Stronger, Happier, More Excited: A Life Update

It's almost November, wow. That means 2020 is almost over and people can stop making jokes about what a bad year it is. ...or they can start making jokes about how bad 2021 is. Personally, I'm hoping we all just wake up on January first and the sky is blue and there's a message in the clouds that reads "HAPPY NEW YEAR! ALL THE BAD STUFF IS OVER YOU CAN JUST SPEND THIS YEAR CHILLING OUT!"

But. Yeah. 

Anyway.

I'm coming to you live from isolation; one of us was exposed to Covid last week (at school; it was bound to happen sooner or later I guess) so now we're supposed to just hang out here until we get sick or until we don't get sick, and I figured, why not write a little update post? For allllll of the millions of people who wish I would. 

Let's...see...

Well. I've started doing these YouTube workout videos in the evenings, now that it gets dark before supper and I can't do my usual walk around the neighborhood after the kids are sleeping. It's been really nice; I feel stronger. I've started taking vitamin D, too, which makes me feel like I should feel noticeably happier, so I'm not sure if I'm happier because I feel like I should feel happier or if I feel happier because of the vitamin D, but I do feel happier, and that's nice too. I've also started painting my fingernails again, which means that I'm not picking at them, which is good for Barclay's mental health. 

So I'm stronger and happier, and Barclay is not grinding his teeth listening to me pick my nails all day long, so he's happier too. Although...he's also taking Vitamin D, so his happiness may be unrelated to my fingernails, or it may be a placebo effect as well. Who knows? Happiness is strange. I'll take it however it comes.

What else...I'm working, as always, on a novel. People are always asking me about that, they ask me, "Suzy, tell me about your next novel."

To which I reply, "Well, it's a long story..."

Ha Ha Ha.

I haven't actually been quick enough to think to say that in real life. But I will next time. I hope. 

Anyway. It is kind of a long story. I'm not under contract with the publisher of my last two books at the moment, but my previous contract had an option clause in it so that the next time I write a book I have to show it to them before I try shopping it around anywhere else—which is great, since I loved working with them. 

So I wrote this novel last year, a whole fat 75,000-word book, with the intention of sending it to Lake Union. I finished writing it in March or April—in the midst of that first lockdown, and sent it to my agent, who wrote up an editorial letter and sent it back. My second book came out around then and the editorial letter was a tad overwhelming, so I sat on it for a while, took a little brain vacation...and then I started writing a new book. That old one had some Big Things missing, and I didn't know what they were, so I figured I'd give it a rest and come back to it when I had the brain capacity to figure out what the work was that needed to be done there.

I had an idea for a new book that I was really excited about, so I started writing it, and a few chapters in I realized that this new book, essentially, consisted of all the Big Things that were missing from the previous book. As though my subconscious was still working on that book even though I'd "moved on." 

So where I'm at right now is: I'm welding these two books together. And I'm really excited about it. And it feels great to feel excited, because there were a few months there where I was thinking I should go back to school to become a professional Anything Other Than This. 

But then, who knows? Maybe this excitement has nothing to do with the book. 

Maybe it's the Vitamin D.