Countdown
...to productivity???
Time to Get Started
Dear Readers,
Some quick business up-top: the Barnes & Noble preorder sale is happening again, so it’s a great time to preorder In Her Spotlight with code PREORDER25 if you are a member! Honestly, anywhere you preorder it is great and, yes, I will be doing some cool preorder incentives, and those will get announced in the next month or so! For now, though, B&N!
(If you’ve already preordered before I announce the exclusives, you can simply submit your proof of preorder to me to get swag, do not fear.)
For a couple months now I’ve been all “I CAN TAKE THIS TIME OFF OF WRITING UNTIL I GO ON THIS UPCOMING WRITING RETREAT” and it’s felt so freeing to spend time not working while knowing the work had a scheduled time to start again.
Now that retreat is days away and I’m like ARE YOU SERIOUS I HAVE TO START WORKING AGAIN?
For so long, it felt so far away.
And now, to put it mildly, it is not.
I’m trying to gently ease into the idea of work!! Thinking about my characters and the story I want to tell next. The pieces I know I want to include. The space to know I won’t really have any clue what to include until I’m in the midst of it. The way I’ll tell myself it’ll be OK if it feels horrible or I start wailing because sometimes that’s how it goes and the books always end up all right anyway!!!!!!
At this point, I have finished eleven books that are/will be published. The experience of writing these books was all different, though they fall into a few overall categories. One point remains, though, which is that the experience of writing them does not seem to have anything to do with the final manuscript; hard or easy or joyful or guttural-sobbing, I love the books once they are finished. It’s like a magic trick, though sometimes it feels like a mean-spirited one.
Anyway, mamma mia, here we go again.
xoxoAmy
Consumption
Reading
I adored Rachel Meredith’s Girl Next Door, a romcom that’s sexy and messy and so much fun.
Maintaining
During this extremely hot and sweaty time, I added Milk Makeup’s Grip primer to my routine (if you are curious, above moisturizer, below cc cream) and my face does seem to look less shiny/in danger of collapsing throughout these late summer days.
Drying
Yes TWO items on this list are about being less sweaty/gross, but another big savior for this time of year for me is Lush’s terribly named Silky Underwear dusting powder, which is talc-free (I AM SCARED OF TALC EVER SINCE I WATCHED A DOCUMENTARY) and absorbs SO EASILY in the morning when I’m getting ready. I am waaaayyy less sweaty and sticky and itchy on the worst days of the year because of this stuff.
Dipping
I tried the new McDonald’s Gold Sauce AND I LOVE IT??? It’s worth the quarter they charge you.
Links Roundup
Things I’ve read lately!
The Great Skinny Brow-essaince — I dunno, man, do what you want, but as someone whose brows are definitely partially weird now because of how skinny they got in the early aughts, BE MINDFUL? I DON’T KNOW? Bodily and brow autonomy, of course.
Is Cola with Cane Sugar Actually Better? We Did a Taste Test — This is SO INTERESTING.
Events & Books!
Honestly I wish I had A THIRD no-sweaty thing to tell you about!!!!!!