How do I say this? I’ve been silent for a while because I haven’t had the words to talk about it… But truth is, I’ve been having a tough summer. There. I said it. Things are not all rosy and perfect after diving into writing full-time + wonderful new book deal. How is this possible? Aren’t book deals supposed to solve everything? WTH!

Joking. Really, I didn’t expect this to solve everything.

I can’t talk about what’s going on, but I do look forward to the days when I can celebrate book stuff for my new novel, as I expect to be very cheerful then and maybe you’ll like me better, but also maybe in the meantime it’s realistic to see how lots of everything else is sort of falling apart all around me even though the book stuff is going on. Maybe there’s something comforting in that?

So here is me: stressed, and worried, not feeling well, but being down and stressed and worried about the future does not help the present, you know? It only makes it harder to get beyond it. Here are two things to crush my bad mood:

I read a brilliant book. It was such a good book that it leaped over all the other books I’ve read over the years and has taken its rightful place among my lifelong favorites. I am shocked that I never read this book before—how is this possible! I loved the book so much, I immediately went out and got it for my sister for her birthday so she could read it, too:

I love this city. We came home from a short trip away the other night and it was late and we were hungry and so we stopped at a pizza place a block from our apartment. I loved that it was so close to home and open and fast and waiting for me with a fresh pie out of the oven. That slice of pizza just hit the spot, you know? It was perfection. Sometimes it’s the simple things.

Yesterday I had a terrible, horrid headache, but I’m recovering now. So if I haven’t pushed all my friends and blog readers away by my grumpy silence, do tell: How do you crush your blahs?