March 26, 2025

What I've Been Up To

Travel and public speaking and book work and family visits! Plus, meeting some literary heroes, and being too loopy to manage to meet others!

I literally walked right past Carmen Maria Machado. Within three feet of her! I wish I had met her and told her how great Her Body and Other Parties is. I really need to pay more attention to my surroundings.

Otherwise, the DSM Book Festival was delightful. My panel with Nic Roth, Claire Sedovic, and Paula Kerman was fun and smart and enlightening. I had a great time visiting with Niles’s family, and hitting some of our old favorite Des Moines places like the Cheese Bar, and exploring some new faves like Divine Times Vintage.

I’m beat, but it’s time to start thinking about C2E2! This will be my first time exhibiting there. Have I taken on too many obligations lately, especially given that I’m trying to write and draw a new book on top of all of this? VERY POSSIBLY. While browsing Des Moines’s The Little Book shop this weekend, Niles handed me a copy of Kate Williams’ book How to Stop Trying, An Overachiever’s Guide to Self-Acceptance, Letting Go, and Other Impossible Things. I refused to buy it. At least for now. It’s too risky to learn how to stop trying until my book is finished. :)

Upcoming Things:

• I’ll be in Artists Alley at C2E2 this year! And maybe speaking on a panel there too, more to come.

What I’m into lately: Niles and I have finally started Severance season 2!! NO SPOILERS. We’re only 2 episodes in and I love it. One time during season 1, I asked my therapist if she thought the Innies were the truer expression of the self, unencumbered by experiences and memories, or if the Outies were the truer self, because experiences and memories make us who we are, and she told me that question said a lot about me, and asked a bunch of questions about my childhood. :|

What Toki’s into lately: Getting pampered by Steve and Blanca, his favorite cat-sitters, while we were in DSM. ^_^