I took a short break from work to focus on a novel-length project… I suppose one would call that a novel, but I’m still too small and nervous to own the word. Sometimes I think I always will be.

While I was in the cave, Stamps Vamps and Tramps came out. The editor described my story as “eerie” in her introduction, and I don’t think I’ve been more pleased with a single word in all my life, but the best part was reading the other stories in the anthology. It’s a wonderful collection to be a part of. I want to line up all the authors and high five them. Double fives for editor Shannon Robinson. It feels good to be there.

I also got an email from the editor of Literary Orphans, asking for permission to reprint my story Ahuizotle Learns to Fish (or as my mom calls it: The girl who’s name I can’t pronounce and fishing) in a best of anthology later this year. Which is pretty wonderful. Literary Orphans has a brillo style and the print anthology is going to continue that aesthetic.

And I now have an author profile on Goodreads, which, although I’ve been in print (actual print, not high school journals) since 2009, feels like I’ve got something to back my claim to that moniker: Writer.

Ooo that felt spooky. Maybe I’ll leave of the capitals. writer. That feels better.

In my own little writing world, things are looking up. Outside of the office, my strange shaped, green walled, under-staired clutter sanctum, life has been rough. But there are always patches of rough. I’m getting older, which means the people I know get older, too. Deaths happen. And we go on. And write. And send in submissions until the pleasant and encouraging rejection letters turn into acceptance.

Or knit. Passions and mad-talents make life worth living. I’ll finish a novel. Soon. Maybe I’ll write that pattern for the Frozen-inspired mittens. Right now the only pattern is in the gloves I’ve already made, and reverse engineering isn’t for everyone. Where was I going with this? Right. Novel.

Oh, and Ahuizotle is pronounced Ah-WHEE-zot’l. I think.