"What is your book about?"
My daughter asks me, knowing I will not tell her.
I’ve been writing a book, and it’s kind of a secret, as in, no one can look at it while I’m writing it.
My kids know I won’t show it to them. Mark has no idea what I’m writing. I hide the writing window of my browser whenever anyone approaches my desk.
But my oldest, A, who is ten, knows I feel soft right now. It’s been a tough weekend for her and we are talking things through. She asks me in the dark of her bedroom at bedtime, “What is your book about?”
I want to give her an answer. I want to give her whatever she wants. I really, really do. Except I really don’t want to talk about my book. Talking about it might ruin its magic. It might also reveal to me what a sham my idea is. But what if it it doesn’t ruin anything? What if the idea gains strength the more I share it?
“It’s about a woman,” I say carefully. Is it about the woman? or her sister? or the boy? In any case, there is a woman, so that part is true.
“She is on a journey,” I add. That part is true too, every hero is on a journey.
“Oh,” she says. “What kind of journey?” The fan in her room is on high speed and it seems louder to me now. We snuggle further into her covers.
“Well,” I speak slowly. “She’s going through some hard things. And, there are bright spots too. But she has to learn how to see them.”
She thinks for a moment. “Where is she?”
“Florida,” I say. For sure she’s in Florida. “She goes lots of places but, all around here.”
“Nice,” says A, and she knows not to ask more.
I hope so, kid. I hope it is nice.
I am 20,004 words in, 40% of the way through NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, in which you write 50,000 words in November). Keep rooting for me, please—I need all the help I can get!
News & Updates
I heard some good news on my birthday back in September I had been sitting on since—that Exposition Review nominated my poem “These Tenuous Things” for a Best of the Net anthology! This piece was edited by Anya Maria Johnson and published earlier this year in Exposition Review’s “Lines” issue. I’m incredibly encouraged by this vote of confidence—thank you also to everyone who saw it on my socials first and reached out with support, you know I love you.
What’s next?
Still writing. Still doing. Follow along on Instagram, TikTok, and if you’re liking this letter, consider sharing it with a friend? xo.
on on,
cassie.