I’m in that uncanny creative valley of waiting on other people to do their thing with active projects, so I’ve been taking the time to rest as far as I can stand it (still writing, still compiling ideas, just letting it all steep).
I’ve been traveling [saw some family], looking at art, [went to SFMOMA, cried in the middle of Kjartansson’s The Visitors, 10/10] and watching a lot of films that have absolutely nothing to do with each other [see: American Fiction, Dune (1984), The Piano Teacher, Death Wish (1974), and Tombstone—as a treat].
I’ve also been using the time to do another slow-read of my favorite book, and I still don’t know how to talk eloquently about it without getting super emotional 🥲
Merits include but are not limited to:
The most perfect second-chance love story in literary canon, hands down, bar none.
The close narrator/MC of all time (the sass alone!!!).
I want to study Ralph Lanyon like a bug.
It’s the book I found in the stacks after being nudged toward Renault by a professor who managed to clock me a whole six years before I got around to all that.
It’s the first book that made me put it down and immediately go on a very long walk to Have A Think About These Things after reading the last page.
Finding a piece of art that truly resonates is interesting, because while I feel like I could write a dissertation thesis on it at the drop of a hat, it’s such an intensely personal resonance that I can hardly put it words. All I can really do is babble artistically(?) about my favorite things, all its parallels and themes, its importance to history and all it has to say about repeating the past, the metanarrative of mythology, and hope any of it makes sense.
Maybe the thing of it is when a book is that good, you learn something new about yourself every single time you read it. Your life collects mass throughout its rolling-on, and things leave different imprints as you pass them again. The good things remain great, one hopes; but the best things get better.
Every word of it hits at a cellular level. It’s so rare, and I’m the luckiest person in the world to be able to feel something like that by simply picking up a book. To feel so spoken to, from over seventy years ago and from such specific angles! It will never stop feeling miraculous. Books are lifesaving, miraculous things.
Get your hands on a copy and carve out a couple afternoons with it. It’s a portrait of hope. Bring tears for crying.
And when was the last time you reread your favorite book? Go do it sometime :)
Anyways: not much else but the waiting left for what comes…
SHOOT THE MOON continues to orbit bookstores near you 💫
Annie & co. made it to a bestseller list in Oklahoma, and was featured in the All-Star debuts book club at Magic City Books — y’all are the best ;-;🤘💕
Nominated by the Texas Institute of Letters as a finalist for the Sergio Troncoso Award for Best Book of First Fiction 🎉
THE UNBECOMING OF MARGARET WOLF comes January 2025 🦵🗡️✨
Perhaps a cover reveal soon 😌😌😌 who knows 😌😌😌
I’ll be at the San Antonio Book Festival on April 13, 2024 📚🥳
Come celebrate literature with some lovely people in my favorite city!
Until the next time there are things to shout about, all my best to you,
— i