I finished my rewrite.

And America is so fun right now.

Hello and good morning. It’s very funny sitting down to write about the excitement of finally finishing my YA novel rewrite as America undergoes a tremendously stupid, harmful, and illegal assault on its federal government. (Not to mention the countless other sociopathic executive orders being flung out like the enraged cries of an under-slept five-year-old who’s fallen behind in a game of Chutes and Ladders.)

As I’ve said before, this isn’t meant to be a political substack. But, as politics inescapably seeps into all our lives, moving us ever deeper into unprecedented historical waters, I must address it! And, unfortunately, I think this fast-dopamine, tech-saturated time we live in is very much connected to everything that’s happening now. Our collective phone addiction has shifted us, minute by minute, year by year, to a societal perspective that is often inward, viewing everything in terms of how it either helps or hurts us specifically as individuals, rather than seeing ourselves as part of a larger, interconnected whole.

We are part of a larger, interconnected whole, though. And we have to look out for each other! We must send our big, creative hearts into action!

Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

This piece from Robert Reich on what you can do right now is an incredibly helpful resource. If you’re feeling frustrated and furious, as I am, call your two senators and your congressperson daily. If they’re Democrats, there are limits to their power right now (hey look, all three versions of there in one sentence), but they need to keep being pushed to slow down this administration in every way they can. If you feel uncomfortable or nervous calling, do it at night and leave a voicemail. Or email them!

If you’ve already been doing this, you rule! Thank you. We are a rapidly growing group, and it is making a difference.

Meanwhile, in my writing life: I FINISHED MY YA NOVEL REWRITE! Only a month and a week later than I intended. [Yeesh emoji.] But, after various extensions, I told my editor I’d send the draft by the end of last week, so at 4:41 pm Friday, I sent the damn thing! It felt very good.

That last day of writing, however, felt pretty bad.

The thing about this second draft was that it needed an entirely new ending, so the last fifty pages or so were brand-new scenes. I’d already outlined these chapters, so I foolishly convinced myself that meant they would be really fast and easy to write. Though outlining does make the writing fastER and easiER, it still requires a lot of thought. Obviously.Nevertheless, as the week started, I was on a decent pace to finish by Friday without having to go into a panicked frenzy.

Then Wednesday morning, my laptop decided to die. Life is so funny like that. I just wanted to laugh and laugh and not cry or scream or punch any walls.

I’ll save you the long story of technical hurdles that followed, and how Katie heroically helped me get MSWord when my external hard drive let me down, but suffice it to say, I got a new laptop and lost most of my writing day.

So I knew Thursday and Friday I’d have to go into a writing mode that I don’t particularly love. The kind where you just write and write and write and your brain starts screaming STOP USING ME! PLEASE! but you know you can’t if you want to make your deadline.

And that was the end of last week. I had to back out of a Friday lunch with author pals (sorry, Kathryn Holmes, Alison Cherry, and Lindsay Ribar!), but guess if anyone was going to relate to my predicament, it was them.

It’s not my favorite that I’m a deadline writer in this way, that the last days before I turn in a project often become a mad rush of having to cancel plans and write more than my brain actually feels capable of, but I’ve (mostly) made peace with this aspect of myself. And if my laptop hadn’t died, it might have been less insane! Right? Maybe? Probably?

Anyway, I finished the draft. That long, slow phase of this process is finished. Amen.

And, in other fun book news, my solo MG debut Zed Moonstein Makes a Friend is officially available for pre-order! You can pre-order now, ideally from an independent book store, as it’s helpful in many ways, or you can just take a peek at the link and wait for me to nudge you some more leading up to August. Which I will definitely do.

It’s about Zed, a kid who makes an AI best friend. It’s about friendship and loneliness and also tech capitalism. And, if I’m going to be honest, it’s also about my own journey with all these apps and devices. I started writing the book in 2019, but it’s timelier now than ever.

Thank you as always for being here. Hope you’re taking care of yourself and moving slow and getting lost in good books. Till next time!