July was a whirlwind, then August burst in and whipped right by, leaving me dizzy. Now I find myself standing ankle-deep in the fourth week of September. (Is it the fourth week? I jumped to my calendar to make sure this was the case, and yes, it is the fourth week, bordering the fifth—this year, the month of September is spreading its arms and legs, reaching as far as it can.)
It has been a minute since my last newsletter. Where have I been? I wish I could say I’ve been on a worldwide tour of ancient teahouses and lost temples, but I’m afraid that isn’t the case. I’ve been home, working hard on edits for my Underworld book, and wishing for the rains to return to the Pacific Northwest. I’m happy to report that:
Edits on my book have been completed, and
The rains are back, babes.
Our area is about to experience its first “atmospheric river” of the season this weekend. The definition of this weather phenomenon is:
Atmospheric rivers, as their name implies, are large channels of water in the atmosphere. They vary in size but can be 250–375 miles wide and over 1,000 miles long. [USDA Climate Hubs (.org)]
This means we’re about to get a lot of rain.
I love the rain. While I enjoy sunshine and clear skies and the dryness of summer, there’s something about rain that grounds me. It might be because I grew up in the desert, surrounded by cactus and dirt and palm trees that really didn’t belong. I ached for cloudy skies and verdant trees and the feel of rain on my skin. It isn’t just the feel of the rain and what it brings to nature that I love—the sound of rain unlocks a mode of creativity I struggle to find when the world is hot and sweaty around me.
I’m ready for the rainy season, and very ready for the sound of rain to accompany the clacks of my keyboard as I write my next book. Because that is what I will be doing, starting this week: Working on a brand-new book set in a world that has captured my heart.
Was I planning to write this book a few months ago? Nope. There’s a different book I’ve been working on—an adult cozy fantasy with folkloric magic and a quincentennial-spanning mystery, but sometimes a new story idea pushes to the front of the queue, demanding to be told. And I can’t ignore this one. It is terrifying to write and hits too close to the bone, which is how I know it is “the one.”
This got me thinking on why we, as creative types, are tempted to shift focus from one established project to something entirely new. Now, I know shiny new ideas LOVE to elbow in when we’re working on a big, tough project—and sometimes those shiny ideas need to be jotted down then stowed away for future consideration. They nearly always arrive at inopportune times, promising that *they* will be easier to write, far easier than whatever story we’ve been toiling on for the past few months (or years). This, my friends, is often a lie.
What those ideas really are are our brains trying to help us out. Most likely, they surface when we are facing an extremely difficult and/or overwhelming problem within our work-in-progress, and our brains are attempting to relieve that stress by providing something *else* to think about. Something a little low-risk, with an added boost of excitement. In a way this works for our benefit, because our beautiful, mysterious brains are busily generating new ideas we can work on in the future, if we choose to.
What we can’t do (usually) is let that shiny new idea derail us from the project we’ve already made progress on. I added the *usually* in there because sometimes, the project we’ve been working on needs to be set aside. Either the concept isn’t brining joy, or it is the wrong story to write in this moment, or (in the best cases) it is because someone asks you to write an entirely different book, for reasons.
That last one is where I find myself now. I’ve set aside my adult fantasy WIP (not forever, just for the present) and am focusing on the book that will both:
Advance my career, and
Fulfill a commitment (I can’t go into details about what this commitment is right now, but will be sharing news soon!)
These aren’t the only reasons I’m writing the book, of course. I’m writing it because it hits a theme and concept near and dear to my heart. As I said, I’m scared to write it—even in these early stages it feels huge and impossible and stunning and completely terrifying. It is all these things for a reason, because it might just be the story I need to tell.
update - I started a YouTube channel!
Yep, I’ve taken the leap and started a channel where I’ll be sharing my writing process, from how I organize my notebooks and the methods I use to generate ideas (eventually wrangling them into a book-shaped thing), to sharing which inks and pens I use in everyday writing. The first videos I’ve posted focus on the journals I plan to utilize over the next year—they are Hobonichi planners and notebooks, which use Tomoe River (Sanzen) paper. So if you’re into unboxing videos, or into anything journal-related, check it out. I’ll be posting more videos soon.
You can find me there through the video below, or search for Ink and Starstuff on the YouTube app. Please follow and subscribe!
Haku of the month
Haku sends his love <3
I can't wait to hear more about your new project! :) :) :)