I’m working on my 2nd quarter newsletter (subscribe here!) but it keeps taking a back seat to work, taxes, and a pause to recover from hand surgery.

Some things I’m thinking about: how fast life goes by and how short it really is; how strange it is to be trying to seize all remaining opportunities while at the same time the country in such scary turmoil; how not to get stuck in a red state at exactly the wrong tipping point. No answers to any of this yet.

It’s been a good reading year so far. I read the last page of Anne Tyler’s Three Days in June last night and was hit with such an unexpected wave of emotion and don’t know how she does it. More on my reading in the full newsletter but you can get a preview here.

I’m on submission again for the first time in years, under very different circumstances than last time. I feel more curious than anxious about how it will all turn out.

Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter and look for it in the next couple of weeks. I’m still committed to cutting about 90% of my social platform use (and I put Substack in that category), so that’s the best way to hear from me.

- SZ

Just a few updates to kick off the year!

Kirkus named Kyra, Just for Today a 2024 Best Book That was nice! Available in hardcover, ebook, and audio.

A Song Called Home is out in paperback, ebook, audio, and there are probably still some hardcovers somewhere…!

I moved my newsletter off of Substack. If you were already a subscriber, you should now be getting it from MailerLite. If it hasn’t shown up, check your spam and mark it as safe to make sure it reaches you. If you’d like to subscribe, here’s the new link. (Don’t worry, I only do it about 6 times a year!) I sometimes drop an audio newsletter in the This Creative Life feed, too, if you prefer that.

In 2024 I left Twitter and deactivated Threads; soon I’ll be taking down my Facebook page and maybe try to get off Instagram. I’ve had it with tech billionaires and disrupters, but need to figure out the best ways to stay in touch with friends all over the world. I’m on Blusky sometimes (but deactivated as I write this, for a break.)

I’m still doing a little book consulting and beta reading here and there; contact me if you’re interested in getting a rate sheet.

Happy new year!