Your focus determines your reality
Just repeating that to myself
💻 what I'm up to 💻
Qui-Gon Jinn is my favorite Jedi. Flawed? Absolutely. Insightful AF? Also absolutely. A number of his lines stick with me, but none more so than “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.”
When I tell you I have been getting hung up on the negative aspects about a certain part of my life… it has been coloring every hour of my day. I keep focusing on the things that are unjust, frustrating, that I don’t understand and guess what? I don’t see past any of the annoying things and I end up constantly sad and/or mad. As you might guess, that is not an amazing way to live one’s life.
So I’ve been getting back to Qui-Gon, back to my mindfulness practices, back to Thich Nhat Hanh. I don’t believe you should focus on the positive to the point of ignoring the bad (the hardest of passes to toxic positivity and good vibes only) but I’ve been working on shifting the center of my focus. I’m emphasizing the good enough for me not to sink down into the bad like it’s a tar pit of gloom and doom. It is helping tremendously. So remember, your focus determines your reality.
📘 my book things 📘
I have a handful of projects in the works, as ever, but something Cavan Scott wrote in his wonderful newsletter (which you should subscribe to!) stuck with me: I'm not a machine and I don't want to be thought of as one. Sometimes when I announce projects people will ask, when do you sleep? And I do not want to put forth celebrating the idea of working all the time, because I don’t do it.
I sleep eight hours a night, maybe seven if I make the mistake of reading a book I'm super into before bedtime. I write two hours most weekday mornings before my dayjob, which doesn’t start until 11:30am, but unless I have a pressing deadline or am feeling exceptionally inspired, that's it.
I am forever finding the balance of what to say yes to because projects and contracts take a while to become actual things (the patience you need for publishing books—that's a whole other newsletter topic), and sometimes schedules change and projects pile up and weekend writing needs to happen. But I've come a long way in putting myself first and recognizing I am more than my work—dayjob or writing—and I stick to that as much as I can.
So when you see my list of projects, know I’m hopping around between them and not spending all my waking hours typing away.
📺 what I'm watching 📺
The Bear Season 2
If you like season one of The Bear, start season two as soon as you can. If you haven’t watched season one of The Bear and think you’ll like a family drama set in a stressful kitchen situation populated with passionate people, check it out. Season two continues the stress (episode six, oh my god), delicate character entanglements, and maybe some growth?? I still have four episodes left so we’ll see. I can tell you one thing for certain: Will Poulter plays a competent pastry chef and I’m not mad about it.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 2
My goodness, season two of Strange New Worlds continues the excellence of season one and I can’t believe we’re lucky enough to have this cast and these stories. If you’ve ever been curious about Star Trek but you’re like, there is too much, jump into season one of Strange New Worlds, you’ll be fine. The adventures will make you laugh, cry, curse, and Captain Pike’s beautifully tall hair will comfort you throughout (Anson Mount is an impossibly charming human). I’ve seen the first six episodes of season two and… y’all.
I’m also watching all the Mission: Impossible movies because I stopped years ago after 2 or 3 and my husband suggested checking them all out so we can see Dead Reckoning in theaters. M:I 1 is more fun than I remember it being. M:I 2 is another story—choices were made. I look forward to M:I 3 and then the greatness that apparently comes after it.
📚 what I'm reading 📚
Cursed Cocktails by S.L. Rowland
A mage guard retires and moves south for his health and there, he uses his late father’s travel and cocktail diary to open a bar, replete with a fluffy cat, another cute critter, and a business partner. It’s cozy fantasy, very much in the vein of Legends & Lattes, so the stakes are mild and the vibes are impeccable. Plus the fantasy names for various alcoholic spirits are cute.
Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
Yadriel, a trans boy, is trying to prove himself a brujo to his family, and that means performing a certain ritual himself, and he manages it, but he summons a different ghost than he expects. And on top of that, something isn't quite right. A mystery, a shaking of traditions, discovery, a lot of cute flirting—it's a delightful paranormal YA and I adored it.
🐳 something whalesome 🐳
I like wholesome things and the whale emoji is cute so: whalesome!
This 93-year-old woman and her grandson travel together and recently they completed a goal to visit all 63 US National Parks together. It's very sweet.
🍃 creativity corner 🍃
Here I’ll share tips and tricks that are helping me write, imagine, and/or stay productive.
If you are working on any kind of fiction, do yourself a favor and make a timeline in the beginning. It does not have to be precise from the outset, but you should have a general idea of the month and year your story starts and the month and year your story ends. You might not use the year part later, but it will help you keep track of the passage of time and then you’ll know what to recognize in your text as far as seasons or holidays. Maybe you know the middle of your book happens in December—work from that. Just write it down and don’t leave timeframes floating in your head to figure out later. Future you will appreciate it. You can use a specific tool for this, but I like Word; I add the timeline to my master doc of character/business/etc names.
If you’d like a whole newsletter of content like this, sign up for Creativity Corner. It goes out once a month with the goal of helping you do the thing!
📃 quote of the month 📃
“When you travel a neural pathway over and over again, it becomes habit.” Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Fight
In the vein of mindfulness, I’ve been turning back to my Thich Nhat Hanh favorites. This particular quote is about reacting to anger and how you establish patterns. So if you tend to be reactive and immediately upset (hi, I’m working on it), that’s what you will automatically do. But if you instead take a beat to pause, breathe, and then decide on next steps when you’re angry, you form a different habit. It’s not saying don’t be angry or feel whatever emotion. It’s just… process it before you react. Be mindful of the moment.
If you feel so inclined to drop by Ko-fi, I have signed bookplates and also a mail option in my shop.
Comment or reply to let me know how you are and tell me one fun thing you’re doing for yourself this summer.
Hi Amy-big fan of your books and newsletter and I REALLY needed to be reminded of that Qui Gon quote this month-I too have been consumed by the negative and need to refocus. Thanks for the reminder.
That Qui-Gon Jinn quote really slaps. How did I miss that line? I remember that scene but I don't remember that line. And yes it has been some time since I last saw Episode 1. I think I need to rewatch it because he is my favorite Jedi. That kind of mindset would also explain how I got to where I am today and why Qui-Gon Jinn has been so important to me (especially when I was in my late teens and early 20s).