That Time I Deleted My Whole Novel

Plus two difficult cats & a new author pic

Look, it’s a Newsletter!

Or maybe a post? I’m new to Substack. I’ve been saying that for a couple of months. It still feels true. Do you have a newsletter/blog/thing on here? Let me know.

I’m still figuring out format and stuff. My life is mostly cats and writing. So, you know, expect…that.

I’m glad you’re here! :)

Cat News

Cat book news: My cat Collette now has an entire book dedicated to her, which she absolutely does not deserve. (This is my fault. I dedicated the book.) It’s middle grade, coming out next summer, and I’ll have more news to share about it soon! Just hitting you with the bad news first.

Collette is a terrible cat. She bullies our little old man cat, pees on the couch, and refuses to take her Calming Meds.

This is her being terrible:

She is also pretty much my favorite thing in the world. We have a special, toxic bond.

New cat news: We have a new cat. He waltzed out of the coyote-infested woods and into our lives and immediately started destroying our stuff. His name is Sunshine Bunshine. He has already deleted a draft of this post. This is him on a chair he has been destroying:

Sunshine is very, very adorable. But he is not blessed with monumental intelligence. This is him thinking as hard as he can:

Thinking takes him a long time. The above image could be a video, you wouldn’t be able to tell. He’s also on a diet, which is going okay because if you take his food away, he just immediately forgets that he was eating.

Author News

I’ve got a new headshot. Don’t tell anyone, but I took it in the bathroom at the Marriott next to Boston Garden and edited out the shower handle. My mom thinks I look crazed.

The truth is, this was taken on the best night of my life, because I was going to see My Chemical Romance. So this is what “happy” Adi looks like. Who knew?

What do you think of bathroom selfie headshots? Classy or super classy?

Writing Life

So that new middle grade I mentioned? It started out as another book. Like, 25k words of another book, which is a pretty big chunk of a middle grade. Other Book had a lot going for it. That was the problem, I think—that it was kind of working. It’s easy to cut 25k words if they’re all garbage (haha, no it isn’t). But when a story is allllllllllllmost a thing that hangs together, it’s tough to stop hammering at it. (But the awesome creepy setting! The plot twist! That one witty line of dialogue I’ve rewritten entire chapters around just to preserve!) I finally did it, though. I cut 24,900 words and went from there. Turned out those 100 words were the seed of a middle grade that actually functions all the way through. Hopefully.

Writing is solitary, except when it isn’t. Do you like to write with friends, like at a coffee shop? My mom is a writer. She would rather scorch her own eyebrows off with a soldering iron than write with friends at a coffee shop. But I really enjoy it. It’s a great way to really focus for shortish sprints (we usually do an hour at a time, then check in). Plus coffee! Bagels! Coffee shop Spotify!

COVID has put the kibosh on meatspace gatherings for now, but I still write with pals twice a week online. We literally sit there and tappy tap at our laptops with everyone else’s silent, tiny heads on the screen tappy tapping. It’s weird. Writers are weird. I love them. Also, BONUS: many writers have pets that you get to see when you’re writing online.

I hope you’re gearing up for a delightful Thanksgiving if you’re in the US. I mean, I fully support you if you’re gearing up for a delightful, rogue Thanksgiving outside the US as well. Let me know how it goes, especially if anyone throws a pie.