The Friday Five!

Hunkering down.

1. This morning, my heart is breaking for California. It’s hard to even imagine what the folks there are facing with these fires, even as I check in with friends and family and wait anxiously for their assurances. What a way to begin a new year. Sending love to everyone affected from in NC.

2. Meanwhile, here, they’re calling for snow here this weekend. Just the mention of that four letter word and us Southerners go wild. We rush the grocery store for provisions. (Bread and milk, in particular, as if we will be compelled to make French toast.) We check the forecast obsessively and discuss the probability of precipitation with everyone we see. Half the time nothing happens. But no matter. I am not immune to this, but my habit is the longing I feel, always, for a Snow Day. When everything shuts down (because here, it does, we have no capacity to deal with even the tiniest amount of winter weather) and you can’t be expected to do anything other than sit and watch it fall. And I probably will make French toast. Why not? I am also fully stocked up on my Cheez-It snack mix, which has become an addiction. When the BOGO calls, I answer. Clearly.

   

3. This week we discovered the remake of Matlock. I KNOW what you are thinking: Sarah, exactly how old ARE YOU? (How many of you had a flash of Grandpa Simpson just hearing the word?) Hear me out, though. First, you know how I love a procedural. Also, two words: Kathy Bates. It’s like when Laura Linney shows up on TV: you know it must be good. The thing about the new Matlock (Matlock! shouts Grandpa Simpson) is that it knows you are ready to laugh at it, and it laughs right back. Also, it is not what you are expecting. Trust me. We also finished the second season of Shrinking last night, after making it last as long as we could. I cried: I cannot lie. What a wonderful show. Oh, my heart.

4. I feel like it’s become a thing to list what I’m reading each week here, so here we go. I just finished Chris Whitaker’s first book, We Begin At The End, which I rushed to read after finishing his latest, All The Colors of the Dark. So, so good. I also tore through Colored Television by Danzy Senna, which was great and so thought provoking it is still on my mind. Now I am in the middle of We Were The Universe by Kimberly King Parsons. You know sometimes you find someone whose prose is SO good you wish you could write just like them? This is how I feel about her. One book I have yet to read (but can’t wait to) is After Life by my dear friend Gayle Forman, which was just released this week. Gayle is one of my favorite people AND writers, and I love to see her back out on tour talking about something new. It is next on my list.

5. I’m back to writing every day now, on my old schedule, one to two hours each afternoon. This a welcome change from the obsessive no-amount-of-time-is-enough phase I was in during the summer and fall. I was, as Jelly Roll says, Not Okay. (A moment for how much I love Jelly Roll, so honest with his struggles. I just want to sit with him, supporting quietly.) It was like I couldn’t stop pushing myself, even though I knew, at some level, it wasn’t serving me or my book. We were both miserable, basically. Now it’s a new year, and I put aside the draft where I can see the worst of myself between every line. For those keeping track (I know you aren’t, actually) that leaves me with two summer novels to shop around as well as something new which is making me really, really happy. I am determined my two books will see the light of day and I can’t wait to share them with you. Not sure how what that will look like, exactly. I can only make out the edges. But at least it’s there.

Have a good weekend and stay safe, everyone!