Book Club with Gathering Volumes
Tuesday 3 June, 6:30-8:00p.m. EST. Earnest Brew Works, Detroit Ave., Toledo.
join us for drinks and a discussion about The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, E.M. Anderson’s new cozy fantasy! a signing will follow.
Book Bedazzling with Gathering Volumes
Saturday 14 June, 8:00-10:00p.m. EST. Gathering Volumes Bookshop, Perrysburg.
join us for an evening of book bedazzling! authors Anastasia Ryan and E.M. Anderson will join us as we bedazzle some of their books.
note: this event is tentative. I’ll send an update email in the event that anything changes! I’ll also send an update email if registration is required later on.
and we're back
remember this from a few newsletters ago?
welp, I’m officially in revision mode! but this time I have outside feedback instead of beating up my own brain for ideas. I’m not sure how much I can share about this project at this time, so for now I’ll just leave that no-context meme and let you know I’m digging back into the book it pertains to.
I actually received my edit letter two weeks ago, but for once in my life I’ve been successfully taking a break from writing. “taking a break,” for me, usually looks like “still writing, but we’re calling it a break because this thing isn’t on deadline,” which, y’know, isn’t really a break. but it’s the best I can do.
this year, I tricked myself into a real break. I meant to start my break the second April hit, when I turned my next manuscript in, but I was like…semi-successful. working on formatting my short stories for Itchio helped, because it felt like writing without being actual writing, but I did still open document after document to poke at various projects.
btw you can read my short stories on Itchio now, in case you missed that announcement. click here: link to E.M. Anderson on Itchio
then Easter hit, and I had a six-day weekend, most of which I spent taping and painting the dormer upstairs. while listening to my own audiobook (twice), which again made it feel like writing without actually writing.
by the time that was done, I was used to being away from my computer and doing things with my hands. so it became easier to find things to do that did not involve opening various Word documents.
…then I ended up spending several days writing an 8500-word fic about David taking Peter to an Irish cultural festival, whoops, so that was a slight failure of my writing break. but overall, I spent a lot less time writing in the last month than I normally do, and the only writing I did do was for me and one (1) friend for no reason at all except enjoyment. so we’re counting it.
now, however, I’m back on deadline. cross your fingers and toes my break was sufficient that my brain will no longer feel like a potato as I try to wrestle this project into shape!
odds & ends
recent reads
CrossRoadArt’s selkie comic On the Rocks, the first page of which I loved so much I immediately signed up for their Patreon. you can follow this thread on Bluesky for one page a day, or you can follow the link from there to their Patreon like I did
Conclave (2016) but not for the reasons you think. I watched the film (again not for the reasons you think) shortly before there was a need for an irl conclave because of (a) everything I’d seen about it on Tumblr (the tipping point was a GIF of Thomas carrying a turtle) and (b) a Conclave-film-obsessed friend with whom I had promised to do a buddy-watch (which I did)
recent watches
Conclave (2024), obviously. it was incredible, I’ve read several fanfics and even downloaded one, of course I’ve now read the book, and I’ll definitely be live-posting the film at some point even though I realize the popular time for that kind of thing was during the irl conclave. (I don’t think I could’ve done it during the irl conclave, however, I was too stressed out)
recent listens
Kirsteen Harvey’s EP Wee Tunes from Home, which I bought after hearing her version of “Wild Mountain Thyme” on Instagram while making a post. my only complaint is that it’s an EP rather than a full album, because I would happily listen to her version of a thousand songs in this vein. check out her Instagram for more about her music
recent birds
SO MANY because it’s been the Biggest Week in American Birding HELL YEAH. I even got halfway decent pictures of some of them, thanks to the little point-and-shoot camera I bought mostly so I could take better macros than I can with my phone
warbler round-up
black-throated green warbler
palm warbler
Nashville warbler
yellow warbler
yellow warbler singing in a tree Blackburnian warbler
magnolia warbler
Cape May warbler
prothonotary warbler
prothonotary warbler in a tree. fun fact, prothonotary warblers are named after the yellow robes once worn by papal clerks, who are also called prothonotaries. love that someone saw this bird and went “that bird reminds me of papal clerks.” rip bird namer, you would’ve loved Conclave yellow-rumped warbler
black-and-white warbler
blackpoll warbler
Tennessee warbler
American redstart
chestnut-sided warbler
black-throated blue warbler
common yellowthroat
northern parula
American white pelican
American white pelicans in flight Baltimore oriole
warbling vireo
belted kingfisher
green heron
green heron fishing osprey
indigo bunting
lesser scaup
great crested flycatcher
an exciting flycatcher for me both because I’ve heard them the last couple years but had never seen one before this month and because they look different than most of our regional flycatchers, with a distinctive yellow belly
SCARLET TANAGER THIS IS NOT A DRILL
I think I mentioned last year, when Merlin picked up a scarlet tanager multiple times in my recordings, that this is the bird I’ve always wanted to see someday. thanks to my bird walk last Sunday, I saw not one but FIVE scarlet tanagers omggggggggg
until next time!
