If you want to know what the weather is currently like in Northern California, I stood in the backyard for the length of time it took my dog to go pee and sneezed three times. The blooms are blooming. The bulbs are sprouting. The pollen is most definitely pollening. I think spring is my least favorite season as a Californian, because it always feels like an attack.

When I lived in the midwest for grad school, however, I finally understood spring. You see the snow start to melt FINALLY and see that first bulb sprout some green into your dreary gray existence and you realize you’ve made it to the other side of something you weren’t sure you were going to survive.

But here in the golden state, it’s just an angrier kind of sunshine and growth. We had a super windy day last week and you could just see everyone was miserable. Clutching their tissues, dabbing their watery eyes. It didn’t bother me so much when I was younger, but aging makes you vulnerable in so many different and unexpected ways. But we adapt! We change and grow and survive. We come through hard times like that little bulb, sprouting through the frost.

One of my closest friends hosts a podcast with her sisters and I had the great pleasure of being a RETURN guest, which was so fun. I talked about Two is a Pattern, the blending of genres, the transformational nature of fanfiction, and of course, the 90s.

I’ve been giving myself a little writing break, but I’m dipping my toes back in the waters now. I have a few things bubbling, including a second book to Two is a Pattern (did you think I would just leave it there?), and some other odds and ends. I’m not sure what will emerge as the front runner for my third book, but I think that’s part of the fun.

If you’re a writer, what are you working on? If you’re a reader, what has caught your attention recently?

Here’s what I currently have checked out of the library: