Clinging stubbornly to summer

Yes, it is October and summer by no one’s definition. But as someone who is functionally a sunflower by temperament, I’m always extremely reluctant to admit that it is indeed fall again. The tomatoes are still good! Some of the leaves are still green! I’m not ready to be tired and sad until April!

In more positive news, I finished the first draft of a novel this month, which means I get to reward myself with Draft Finishing Cake. Tragically, I do need to actually edit the novel, if only to name the approximately two dozen characters who currently exist only as “[Name]” (all my writers out there in Subscriber Land know what I’m talking about). Hopefully the cake will fortify me.

What I’m Reading

Books: Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray absolutely blew me away. Set during the Cold War, it’s about two intelligence agents—one American, one Soviet—who must team up to find a would-be assassin, and oops! they fall in love. This is the slowest burn I have ever read, and that’s saying something because I looove a slow burn, and this one is exquisitely done. Absolutely the kind of romance novel that yanks your heart of your chest, but the suffering just makes the eventual happy ending all the sweeter.

Comics: Ginseng Roots by Craig Thompson is a graphic memoir that uses Thompson’s childhood working in the ginseng fields of Wisconsin and uses that as a springboard to discuss class, labor, family trauma, industrial agriculture, traditional Chinese medicine, the lingering scars of the Vietnam War, and the history of ginseng in folklore, agriculture, business, and medicine. It’s a stunningly expansive work that is also absolutely gorgeous to look at. I read it weeks ago and I’m still blown away by the scope of it and how beautifully it encompasses such an ambitious range of topics and themes.

Well, I’m off to name two dozen characters! If you like fall better than I do, I hope you are enjoying your apple-based desserts and Gilmore Girls rewatch. (I remain, as always, controversially Team Logan.)

<3

Jessica