Ten Things So Lit

a magnificent crab apple tree, saving PBS, and writing villains...

Here are ten things so lit(erary) and otherwise:

1. This crabapple tree outside my writing window: that only blooms for one week every year…this was the week.

   

   16 years ago. my heart.

2. THIS STORY: They call it soccer for 'grannies.' It's fierce — and it's fun and I’m all over it.

3. NPR: I love my NPR socks and tote bag and this statement: “We serve the public interest. It’s not just in our name - it’s our mission. Across the country, locally owned public media stations represent a proud American tradition of public-private partnership for our shared common good.” Democratic countries have public radio - and it’s so good! SAVE NPR.

4. Miss Austen on PBS: Public broadcasting is television and radio that was created to serve communities and the public rather than commercial interests. It’s known for its educational and cultural programming rather than news programs. Democracies have public broadcasting. SAVE PBS.

3. On Writing: “The villain should bring out the best and worst in the protagonist. The best villains get under the protagonist’s skin. They get in their heads (sometimes literally). They start messing with the protagonist’s identity and make them question themselves. But they also inspire your protagonist to tap into their best qualities in order to defeat them. They must dig deep, learn, and perhaps acquire talismans in order to grow powerful enough to defeat the villain. (This growth constitutes a character arc).”
   How to Create a Great Villain by Nathan Bransford (thanks, Caroline)

4. How (and Why) to Submit to Literary Mags and Small Presses with

   KJ

5. com·mence·ment

   /kəˈmensm(ə)nt/

   a beginning or start.

   My youngest is graduating from high school this Saturday. My heart is walking outside my body. I’m pondering this work: commencement.

6. Curious about exploring your spirituality? Ask yourself these 4 questions: “A person’s spiritual practices can offer a sense of calm and a deeply personal journey. You don’t need to be religious to form a meaningful connection with something greater than yourself.”

7. These words from Pope Leo X1V: "It is never a question of capturing others by force, by religious propaganda or by means of power. Instead, it is always and only a question of loving, as Jesus did.”¹

8. This quote: “Who is to say plutonium is more powerful than, say, rice? One takes away a million lives, the other saves one hundred times as many."

   N.K. Jemisin

9. Don’t Give Away Your Power by

   Jami Attenberg
   “Look, there is being aware about what is going on in the world and there is volunteering your time to make a change (even if it’s just making a phone call or giving a donation) then there is just giving up your energy and your brain power when it could be dedicated to your creative practice or acts of service or being present for people in your life.

   It’s your power.

   Use it wisely.

   Do not give them your power. It’s yours. You need it. You keep it. Then use it.

10. These words on rejection by Maggie Smith from her newest book, Dear Writer.

    By talking about and normalizing each no—each misstep, failure, disappointment—we remind one another that no one succeeds all of the time, and certainly not quickly. We’re all playing the long game, and the only way to fail at the long game is to give up. To refuse to play.

It’s May. It’s so busy.

Keep Going. Keep Writing.

Take time to notice the crab apple trees. Soon the blossoms will fade and the lilacs will bloom.

Amy 💖

portrait by

Zsofi Lang

!

---

The Last Part:

Summer Reading: May I suggest THE MCNIFFICENTS?! A summer tale of a beloved dog and his unruly charges…

Seeing: My newly planted tomato plants (28)

Smelling: The first blush of lilac

Hearing: Graduation bells

Tasting: Ollipop soda - better for me than Diet Coke, no?

---

The Unforgettable Guinevere St. Clair is part-mystery, part understanding of the human heart 💖

Ten Thousand Tries is Golden’s quest to save his dad and the soccer team ⚽

The McNifficents is one summer with six rambunctious kids and their miniature-schnauzer nanny 🐕 New Hampshire’s 2024 Great Reads for Kids selection!

1. Always check your sources. I first posted this Instagram quote attributed to Pope Leo XIV only to find no evidence that he ever said them…

"Brothers, sisters…
I speak to you, especially to those who no longer believe, no longer hope, no longer pray, because they think God has left.

To those who are fed up with scandals, with misused power, with the silence of a Church that sometimes seems more like a palace than a home.

I, too, was angry with God.
I, too, saw good people die, children suffer, grandparents cry without medicine.
And yes… there were days when I prayed and only felt an echo.

But then I discovered something:
God doesn't shout. God whispers.
And sometimes He whispers from the mud, from pain, from a grandmother who feeds you without having anything.

I don't come to offer you perfect faith.
I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs.

I'm not asking you to believe in everything.
I'm asking you not to close the door. Give a chance to the God who waits for you without judgment.

I'm just a priest who saw God in the smile of a woman who lost her son... and yet she cooked for others.

That changed me.

So if you're broken, if you don't believe, if you're tired of the lies...
come anyway. With your anger, your doubt, your dirty backpack.
No one here will ask you for a VIP card.

Because this Church, as long as I breathe, will be a home for the homeless, and a rest for the weary.

God doesn't need soldiers.
He needs brothers.

And you, yes, you...
are one of them."

Robert Prevost (Leo XIV) NO RELIABLE POPE SOURCE FOR THIS QUOTE despite it moving me to tears…ah well.