heartfelt

It’s the end of October and as of this morning, I only have 23K words written. It’s not bad, but this week I didn’t hit my thousand word per day goal, and because it was my birthday on Monday, I cut myself some slack. Our architecture boat tour on Sunday was chilly but wonderful, and the next day I spent hours opening cards and gifts and thanking my incredibly generous friends. Tea, chocolate, flowers, dragons—and a stunning piece of original artwork. It snowed all morning, I had cake for breakfast, deep dish for lunch, ran a few errands, and still managed to write a thousand words before going to bed. The rest of the week wasn’t as productive but I discovered a historic rooming house for Black women in Bronzeville that I wrote into my novel, and today I’m going to Semicolon Books, a Black woman-owned bookstore for which I received a gift card. They run a book donation program for CPS students, so I’m taking a bag of books and then will wander around Bronzeville to see Elam House (right), The Forum, and the former home of Ida B. Wells. It’s Halloween and the city is bracing for the election on Tuesday; I hear the mayor is setting up roadblocks to help keep the peace, so I figured I would go downtown today and then stay in Evanston for the next week or so till things hopefully quiet down. We’re facing new restrictions here in IL as infection rates surge. I think the election won’t be decided for weeks to come and I think we’ll be living under quarantine for at least another year. So it’s important to pace ourselves, prepare for the worst, and work together to create the best possible outcome. Earlier this month I had the chance to speak with Matthew Winner on The Children’s Book Podcast, and he concluded his interview by asking me what message I would send along to the kids he would see in his library the next day: “Be gentle with yourself and with each other.” There are so many things beyond our control right now, but if you’re able—please VOTE and practice kindness this week. I found out the day after my birthday that my green card renewal application has been approved. My citizenship application is still pending so I can’t vote this year. That means I’m counting on the people in my community to choose a future that includes immigrants like me. As Arundhati Roy reminds us: “Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.”