Welcome back

Same newsletter, new platform. I know my last Substack post said I would be migrating to sending these out from my website, but my website is on Wordpress and I think I want to eventually migrate to something more modern that also does not automatically opt my work into being used to train AI (I opted out, but still. Check on your Wordpress and Tumblr sites!). Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying the design of these new Beehiiv sites some of my favorite newsletters moved to, so…I moved here.

I’m on the free plan, so you can’t subscribe monetarily if you want, but as always I have my Patreon and Ko-Fi.

Spring has sprung but so have the hormones

I‘ve been trying to draft a catch-up post since around St. Patrick’s Day about how I’m going to find a new writing routine now that I’m done with grad school until late summer. It turns out I really get stuck writing round ups of things, even if books or movies I enjoy, so I wanted to switch gears. And still hadn’t started much writing, so why set an intention if I’m not doing anything toward it?

Also, it turns out April sucks!

I think I had absorbed through other educators, whether IRL or online, that April was a hard month. I didn’t want to believe it this year because here we start school in September after Labor Day instead of in August like back in Indiana, so wouldn’t May be the hard month? Nope. It’s something with the weather, I think.

Let’s just say the middle school I teach at needs a “__ days without incident” sign and that number has stayed at 0 quite often. And I’m not talking minor stuff, either. Plus, following altercations, the school has been tracking down students who are sharing videos of it on social media. Seeing everything as “content” is impacting everyone! (This is why I really liked Aida Salazar’s new MG novel-in-verse, Ultraviolet, which tackles this along with being one of the few books about boys going through puberty.)

On top of all that, I haven’t been feeling the best. I had some downer mental health days and lack of sleep, and then I was finally feeling better and having energy again and…everything bloomed and now my allergies are bad. (I had seasonal allergy issues as a kid, but they went away…until I moved to New Jersey.) I even had to listen to my body and take a day off. I am now armed with OTC allergy medication, antibiotics, and taking steps to soothe my anxiety so that I do not want to throw up in the morning.

Anyway, I am trying to write because I theoretically have more time off since finishing up a grad class (and I will not be taking another class until late this summer), although I have been working on updating curriculum at my school because I love a good gig that involves repetitive tasks. But it has been hard to have the energy and also the focus. As much as I want my plan to be that I focus on just banging out drafts so I have them and can work more strategically on them at another point. But then I am lured by poetry and essays and little snippets that I’ve been writing but just haven’t finished. And I might as well submit some poetry to lit mags, right? (If you know anything about poetry and want to give me feedback, please comment!!)

I’m able to finally finish this newsletter today, April 29th, because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We just had our first day of state testing (which is not my favorite thing at all!!), all of my major professional responsibilities for my evaluation and such are done, and I can see how we are so close to the end of the school year? My first full year? I am doing it??

Also!

• .My partner, Taylor Tracy, is releasing her debut novel, a queer middle grade novel-in-verse called Murray Out of Water, on May 21st. We just got a finished copy and it is GORGEOUS. So check out her Instagram (which I help run) and there are links to preorder signed copies (with swag!) on her website. I reread the book in its finished form (and Gaiman’s Law does hold true) and it’s a roller-coaster of emotions all about queer found family and beginning to discover yourself with a magical and poetic touch. It’s powerful and I love it so much.

  • We are also doing a little talk together for free on May 23rd if you’re around Morris County, New Jersey!

• Check out the new Bears in Trees album, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions. One day I will write my essay about them…I had a whole plan and structure but I really need to sink into this album and how connects to my working thesis about them! But expect the complex feelings of friendship, growing older, mortality, and mental health that you expect from BiT.

• I’ve been closely following what is happening with the protests at my alma mater, IU, and they have a fantastic student newspaper that gives updates daily.