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So we got a dog. It was not a decision I was on board with but it quickly became a decision I NEEDED to be on board with because on day 3 of puppy Elie, my boyfriend returned to work and I was alone in the house with a puppy and I've never had any dog in my house before. So to say that first day was stressful is an understatement. To say the first week (which coincided with New Year's) was stressful is a massive understatement. It's been really really hard. She's amazing and sweet and friendly and awesome. But also she spent two weeks pooping and peeing in the house so we were on constant guard and she is a puppy so... you know ... she bites everything. They are friendly bites but still. And she barks at everything. Not all the time. Just when another dog passes us on the streets of Hoboken - which happens during every single walk! Of course she's not doing it out of anger, she literally wants to say Hi to the other dogs, and the other people, and ESPECIALLY the other children. Which is fine except when all you want is for her to poop and you've been out there for 30 minutes and it's freezing cold and/or raining (when did NJ become Seattle, exactly?) and then... sigh. Plus there's been the overwhelming anxiety of -- I need to spend all this time with her (because puppies need attention) AND I happen to have a novel coming out this year (I WILL BE OKAY, maybe you've heard of it) and we just did the editing in January, the proofs this weekend, and the marketing is starting so that's kind of little time consuming and stressful too (more to come in a post soon!) and I'm trying to finish my next novel, which feels oh so close and still so far because there's never ever time to finish the edit to my satisfaction and then oh yeah... um... I also have a full-time very time consuming job that I travel for a bunch and we have to figure out what to do with our dear Elie when I am away (my partner took off while I was away in January but we are going with sitters extensively the next 3 weeks). Anyway, I've been so busy and consumed with all things Elie that I haven't seen my friends (miss you all!), I've barely seen my partner lol, and this week was literally the first time I got to Manhattan in over a month. I am paying exorbitant rents in Hoboken IN ORDER TO GO TO MANHATTAN ALL THE TIME. Sigh. But anyway, it's been a joy and I love her. And you're just here for the puppy pics so have at it.
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 My first novel is being published in June of 2020 which is a scant 7 months away, seems like forever maybe but it also seems too soon, as I've spent the intervening year since the announcement of publication (book publishing takes 18 months on average) working on my next novel, which is a horror-based YA story that has some of the same themes of "I Will Be OK" but also has a monster. So that's been kind of cool but also quite challenging, as I've been blending genres in the story, something that hasn't fully worked for my beta readers. But I'm working on it. I'm on rewrite 5.4.1.108 as I keep plugging away during every free second between a 50 hour workweek, a social life, a boyfriend who likes to see me not hunched over my laptop, and a bit of concert time. I try to get in 15 hours a week on writing and I usually get there but even then it's not quite enough (I would love to do 20!) but it's getting there and I'm close to finishing the final draft, just in time to kick into edit mode for "I Will Be OK" in January.
Thursday night I went to see Superchunk play their 1994 album "Foolish" in its entirety in an acoustic set in a synagogue that has been converted to a concert venue (Murmrr Theater in Brooklyn) to mark the 25th anniversary of the release. Foolish is arguably (sometimes I argue with myself) the greatest Superchunk album, and Superchunk is my favorite band of all-time so unsurprisingly, it was a magical performance, good enough to get me to blog after six months of ignoring my website (sorry!). Mac and Jim Wilbur made several jokes about the quality of the lyrics and/or songs themselves on the latter part of the album and admittedly the songs at the end are not as good as the openers "The First Part" or "Driveway to Driveway" but those are among my favorite songs by any band ever so it's understandable. And there is a wonderful nostalgia to hearing the album in its entirety, a reminder of a time 25 years ago when I was just discovering a band that would take its place not only among my favorite bands but as THE favorite of all time and it's an amazing feeling - to live with something that long and still be in love and get to experience that kind of joy all over again live. Thank you, Superchunk. As someone who spent the greater part of the last three years in some kind of horrified shock over the election of the dumbest, most openly racist, most ethically and morally challenged, and most disturbingly unqualified of any candidate for any office in any part of this country as president, I definitely held out hope that the Mueller investigation might result in any early end to the reign of incompetent racism and raging corporatism, either via impeachment or a more hopeful resignation once all the facts of the corruption that have been a staple of every part of Trump's adult life, including his campaign and his charity, came to light. Well a good portion of those facts have come to light, in reports over the past 3 years, in indictments and jail time for some of the most senior officials in the campaign (his campaign manager, deputy campaign manager, foreign policy "expert" and personal lawyer). And when presented in their entirety in the belatedly released and still heavily redacted Mueller Report, they are shocking in their breadth and range. Here's a man whose campaign actively sought help from a hostile foreign government to win an election and then spent the years after the election actively and wantonly attempting (successfully at times) to hamstring the investigation, with only the most egregious actions thwarted not by the prospect of breaking the law (something he's never had any qualms about doing) but by senior officials fearful of breaking the law so excessively they might get caught in what caught Manafort, Gates, Flynn, and Cohen and sent them to jail -- following the orders of an unstable narcissist with so many skeletons in his closet that he knew the appointment of a special counsel, as Mueller has reported, would leave him "fucked." The words of a truly stable genius.
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