summer catch up
the temp dropped below 70 for more than 90 minutes and my will to live returned so therefore must my newsletter
what you can find inside it:
a writing update & general catch up
a cat picture
stuff i watched that you might also want to watch
so! to begin with!
book news
i am poking at what might be next in the YA/horror/thriller space, but that is very amorphous, and you know what ISN'T amorphous is that IN A GARDEN BURNING GOLD has a sequel and that sequel has a title! book 2 of the Wind-Up Garden duology will be called: IN AN ORCHARD GROWN FROM ASH
ORCHARD has been really fun to write, and while i can't tell you too much about what happens yet, in it you will find:
jumbo sized metal lilypads
meaningful tongue piercings
lexos meets someone taller than him, has an identity crisis
family swimming lessons
chrysanthi!!!! that's the whole bullet point i just really love chrysanthi
there's still lots to come - the full back jacket copy! the cover! probably other stuff i'm forgetting! - but in the meantime if you're looking to start the series or want to preorder your copy of the sequel, now's a good time!
life news
summer had highs (finishing the second draft of ORCHARD) and lows (how long it took me to finish the second draft of ORCHARD) and other highs (Shared Worlds, a summer camp for teen writers that i have worked at for like 8 years i think and that i love very much and if that interests you or might interest someone you know go to sharedworldscamp.com) and other lows (getting covid at last)
another high has been taking a breather from instagram which was accidental at first and is now just something that feels nice that i will stop doing when it stops feeling nice. that muscle memory tho it is a KILLER sometimes i catch myself just staring at my home screen for 15 minutes saying "i used to do things here." like okay grandma go home
in essence: things are good, except the bits when they're not, but that's all right, and also does anybody have an efficent way of cleaning the tops of your baseboards? my vacuum won't do the trick
a photo recreation of my summer featuring scallion i.e. the bulk of my camera roll, one of a handful of bodies of water i sat near, a nice sky view out my apartment window that i took on a revision break, and a very normal not alarming text received by all staff at this year's Shared Worlds camp
selections from my summer TV viewing history
succession rewatch but specifically season 2 episode 4
so many series defining moments in one episode! the water bottle fight! the HUG! the glass wall on the roof! as a Kendall Girl (leave me alone) this episode kills me
barry
i'm late to barry, i know, but i bet i'm earlier than YOU (unless you have watched barry in which case-) and you've already heard "wow bill hader can really do the serious stuff" so i will say instead that i find the dialogue in this genuinely surprising sometimes like not Shocking but like. oh. huh. that's a great joke but it's not the joke i thought you were gonna make. and we've all seen enough tv that being surprised like that is hard to do but barry did it pretty consistently for me
not that it was Good but did anybody else watch locke and key s3 or was it only me?
all 160-some-odd episodes of pretty little liars (a rewatch obviously what am i a philistine)
spencer supremacy that's all
irma vep
did i finish it no did watching it make me feel smart and cosmopolitan yes
the new stranger things episode BUT! SPECIFICALLY! the like 45 seconds where an orchestral remix of "separate ways" by journey plays in the background
i became obsessed with this song when i heard it in a mulder/scully fanvid in like 2005 and have been waiting for a resurgence in its cultural recognition thank you
staged s2
i did not know that they made this!!! but they did! v easy watching, self deprecating and meta and like the tv version of going into a coffee shop and people you know keep coming in to pick up their mobile orders and they wave but don't stay for an awkward conversation that neither of you knows how to end
that's it for this newsletter! look for a fall catch up in a few months
one can only imagine what kind of garbo tv content i will have consumed and be eager to talk to you about by then
hope everyone is safe and well!
--rory