I’m finishing up endnotes, bibliography, and so forth, and my book will be headed into copyediting before long. Right now it’s slated to be out in March 2022, but the date could shift a little before it’s finalized on the Random House schedule. I hope to share the title with you before long. Maybe even a cover, too.
While I was working on the book, I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t undertake another nonfiction project while also still working my (other) job, but apparently that wasn’t true. My brain is already starting to work on a new idea, a familiar sparky branching exhilarated feeling, perfectly captured by Alison Bechdel, quoting Nabokov in response to my predicament. (Fellow fans: she has a new book out!) I’ve also pulled out my old novel draft and started tinkering; I suspect it will be far easier to finish now that I got some more didactic aims out of my system with the book I just finished on ancestor trouble. I guess I’ll find out!
Meanwhile, I pulled together some of my granny’s best sayings, previously posted on this site but always fun for me to revisit, for a post at Medium. All hat and no cattle; a tree full of owls; a long tailed-cat in a room full of rockers (rocking chairs)–if you like old Texan expressions and missed these the first time around, you’ll enjoy it. (And if you’re into quilts or elaborate stitchwork projects, I posted a Twitter thread with some of her most impressive creations, including a bedspread she crocheted from mailing string during the Great Depression.) I’ve also sent a couple Ancestor Hunger dispatches over the past couple months.
And as I’ve mentioned, this site is undergoing a redesign. It should have a new look by mid-summer or so.