be twenty-six

I took that picture last year, on my twenty-fifth birthday. When this posts, I will be twenty-six. (I'm writing this in the past, on Friday.) Twenty-five has been good to me, and to my art: I enter my twenty-sixth year a showcased photographer, a published author. It feels good. Let's hope twenty-six is more of the same!

And, as a bonus, I'm offering a discount in my etsy store for one week only! Use the coupon code BDAY26 to get 26% off any item.

just a post about writing, I guess

I am tired. Every day this week I have sat at my computer, thinking, really, another 1000 words? Didn't I just do that yesterday? I have to do it again? I don't actually have to, of course, but then again, I do. The best part of committing to writing 1000 words a day is that it forces me to write even when I don't want to.

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I first read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird when I was sixteen. My AP Language teacher let me borrow it when I finished all our other reading, and it kind of changed my life. I bought my own copy and underlined and highlighted different passages. I probably reread it about once a year, usually when I feel stuck and unmotivated. One of the best lessons in that book is about publication, and how it won't fix you. If (like me) you are an anxious mess before publication, you will still be one afterward.

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Really, I'm not sure what the goal of this post is. To hammer home that lesson? This week has been hard for writing, and I have been a little bit of an anxious mess at times. Publication, after all, is just another thing. A great thing, a thing I am glad and grateful for, but still just a thing. As one of Lamott's friends says in the book, the world cannot grant you peace, but it also cannot take it away.

and then I got published

Issue 011 of Luna Station Quarterly is now live! You can read my story, "The Marriage of Ariadne," here. Or you can purchase it in ebook form. (It's only $2.99!)

Thanks again to everyone for all your support! I hope you enjoy my story.