Resolved
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The fight isn’t over. See Stand with Minnesota for a list of local organizations that need your support. Consider monetary donations to UNIDOSMN and the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota, but please also check the list for many other organizations in need of donations of money, supplies, and time, if you’re in the area.
Additionally, to fight fascism across the country, consider a donation to the ACLU, or use their website to find trainings and local actions. Mobilize.us is also great for finding events, petitions, and other opportunities to make your voice heard. In New York City, sign up for updates from Hands Off NYC, and for all of New York State, see For the Many.
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Currently reading:
Like in Love with You by Emma R. Alban
Out There Screaming, edited by Jordan Peele
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë [audiobook]
Books finished this week: 1
★★★☆☆
Where this book came from: Purchased as part of my haul from the Book Barn!
Why this book: I’m pretty sure I’ve had this one on my TBR since it published.
Thoughts: For the first third, I was all-in on the mystery of it all and so excited to see where it all went. Reading about Nella facing microaggression after microaggression and being gaslit at every turn made my stomach churn. But then, as good as the tension was at the start, I found myself starting to lose patience with the story. In addition to Nella’s story, we get a few flashbacks to another Black editor at the publishing house in the 1980s, plus a few scattered scenes of people in “the Resistance,” none of which amounted to much. The pace remained slow and steady right through to the end, when we’re given a lackluster denouement and left with plenty of lost ends. As important as I think the commentary here is, overall, the novel left me unsatisfied.
Library updates:
Three books I acquired were announced this week, ending weeks——and sometimes months——of quiet secrets:
My three favorite parts of acquiring books are (in order of most anxiety-reducing to most exciting) sending an offer, having that offer accepted, and finally getting to see the author share the news once the announcement goes live on Publishers Marketplace. I did get yeses on two other titles this month, too, but you’ll hear about those eventually.
Anyhow, as exciting as it is to get the okay to send an offer email, there are always a million nerves tied to it, too. Am I offering what the book is worth (or at least enough to make us competitive)? Did I spell something embarrassing——like the agent’s name, the author’s name, or the title of the book——wrong? What if the agent comes back to negotiate (which is their whole job) and they ask for a bunch of changes I know I won’t be able to allow? What if I finally get to have a call with the author as they consider my offer and they hate me?
Even an acceptance of your offer, which exciting in its own right, brings some stress with it. I have to submit all the info so a contract can be drafted. What if I do something wrong? What if I miss a detail when I review the draft? What if negotiations fall apart and I lose the book?
Easily the best day for me is when the deal is finally, finally announced. Seeing the love pour in from authors’ communities when they can finally share the news gives me so much hope, in the face of so much awful. I love editing, even when it’s hard work, and it’s a thrill to see a book you worked hard on on a bookshelf. But I don’t think even pub day can compete with the deal announcement for me.
And with these three books, and all the books that have come before and all the books that will come after——my god, I feel so incredibly lucky. I am truly in awe of every author I work with, these incredible, talented, brilliant folks who poured their hearts and souls into their passion and made their dreams come true. Having this trio of titles announced in the wake of the two murders in Minneapolis (not to mention the countless other people who have been detained, brutalized, or killed by the American government) feels especially poignant. These stories span genres and subject matter, and they feature so many different people and settings and messages: queer love stories, characters with chronic illness, women who refuse to take your shit. All these books have heroes at their hearts, heroes of various backgrounds and identities and experiences and abilities, and they all give me hope.
And I really want that kind of hope and optimism from the books I work on right now. I’m not talking about toxic positivity, by plastering a smile on your face and ignoring the nightmare hellscape out the window in the name of “protecting your peace.” I want stories that show people building their found families and communities, or falling in love, or living their best lives in the face of adversity (and maybe also committing a little heist-y-poo along the way).
Anyway, work has been busy, America is crumbling (much more publicly and at a much more rapid rate than I think most people expected), and I haven’t been reading as much as I’d like. But I did manage to go thirty-one days straight writing at least 100 words every day. One of my 2026 resolutions is to write 100 words every day——preferably creative words, but sometimes work stuff will have to do. This month, I bounced between a few fiction projects, an editorial letter or two, some journaling, and, yes, some missive drafting, and the January count stands at 24,017 words. At least I have that to show for myself.
Closing thoughts:
If you need a confidence boost, make a goal you can reach and go for it. You deserve to feel like a winner.
