Because we had a few. My oldest got her driver’s license (10/10 would recommend). My middle child had her golden birthday (13!). I turned 38 (never done that before). And we took a Caribbean cruise (exceptionally fun) AND I managed not to get sunburned (first time).

March started out with the usual whirlwind of giving feedback to MFA students and planning for the next residency. I prepped for and gave a talk to high-school students in Spokane about short stories. Then I was in full vacation prep mode which meant realizing no one had proper suitcases and several children were missing key warm weather items. The switch from snow pants to shorts and tank-tops is always jarring, especially when your kids have the audacity to grow over the winter.

I’m still waiting on copy edits for Thief, but now we’re doing other fun prep work like asking authors for blurbs and finalizing interior layout and design. I also told myself I’d come up with an idea for a new story in March, and that… didn’t happen. I do have the bare whisper of an idea, but each time I try to pin it down, it scampers back into the shadows. The two-week spring break helped my stomach ulcers but not my productivity, and I’ll need to do a bit more coaxing before the idea is willing to come out again.

I could also have titled this March Meanderings, because my reading list really wandered all over the place. As I was thinking through some middle-grade ideas, I read Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein which was pitched as Willy Wonka in a library. I also read The Egypt Game which I somehow missed as a child (although my sister read it which explains why we went through a period of Egyptian ceremonies and hieroglyph practice in our playroom).

Since I’d clearly been having too much fun, I picked up Train Dreams which was well-written but terribly bleak (and could have used more content warnings). On ship, I zipped through Count My Lies by Sophia Stava as well as These Silent Woods by Kimi Cunningham Grant, both of which are adult thrillers. Grant’s book in particular was beautifully written and as atmospheric and haunting as the cover suggests.

On Audiobook, I did finish Doomsday Book, and while I’m still glad I listened to it, I couldn’t see myself returning to it the way I have with To Say Nothing of the Dog. It was much sadder than I expected, but had some really fantastic characters and emotional beats that made it worth it.

One harbinger reader wrote to me a while back to say that their biggest writing hurdle is being an extrovert and choosing people over the discipline of writing.

Allow me—an introvert who spent many hours as a teen locked in her room with her stories—to give some advice here.

First: the writer as tormented soul who retreats to a cabin in the woods to complete his great American novel is a selfish and unhealthy aesthetic. In one of the forwards to Dune, Frank Herbert’s son said that growing up, he knew his father preferred time spent with Paul Atreides to him. If your writing has become the highest and best thing in your life, then you might produce some really great novels, but they will come at a cost so high your children might bear the scars of it after your death.

ON THE FLIP SIDE: if you have been given both the gift of wordsmithy and the desire to write, you should be willing to put in the work necessary to use that gift the way God intended. There are few things more sad than squandered talent, and saying no to a night out with friends so that you can put in the necessary reps on your manuscript might be the right move.

This is partly why I give myself a 500 words/day requirement when I’m writing a first draft. It requires discipline from me, but it also gives me the freedom to say yes to a social engagement once I get those 500 words written.

There are plenty of places in our lives where we can convince ourselves that not doing the hard thing is okay because of other obligations (like spending time with friends), but (assuming that you aren’t neglecting the people around you), the difference between many of the writers who are published and those who aren’t isn’t entirely talent, it’s grit. And grit only happens when you are willing to say no to leisure. For a slightly longer take on this same topic, you can view my article on the NSA website here.

That’s my pep talk for the day. Unplug your television, turn off your phone, shut the door to your office, and go write!

See you in April!