What Do I Even Say?

(not to be dramatic or anything)

I haven’t sent out a newsletter in a few months, because it felt weird and inappropriate, given the current state of the world. Who am I to comment? What do I even say? And what does not saying anything mean? I decided it was ok to be in hibernation mode for the winter— to give myself the space to figure out what I want to say, and how I want to say it, and also where.

I quit X Twitter maybe nine months back. I opened a Blue Sky account and then recognized the way my brain feels when I open a feed (any feed) and closed it. I quit Facebook. I’m still on the fence about Instagram (and appreciated these ponderings from

Carson Ellis

) and even this here Substack. We’re extricating our household from Amazon. I kept telling myself it would be hard, living in a rural area. It really isn’t.

I want to think and feel in real time, and not have my thinking and feeling be dictated by whatever pops up on a tiny screen. I don’t want to be influenced into buying things from corporations. I do want to make things. I want to handwrite in a paper notebook and I want to read paper books that come from “free” piles and public libraries and independent bookstores. I want to talk (or not talk) to real people and appreciate real physical spaces. I get to decide how to spend my money and my time and my energy, and I also get to decide how not to spend it.

A few weeks ago, I did a story time in a small public library the day after a snow storm. It was freezing outside and the parking lot was still being plowed. Inside, we read a picture book and we painted with flowers with shared watercolors. A mom and I compared lupine tattoos. People gathered together and chatted about art and parenting and reading. It felt good.

Next week, we’ll have Town Meeting Day here in Vermont (if you’re not familiar with Town Meeting Day, this is an excellent comic from the Center for Cartoon Studies). According to my family, it’s an old Vermont tradition to start seeds on Town Meeting Day. I’m thinking about my garden in spring. I’m hoping to grow something different. I plan on keeping my hands in the earth.

Random Good Things

• Appreciating the straightforwardness of “Our Labor Built AI” by Dan Knott and Scott Cambo

• Making this no-knead bread

• Keeping my hands busy with this mini cross-stitch

• Remembering my 80s childhood thanks to the zine “Horse Girl” by Sarah Anderson Walsh

• Reliving 90s and 00s film decadence on snow days with my daughter (we watched Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, and Amélie)

• Watching Severance and White Lotus

Book News & Upcoming Events

• If you’re local, I’ll be teaching a class on the ins and outs of writing picture books on Monday, March 10th at Access CVU. You can register here.

• I’m pleased to share that World More Beautiful is being translated into both Chinese and Japanese! Digging for Words is also being translated into Chinese as well. It’s exciting to think about both books being available in more languages and in the hands of more readers.

Books I’ve Read and Loved Recently (middle grade & YA)

• Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renée Watson and Ekua Holmes

• How It All Ends by Emma Hunsinger

• The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaugnessy

Books I’ve Read and Loved Recently (Picture Books)

• Go Tell It: How James Baldwin Became a Writer by Quartez Harris and Gordon C. James

• A Plate of Hope: The Inspiring Story of Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen by Erin Frankel and Paola Escobar

• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang (thank you to

  E. B. Goodale
  for the rec!)

*Please note that all books mentioned above contain affiliate links to Bookshop.org, a site that helps support local independent bookstores.