Preamble

It's been a hot minute since I last found myself in your inbox.

Life did what life does and got a little crazy for a while there: my childhood dog died; I got sick; I went on holiday; I got wrapped up in copy writing jobs; there was a heatwave that made my brain feel like cotton wool; I've been working tirelessly on my next book.

I just didn't have any words left, even for the margins.

Since being diagnosed with autism, I've been trying to take my needs more seriously, instead of raging against them. I still lament about all the things I cannot do as quickly or frequently as others, but I've gotten better at accepting and respecting my limits.

Sometimes I just need to put something down and come back to it later. Sometimes I need to let it go altogether. If I try to push through things too much, I end up burnt out for weeks or months on end. I can actually do more if I just rest.

This is your sign to rest more, by the way. And I do mean rest, which is more active than you'd think. Rest by reading, rest by watching a show without your phone in your hand, rest by playing a video game.

Engage your brain in something pleasurable but low stakes. Mindlessly doomscrolling does not, unfortunately, count. I have learned this the hard way.

Updates

• I wrote some blog posts for RIP.ie, the first of which you can read here. For the non-Irish folks out there, the site is an online directory of death notices all over Ireland, but they've also got a blog and a podcast where they talk about all things death and grief.

• I submitted edits for a book I have coming out…soon. I can't really talk about it, except that it's going to be really cool, and I'm excited. I wrote the first draft a couple of years ago, and it was actually set to be published before A Fix of Light, but things fell apart at the last hurdle. I'm really glad that it's getting a second chance! It's for young readers, maybe 9 - 12 year olds, and it's full of magic and adventure. I can say no more.

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• I also submitted an essay for an anthology coming out…also soon? I can say close to nothing about this. The first draft was a wobbly mess that made little sense. I took a month to think about it, consider the feedback I got from the editors, and then tried again. The second draft is infinitely better (sweet, sweet iteration). The anthology is aimed at YA readers, and…that's all I can say, probably!

• My draft for my next YA novel is going really well, and really slowly. It's much more complex than Fix; it jumps around in time, there's a much more structured plot, and more characters to juggle. I wanted to challenge myself, and even though it's been a painstakingly difficult and tedious process, I am already so proud of it. I can't wait to share it with you.

What's next?

The work of a writer is mysterious. I will be busy scratching away in notebooks and researching weird things like bio-metric scanners and listening to movie soundtracks to cultivate just the right atmosphere. It's exciting for me, but not the most riveting thing to blog about, especially when I can't go blabbing about plots.

As soon as I can share something — anything! — I will be right in your inbox to finally open the floodgates. Until then, I'll keep writing.

Tog go bog é!