Oh, hey, I'm back (sort of)
or: the real world is kicking my butt
Did I accidentally skip June’s newsletter? Yes and no. It’s been a rough summer, y’all. Everything in my life seems so frivolous. There are new terrible headlines popping up every day, and yet I’m supposed to just convince you to buy my books anyways? To stop crying over real kids and cry over my made-up ones instead?
Teaching was hard. Interpreting was hard. The non-profit world was hard. But at least all those jobs had a weight to them. I felt like I was contributing to society. What am I doing now? Art enriches life but it’s not community service in the same way, is it? I miss feeling useful.
Maybe all this was inevitable. A birthday mini-crisis, if you will. But if you too are an artist and grappling with these questions, I see you. May we find the light together.
xoxo, Andrea
September 6: National Book Festival | Washington, DC | Panel TBD
No Place On Earth (MG): No new updates here. We’ve done two rounds of developmental edits and I expect to get line edits any day now.
Adult Horses : I’ve finally found my flow with this one— I’ll be sending pages over to my agent soon. Since my preference for reading romance is third person past tense, that’s how I’ve been writing it. Talk about a challenge 🤯. All my children’s books have been first person present tense.
It feels like a little too much to catch up on at the minute, so definitely head over to my insta if you want to see what I’ve been reading these past two months. But some recent favorites have been The Confessions of Frannie Langton (Adult), The Trouble With Heroes (MG), and If We Survive This + the Darkness Outside Us duology (YA).
The gym - I’ve been lifting weights pretty consistently for close to three months now and I can feel the difference. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the gym I’d probably be spiraling way worse.
My nintendo (I have the portable lite). It’s my favorite dissociation buddy, haha. Though I tend to play the same thing over and over again. Rec me some nintendo games you’ve been loving if you’re a gamer, plz.
Thanks for reading, Friends! See you next month 💜,
we're happy you're back!!!!