March 16, 2021
Gleanings
- Not loss, not yet, not while the daffodil leaves gleam in sunlight…
- I finished Cold Earth at lunchtime yesterday, a day where the sun was shining through my living room windows, warming my hair, and causing me to shed my ever-present (since the pandemic started, really) hoodie. And yet, I shivered as I read the final pages.
- Each place is evoked with such lucent, homey detail that it could make you homesick, even for a place that you’ve never been.
- What the room needed was somewhere to sit. Chairs. Just the right size of chairs.
- And Harry in particular became a feminist killjoy. He didn’t remain silent at the dinner table. He spoke up and spoke out.
- Have you noticed more radio-silence than normal amongst friends and family – unanswered texts, calls and emails? I sure have – and I don’t think I’m alone in this…
- I just finished reading Hot Milk by Deborah Levy, and I have emerged from its pages feeling sunburned.
- He said to me that morning, How can I ever thank you for everything you’ve done for me? And I answered, A greenhouse.
- There are scenes where I wanted to scream get out, or they’re only trying to help you, or you don’t need him. But I’m glad no one was listening.
- Have I said this before? I love this guy. He didn’t comment on me being alone. He dealt with the fact that I was alone.
- If hope is the light at the end of the tunnel, what happens when it flickers and dies? You either curl up or you cope. I curled up.
- One thing I have learned about myself this past year is that I’m much more of an introvert than I ever thought I was.
- So I’m curating. Fewer “hot takes” (which I suspect is no longer what they’re called) and more considered opinions.
- Can asking questions be a kind of spiritual practice? What happens when we consider the opposite?
- I want my novels to be hybrids. I want to pack them with questions, and I want them to work on the surface as unified and compelling stories, and then work beyond their surface as metafictional, cross-genre, and cross-cultural conversations.
- The pressure to appear just as normal has taken its toll. I find myself reminding people in meetings that “We are still in a pandemic, so maybe don’t knock yourself out?” And sometimes people laugh at that but I also remind them that I’m serious.
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