Here comes the rain ag—nope just kidding...
I live in a part of Michigan, in a part of the Lansing area where I swear that any normal rain showers or thunderstorms will just split around us. And I really want a good gloomy, rainy weekend day so much, it always makes me feel about 50% less ON.
Speaking of needing to be less ON, I took a mental health week off work just a bit ago, and am currently taking the whole month of August off from any structured writing routine, specifically so I can get bored and reset. I think boredom leads to creativity, AND I definitely have the flavor of ADHD where something is always churning, even when I’m sleeping, which is exhausting AND means sometimes it takes me waaaaay too long to realize that I’ve hit maximum overload and am just spinning in place. Right now, I’m only writing when it feels good and urgent, and am otherwise playing video games and doodling and reading low stakes queer romance. In honor of fucking off as a good thing to do once in awhile, this newsletter edition has no real intent, and a couple of low stakes updates.
The very kind and cool folks over at Folklore Review have nominated Rabbit Rabbit, Kiai! for Best of the Net. I might even say this is a great back to school story, but mostly because kids are gross. I have a couple, and they’re adults now but somehow I am still sticky and covered in glitter all this time later…
I have moved off Spotify finally, mostly because of the whole treating artists like garbage, also a side of of not wanting to fund AI “defense” development. This only really matters to you if you like my story playlists — I have moved them all to YouTube (yeah, I know) and updated all the site links.
Y’ALL. Fiona McKay’s Lives of the Dead. This novella in flash, a runner up for the 2025 Bath Novella in Flash Award is a gorgeous, enraging blend of fairy tale and reality that for me really highlights the complexities of power imbalances in a relationship, and what that means when it comes to women’s bodies. And it’s so incredibly written, which is very on brand for Fiona.
Five stories I’ve enjoyed a whole lot, recently:
Listen. I don’t have a raccoon for you today. Best I can do is another picture of Potato the raccoon shaped cat, and his shaved belly, because friends it has been a hot summer.
