I spent today at BookmarksNC book festival shilling my wares. Did well too! Sold out of 4 horror titles. And sold a lot of book one of my series. It was a new event for me, and it felt good to connect with a new audience. I was a last minute pinch hitter, when a friend who had booked a table had his partner back out. So I got to help a friend, make some money, and spend a very pleasant day among bookish people. #CoSoWriters #CoSoBooks

Perks of working from home:cuddles during Zoom meetings. Gotta say, I LOVE working at home.

A little thesaurus fun this afternoon. #CoSoHumor

It's #BannedBooksWeek so it's time to find out what "they" don't want you to read. What are some of your favorite banned books? #CoSoUnbannedBookClub #CoSoReaders https://medium.com/@mirymom1/find-out-what-they-dont-want-you-to-know-read-a-banned-book-66fc9892816f

Good morning everyone! I'm feeling much more myself today and I'm so grateful for that feeling. It's definitely true that health is key to so much! How are you all feeling today?

Well, the good news is that I wasn't really sick the past few days: it was side effects from a drug. The bad news is that once again, doing my what my doctor suggests is like being poisoned. I'm not sure we've really moved on from medieval "doctors" trying to balance my "humours."

#randomthoughts If defenestration is being thrown out a window, is refenestration being thrown back in? #wordnerd

Public education for all is a quintessential American idea. And too many Americans have been trying to kill it and make it into something you can make a profit off of. ENDRANT.

I am relieved for myself that I am away from that toxic environment now. And now that I have a little space and emotional energy, I will do all I can with my vote and my advocacy to change that environment for the people still in it.

(HINT: most teachers are not trying to get away with anything; they are a hard-working bunch in it because they believe in it)

In all my years of teaching, I was mostly treated like I was one of the kids and that the most reasonable expectation is that I would be trying to get away with something.

The difference is that the people I work with now think I’m an adult and trust me to make responsible decisions about how I spend my time. They’re not nosy about why I can’t come to a meeting if I can’t. They trust me to get the work done.

I gotta say, it’s wonderful to get some distance from that stress. And since I’ve changed careers, I think I finally put my finger on what made teaching so frustrating when I was doing it.

So I’ve made it through the beginning of my first school year since 1976 as an “outsider.” I’m not a teacher or a student this year, but I still have a kid in school so I get the mom experience.

We call this one “downward facing dog.” #dogsofcoso

Gah! My least favorite part of getting older has been the amount of attention my body requires just to have what I always considered "normal" function. I've been knocked down for three days now by a sinus infection. Doesn't seem fair something so small could take me out.

#CoSoUnbannedBookClub I help run a once-a-month classics book club at my library. For early October, we'll be discussing Anna Karenina. I'm about halfway through it now and I'm already dreading the ending. (I've read it before . . .and the first time the ending pissed me off). But Tolstoy has suckered me in again already. Any other Tolstoy fans out there?

I'm looking at my weekend calendar and seeing that I have only one timed commitment! Introvert heaven, here I come! What's on your "agenda" this weekend? #weekendplans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB9H4HVeMW4

One of my short stories was picked up for a podcast today. I really like the reading, too! It's about 9 minutes if you're inclined to give it a listen. https://open.spotify.com/episode/4l7i594HU1mMmoIMatM4p0 #CoSoWriters

Pictures from #todayswalk I’m especially proud of catching that bee on the yellow flower. He was busy!