Goodbye, February!

Bye February! You’ve been a wackadoodle month. Something about the second month of the year always gets me down in the beginning. It doesn’t matter that I had excellent Valentine’s Day plans, a happy light plugged in and ready, and lots and lots of books to read under snuggly blanket. I’m just ready for winter to be over, and the news – especially the horrific Parkland shooting – continues to weigh on me, as it should. Still the second half of the month, my mood rebounded. And my writing has been going better than ever – at least in terms of me enjoying it. I love revising, but working on a new story…I have the first draft butterflies big time.

This month, I’ve also been lucky enough to celebrate Judy Blume’s 80 birthday, visit the new Upper West Side Books of Wonder for Dhonielle Clayton’s launch of The Belles, and went to an early screening of Love, Simon – the film adaptation of one of my favorite YA novels by Becky Albertalli. All were amazing.

I kept up my romance reading spree, but snuck in a few fantasy/science fiction books, like Ready Player One (which was surprising worth the hype) and Black Panther (which I’m excited to go see in theaters tomorrow!). I also read Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson and am pretty sure I will never think of short stories (or trees) in the same way again.

Last night, my littlest writing students (aged 6-8) read their work in front of their parents. You better believe I was beaming like smiling was my job and holding back tears. I’m still amazed and inspired by their imagination and courage to be exactly who they are.

So yeah, February – you tried to get me down. But I bounced back! Now onto March!