Hello, Spring!

It’s a long one

💻 what I'm up to 💻

For much of this year I’d say I’ve been surviving, not living. And that’s okay. Survival is necessary and sometimes it’s all we can do. It doesn’t have to be one or the other either. Moments of living sit next to moments of surviving. Often, in fact, they find ways to overlap. I could be sitting in that middle space for a while longer, but I’m trying to tip the scales towards living. Towards thriving. I’m stretching my limbs outward instead of retreating in. And if that all sounds like a bunch of vague nonsense, I’m genuinely happy that you don’t know the feeling of having one foot on either side of the line.

Since my last newsletter, Thrill Ride released! I celebrated with a launch event at my local bookshop, Malaprop’s, with Beth Revis (read her newsletter!) and appeared as a featured author at the inaugural Read Freely Fest. My first book festival! Ahh! I met some hella inspiring and prolific authors on a romance panel: Vanessa Riley, Synithia Williams, and Cassie Verano. I went to an after-hours party in a library with crafts and canned wine. I stayed in a gorgeous bed & breakfast. I took long walks around Columbia. I came home with a bounce in my step. It was a weekend of living and I’m so grateful for the experience.

And speaking of things I’m grateful for, after many months of searching, I am happy to share I’ve found a new job! I start later this month and I’ll share details in the next newsletter. I’m still in a nerdy space, but it’s quite different than my previous work.

The energy of spring growth is flowing and I’m dipping my bare feet into it. I’m trying to go outside more and notice as green takes over the brown. Sometimes it seems to happen in a flash, like with a trumpet vine in my backyard. It’s the time of year when the “The world came back to life!” line from Hadestown plays in my head on repeat. Bunnies are racing across the road, chipmunks are dashing around the yard again, bluebirds are inspecting the nesting box.

Life is all around me. 🌱

📘 my book things 📘

amy_geek

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Whew, it happened! Thrill Ride has been out in the world for over a week! Thank you to everyone who’s supported the book and cheered me on and listened to me talking about it in this newsletter for an age. Launching a book is weird, exciting, and also like, okay… now what? I know the answer. I keep going. Keep writing. While I do that, I hope people will pick up Thrill Ride and like it! If you’ve read it and feel like leaving a review on the internet somewhere, I’d appreciate it and I will never know because I refused to look at reviews!

I stopped by Nerdist’s Laser Focus this week to talk about the book and a lot of theme park feelings. I also talked about Thrill Ride on the Dillo’s Diz podcast!

Here’s what else is going on:

• Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy Updated and Expanded and The Art of Star Wars: Visions Volume 2 are both out on April 29! If you want signed copies, please reach out to Malaprop’s.

• That middle grade fantasy I’ve been talking about for two years?! I finally got my rewrite done and it will be going out on submission soon. Eeeeek!

• I’m writing the follow up to Thrill Ride now. It’s due in a month-ish and I am chugging along. I can’t wait for you to read this one!

• I am planning to finish proposals for another rom-com and for my cozy fantasy before winter.

📺 what I'm watching 📺

The Wheel of Time
Season three of The Wheel of Time is a ride. Even if you aren’t familiar with the books, it’s grown into a captivating fantasy series. The scope is bigger, the characters are established, shit is getting real. The opening scene of season three with a bunch of middle-aged women absolutely shredding each other?! Oh my god. The experience in Rhuidean?! I cannot. Rafe Judkins, you beautiful man. And if you follow such things, scores for the series are way up on Rotten Tomatoes because it’s almost like a show needs more than a single season to find its audience and its way?

The Studio
The Studio is about a movie studio with Seth Rogen’s character as its head, and it is so true to what I have experienced in Hollywood that I both love and hate it. The conversation about Kool-Aid as a movie franchise is painfully real. But so are the parts where some producers care about the art and want to make good movies. That dichotomy is real too. Anyway, watch it. Prepare to cringe. Episode two will make you want to crawl under your couch.

📚 what I'm reading 📚

A Fate Inked in Blood by Danielle L. Jensen
Norse-inspired romantasy! Gods-blessed characters! Forbidden love! Freya is a messy shield maiden who every leader wants to use for their own purposes. But will she stand for that? No, no she will not. When I opened this book on my ereader and saw it was 432 pages I was 👀 but the pages flew by.

Much to my frustration, I haven’t had my usual ability to concentrate on reading. Books are my guaranteed escape and not being able to focus has been bumming me out. But! I have a stack of books coming available from the library any day (I am ready for Sunrise on the Reaping to wreck me) and a bunch of actual books on my TBR cart. I know one of them is going to pull me back in.

🐳 something whalesome 🐳

I have two whalesome things this month.

This is Tortimer, an Eastern box turtle that decided to call my backyard home last summer. She showed up in the yard not long after I helped an Eastern box turtle across the road near my house. Coincidence? You decide. In the winter box turtles burrow under leaves and soil, and since I leave the leaves, she had plenty of places to stay warm. But of course I wondered about her, especially since it got so cold. I’m happy to report she has reemerged and seems to be enjoying the spring weather. The joy I felt upon seeing her crawl around the yard again!!

rachaelraerobertson

A post shared by @rachaelraerobertson

Then there’s Garbanzo. In brief: Rachael fostered Garbanzo when she was a kitten. Garbanzo was adopted but then showed up at a shelter earlier this year. Because of her microchip, the shelter notified Rachael. Since then she’s helped Garbanzo, who was tormented and abused, find her way back to trust. The journey of a scared Banzo to a total lovebug who lets people touch and love her again is healing—not just to Banzo, but to anyone who watches. I needed it. It’s a story about being vulnerable and patient. I will cry again thinking about it. Visit Rachael’s feed to watch Garbanzo learn to love again.

📃 quote of the month 📃

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” - J.R.R. Tolkien

I hope you’re good and that the temperature wherever you are is exactly what you want it to be. (Today is unseasonably hot here, if the word “unseasonably” still means anything).

This month I’d love to hear about your favorite comfort movies. It’s possible we’ve talked about this before - this is my 60th newsletter after all! Mine include, usually in this order: National Treasure, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, National Treasure 2, The Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended editions, obviously).