North Georgia locals, come see me!
I'll be speaking on Saturday in Cherokee County at the BSSL Book and Bake Sale! Also, there's a publishing update!
Hey friends! I will be at BridgeMill Terrace in Canton this Saturday from 8 am to 3pm, hanging out, talking about books, and eating delicious baked goods. I hope y’all will come be with me! I will have my books for sale, as well as signed and numbered poetry prints that would make great gifts for Mother’s Day! If you’d like to pre-order, you can do that here until Friday the 25th.
I’m excited to see y’all on Saturday! I’ll be speaking at 12:40, so if you’re hoping to catch my talk, be there by then :)
As for the publishing update, I officially have submitted my blackout collage project No Small Honor to Andrews McMeel Publishing! They may or may not ever respond to my query, but I am excited to be moving forward with this project, whatever that may look like!
listening/reading/watching/writing
LISTENING:
Bad Bad Thing on Spotify is a true crime podcast with two seasons. The first season is about a woman named Jennair who dies in a murder/suicide after her husband’s infidelity. It’s a complex story that leaves you wondering exactly how everyone involved was responsible, the layers of innocence vs guilt, and what it means when someone reaches out for help but isn’t truthful. The journalist that does the podcast is so sensitive to the harsh and hard truths of this situation.
READING:
I was a beta reader for my friend Safari Spell’s newest book Reckless Truth. I am new to her type of romantasy, but already I can’t wait to read more of her work. Reckless Truth is part of a prequel series to her original series Long Live Dead Reckless. If you like stories about Nephilim, the kraken, love, betrayal, immortality (kind of), and eternal grudges, you will want to read it when it releases later this year! Safari is so great about turning the usual conventions of a genre on their heads, making everything she writes fresh and new.
I’ve been reading comps for my magical realism novel I’ve been working on for what feels like a million years (3 years in real time), and several people recommended Adrienne Young’s books Spells for Forgetting and The Unmaking of June Farrow. I’m halfway through June Farrow. I’ve really enjoyed her writing, and I am definitely inspired by the way she writes her settings.
WATCHING:
Jared and I just finished up Unstable on Netflix. It’s a fun watch about Ellis Dragon who owns a big tech company and his son. Ellis is making everyone very nervous after his wife dies and begins acting a little…unstable. Anna, his right hand woman, sends for his son in New York. He moves home and hijinks ensue. The show is nothing overly special, but it is pretty funny, and I love Fred Armisen as an eccentric billionaire’s therapist who develops a codependent relationship with his client. He is the true gem of the show.
WRITING:
Believe it or not, I finished my fourth draft of The River Woman Project! Then I started reading Story Genius and realized that Laurel’s character needs some help, so I’m setting the manuscript aside and I’ll come back to it again after I’ve done some better outlining. I will NEVER AGAIN start a project like this until I’ve done the proper prep work. A few months of hard work figuring out the details could have probably saved me literal years of drafting. The fourth draft is certainly the best of all of them, but I know there’s more to the story than I’ve written, and I want so desperately to get it right.
I’m also working on a fun project that’s coming soon exclusively to my Love Letters! It’s a series about various aspects of creativity, inspired by blackout poems I found while working on No Small Honor.
Sometimes I hide new thrifted books in the shelves at home and I don’t tell my children. The thrill it gives me when I hear them gasp at finding a new book they haven’t read! I wonder if God feels like that when I find the inspiration He leaves for me.
Recently, Jared’s been finding me on the couch, magazine and pencil in hand after the girls go to bed. I’m like an old woman with a crossword puzzle, except I’m scanning the page for little poetic quips shoved in the middle of an article about local barbeque restaurants (which let’s be honest, this is not the first time a barbeque restaurant has inspired me to write a poem.)
I’ve mined treasure from the junk magazines that are stuffed in my mailbox and the amazing vintage thrift finds I obsessively search for, and man, I am so excited to share it with y’all here. I hope it encourages and inspires you on your creative journey, whatever your art of choice may be.
Stay tuned for the first installment!
Love, Tristan
P.S. The BSSL Book and Bake Sale’s address is: BridgeMill Terrace 1190 Bridgemill Ave. Canton, GA
I’ll see y’all there!