Hello, lovely readers!

It's been another month of duck-paddling-under-the-water with not much visibly happening, in part because of some personal life things demanding attention, but also because... writing takes time. If you're me, if often takes a lot of pauses and reflection and sometimes rethinking before you can move forward.

Here is, perhaps, a better metaphor than the duck one:

This is a native plant, blue-eyed grass, which we planted along with a bunch of other natives in our new front garden last fall, all from a local nonprofit that specializes in native plants. When we put them in the ground in October, all but a couple of them looked dead, like pots of dirt with withered stems poking out. 

All winter, they sat in the garden under a layer of leaves, looking like nothing. Squirrels dug some up. The weather got warmer, and we saw some hints of green, but still, mostly dead-looking. Then, suddenly, everything started growing, and before long, we had these pretty flowers everywhere. They needed time to settle in--to rest and grow their roots--before they could "suddenly" bloom.

Writing is often like that for me. Occasionally I'll get a story that just bursts into existence like a dandelion, but with both of my current projects, the ideas needed months or years to root down in the ground before they could start growing into actual drafts, and even then it takes time and tending before they can bloom.

I'm in the midst of shifting from drafting one project to revising another, which takes a big mental transition, especially for two stories as different these, my cozy fantasy novel and genre-bending science fantasy with portals novella. But the novella is blooming quite prettily at this point. I'm looking forward to sending it off to my agent (and eventually sharing it with you all).

Upcoming events and such

It's going to be a busy summer of events! You can see me at Balticon (Baltimore) in May, LavenderCon (DC) in June, and Worldcon in Glasgow in August. I expect to be on panels at all three, though my schedules aren't confirmed yet. I'll also be hanging out at Fourth Street Fantasy (Minneapolis) in June. More details on those as I get them!

I'm also pleased to share that Game On!, an anthology in which I have a story, is nominated for the Aurora Award, Canada's top speculative fiction award! This is a very cool anthology about games of all types, and I'm honored to be a part of it. If you're voting for the Auroras (Canadians only), you'll get the ebook in your reader package. Otherwise, you can buy the ebook, and I hope you'll check out the full list of nominees and get to know some amazing Canadian writers!

What I'm reading

I'm going to recommend some non-fiction this time: Ed Yong's An Immense World. It's about animal senses, and how other critters experience the world in a completely different way than we do--from dogs navigating a landscape made of scents (and how they engage with it differently than, say, elephants) to stranger senses like magnetic. I'm only two chapters in, but it's blowing my mind roughly every other page. (Did you know that scallops have eyes on the edge of their shells?) It's a lovely and fascinating journey into an unfamiliar side of our own world, one that we can't sense, much less see.

That's about it for this month, but I'll have more to share soon! Last but not least, here's Charlie after making a heroic leap onto the top of my office bookshelf. Even more heroic was his restraint in not chewing on my string lights.

Until next time,

Jo Miles