Less Screen Time

It's the dream!

I am TRYING

Dear Readers,

I’ve been up to some cool stuff and am awaiting to share it with you! Nothing LIFE-CHANGING but more festivals, etc., so, who knows, I may be in your town before you know it. I am also somehow already plotting out fun promo stuff for the next book because sometimes you have to book artists months in advance but then sometimes then those artists work really fast and you already have cool stuff and not even a book announced to go with it? Publishing is very strange! But cool? Sometimes? I don’t even know. 2025 has been such a horrible time and also in direct personal ways, sometimes it hasn’t been. This is not to say I don’t care about others (what a time for me to tell you I didn’t, huh!!!); I do, deeply. I am devastated with all the ways the systems seem to be bowing for, mainly, a couple of deeply terrible men who should be in therapy and not dismantling our country, but, at the same time, I am also focused on doing my best to find joy and focus on community and also stay visible as a queer artist who is going to keep writing happily-ever-after for queer people.

(I am always dedicated to activism and community but arggghhh I’ll just say it would be nice to be living in a society where I could just tell you cute things about promo stickers or whatever because we weren’t constantly worried about what DOGE is up to etcetera!!!!!)

One of my goals for 2025 has been to be in front of screens less and do more projects that do not involve screens. How is this going? Wellllll I have cooked a few more times than I’d been doing previously, but otherwise — not great! I need to continuously focus on this, because it is not just happening organically like I hoped. (My pledge to drink more water, though, post- book tour where I only drank espresso and bourbon and Diet Coke basically, is going better. See below.) It’s not only that in 2025 the news is all bad and doom-scrolling is not helping matters, it’s that in any day and age, it is not healthy for me to be staring at my phone or my laptop all the time. And also every time I do a little project (even something like last year when I put a Lego cat together) I find myself SO HAPPY ABOUT IT. This is not some imaginary thing I’ve decided will make me feel better. Yet it is so hard to do. Habits, endorphins, the endless slog of bad news that somehow it feels like being there to see will… I don’t know what, HELP SOMEHOW??

We’ll see how the rest of the year goes. To be fair, April just began. There’s somehow (sigh) a lot of 2025 left.

(I have to be on a screen just to write this!)

I also want to say that GOOD THINGS happen on screens! This is a tricky part of course; I don’t think all screens are bad or that social media is all corruptive (besides the endless scroll I can get hooked on, I do actually feel like I have a healthy relationship with Instagram for example, but also, how healthy is an endless scroll!!!). Also MY BOOKS GET WRITTEN ON SCREENS but also, they don’t, they get written when I’m in the car listening to music or taking a walk with my dog or conditioning my hair in the shower, etc. My best work happens when I’m not just inhaling other people’s content, and I don’t know why it’s so hard to remember that, except that of course this is how phones and social media (and ADHD) work in the first place.

Anyway, it’s all a journey. If I have some more successes with it I will of course let y’all know. IF IT HELPS. IF IT DOESN’T? Life is a mystery/everyone must stand alone.

xoxoAmy

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One of my preorders was from Zuko the cat, and I was so excited to see that Zuko received and enjoyed the book!!!!

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Consumption

Some recent and recent-ish stuff!

Drinking

My water consumption has fallen badly lately, folks, so after doing unrelated research about the best water bottles, I was like, oh, now I have that knowledge, maybe I should buy one of those, which is why I ended up with one from Purifyou. I am here to tell you I LOVE IT. It is a glass bottle surrounded by silicone which means it bounces if you drop it but WATER OUT OF GLASS TASTES SO MUCH BETTER and I am drinking so much more water.

Wearing

Finding good plus size jeans is a constant search,* and I had basically settled with Madewell’s being “fine” until I decided that wasn’t good enough. I just got some Levi’s 501s (direct from Levi’s) and I am quite happy with them!

Rewatching

I got to see a screening of The Substance at the Academy Museum earlier this week. I have only seen The Substance in heightened locations, which in no small way has added to the way I’ve taken it in. I don’t know if The Substance was my favorite film of 2024 but it’s definitely the one I still think about most (and am still irate that Demi didn’t win the Oscar), and seeing it in all its disgusting obvious glory up on the big screen was a great way to kick off the week.

Snacking

Today at my office, one of my colleagues brought us every single available Little Debbie snack. Y’all, this was the most exciting thing that’s happened here in ages. Many are delicious! Please tell me your fave in the comments. I love Nutty Buddies, and had kind of FORGOTTEN about Star Crunch and Fudge Rounds. Cosmic Brownies are a forever fave as well. SO MANY GOOD OPTIONS, LITTLE DEBBIE.

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Events & Books!

*To be honest I think regardless of your size, finding jeans can be hard. I just think it’s tougher on plus size folks because these days it is all but impossible to find any in-store and so I’ve just gotten comfortable charging hundreds of dollars of jeans knowing I will be sending most/all sizes back. Not my fave way to shop! I want to invent a company where you can get like A RANGE OF JEANS and then you get charged for what you keep but I am not sure how to do this/make it profitable? Anyway, sharks, call me.