Happy February, friends! Even though I am slightly snowed in on this Monday morning, which is something I’d been waiting for, at this point, I am actually ready for spring. Bring on the sunshine!

Here are my updates for February:

• This month’s reminder: Source sings through me.
• Some super sad/unexpected news: The editor of my first novel, Castle of Concrete, the man I think of as my first publisher, Paul Olchváry, the leader and visionary behind a small press called New Europe Books, died unexpectedly this month, at the age of 58. I will be forever grateful for his love and enthusiasm for my story, for his wild hopes for it, and for trying to teach me the difference between foyers, lobbies and hallways during copyediting. He was a decent human, and a passionate advocate for global literature. I never got to hang out with Paul in person; it was always texts, emails, phone calls. It’s just so unbelievable and weird how one day he was there, and now… I don’t think the news had truly sunk in yet.
• Happier news: I have joined a writers group! It’s been so long, and I was a little unsure, but helping to dig into and workshop the stories of writer friends turned out to be a blast — of course it did, I’d just forgotten. Now I got some pages to prepare for next time!
• Where I am growing: loving my body unconditionally and nourishing it properly, cleaning out the LASTEST energetic blocks and FAINTEST of remnants from old traumas, trusting the Universe to have my back, always, always, always, and trusting in my own power, perseverance and talent.
• What I am working on: Revising “Monsters!!!” (With special thanks to Heather Demetrios, a critically acclaimed and widely published author, a friend and a super savvy and talented editor whom I’d hired recently to take another look at this manuscript.) This morning I am re-envisioning my first chapter, in fact. What a scary, delicious, heart-tingling process of trust and craft! It’s so much fun to rework this baby when knowing the story and its people with the depth that I do now. Also, knowing the last line of the story — which I still like and hope to keep. Hey, would you like me to share? You know what? I’m gonna do it!!!
• When I went to the writing conference in Surrey, Canada last October, I got the chance to attend a workshop by Diana Gabaldon, the author of Outlander. She led the crowded room in a fun first line/last line exercise, where she had a bunch of us writers just kind of call out our first lines and last lines, which hopefully somehow would resonate and build off of each other. She heaped love on all of our offerings, including mine. But I am changing it now, VERY tentatively, to something like this … you ready?

First line (s):

Hashem, Universe, Destiny, whatever the hell you wanna call it. All night I begged it to help. The next morning, it sent me your grandmother.

Last line(s):

“Via! You’re alive?”

“If you can call it that, asshole.”

This is super tentative, can still change a million times. (In fact, I may or may not be obsessively going back to this post and tinkering with it, as we speak. Ooooh, I really like that last tweak I’d made just now). I am embracing the journey of it, the hope and the uncertainty. What do you think so far? Does this resonate? Do the first lines make you curious to read on? Feel free to lemme know!

Whatever you think, I find myself ridiculously excited to let you into my journey in this way…(And not needy. Nope. Not at all).

Tomorrow, bright and early, I will be digging into the rest of that chapter. (Dark and early, I should say) 😉

Next day update: Snowed in again. I have my first page down, that I like. A lot. Slow and steady…