Lady of Leisure
Currently reading:
A Taste for Death by P. D. James
The Poetry of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson [ongoing]
Books finished this week: 1
★★★★☆
Where this book came from: A gift from my mom for Christmas (purchased from Neverending Story!)
Why this book: Fitzgerald is my mom’s favorite author and she hoped he would bring me inspiration
Thoughts: Not much to say about this one, because it’s exactly what it says on the tin: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s thoughts on writing, via letters and excerpts from his own work. It was incredibly thoughtful gift and, yes, I cried when I opened it.
Library updates:
And somehow, we’re almost two full weeks into the new year. I’m still working on building my new habits and routines and working out a schedule that works for me every day, but it’s been busy——in a very positive way!——so far. I think the biggest struggle so far has been learning to treat my freelance work and writing as “work-work,” and not just the things I do around the margins of my day. I’m so used to getting up early and staying up late to make deadlines around a day job that it’s sometimes tough to sit down and work during normal working hours. I’m slowly making headway there, though, and looking forward to settling into a schedule that balances time for work with time for leisure.
Because I have to build in some time for nonsense. I include in the “nonsense” category all the things that are actually incredibly to me: things like taking a nap when I need it and taking as long a walk as the winter cold will let me, but also seeing friends, taking a pottery class, exercising, and catching up on all the many doctor’s appointments I had to reschedule at the end of last year due to Penny being sick and then my COBRA taking a minute to kick in. I do sometimes feel a little silly just sitting down to read a book at two in the afternoon on a weekday. But then I tell myself that I deserve a break, to shut up and enjoy it before things get really busy again. I’m learning to embrace and enjoy unexpected downtime, mostly because I think I’ve been trying to cram a good amount of stuff into every day, to convince myself I’m not becoming a lazy monster in my unemployed era.
Editing my thesis manuscript in preparation for the upcoming semester has been incredibly fun and not yet scary or stressful, though I’m sure those feelings will come. I had the full manuscript printed at Staples earlier this week and have been spending a little time with her each day since, cutting, rewriting, rearranging, and just generally getting reacquainted with the first fifty to sixty pages of this book. It’s been a while since I wrote it, after all.
[photo of Amp editing set up with the caption “Oh, lord, she’s editing”]
Oh, lord, she’s editing.
I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention all the forthcoming books that have already caught my eye. You thought the best-of lists at the end of the year were bad for me? Try the “most anticipated of 2025” list. I’ve preordered some and marked many others for later, but here are some that are especially lighting up my radar, in loose order of excitement:
Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
El Dorado Drive by Megan Abbott
King of Ashes by S. A. Cosby
Saint of the Narrows Street by William Boyle
The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre by Philip Fracassi
I Want to Burn This Place Down by Maris Kreizman
Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence by Claire Hubbard-Hall
Run for the Hills by Kevin Wilson
New year, new books, same old me.
Closing thoughts:
“You don’t write because you want to say something; you write because you’ve got something to say.” ——F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Crack-Up
