#tinyletters

I’m still working on Traister’s All the Single Ladies, and haven’t made much progress. This week was a strange one: I was out of it with a cold that came on Sunday and is only now leaving, we had a snow day on Tuesday and even though I was able to get work done from home, I still felt like I was playing catch-up all week. I haven’t had a lot of headspace to focus. (It’s all been phlegm and my to-do list.) I might have to switch back to fiction-- somehow I have an easier time with that when focus is an issue.

In other types of reading, you will probably not be surprised to hear I subscribe to a fairly ridiculous amount of newsletters. The advent of tinyletter has cluttered my inbox like woah. But it’s a good clutter! (This is also my refrain for the stacks of books I hoard despite my lack of space. At least my gmail has a ton of storage.)

I’ve been really enjoying the creativity/writing-focused newsletters I subscribe to lately, finding myself going back and rereading several multiple times. A few favorites:

Witty Title Here is Cassie Patton’s weekly note with links to read, upcoming writing deadlines and a featured writer. I can’t remember how I learned about this email, but the good news section at the end of each is definitely helping me get through this year.

The Check-In is Amy Spalding’s weekly email that’s like a cheery, gif-filled writing date with a friend. Amy talks about how her own work is going and brings in another writer to answer a Q&A about how their work is going and each missive leaves me energized and wanting to get to it.

Filmmaker Laramie Dennis (who used to write as eastsidebride from 2008-2014 and imho is the coolest person I have never met) sends The Laramie Report monthly. I keep the September 2016 edition starred in my inbox (unfortunately her archives aren’t public, but let me know if you want me to forward it to you). In it she discussed Jenga as a metaphor for creative work and left me in tears. Plus, she usually also talks about the best tacos she’s had in the past month. Mmmm, tacos.