May had showers, too–lovely surprises. But then the Santa Ana winds swooped in, creating many fires everywhere, including on my family’s cherished Santa Rosa Island. The island’s Torrey Pines were burnt, but the majority survived? Torrey pines are critically endangered. They’re only found in San Diego and on Santa Rosa and the grove of Torrey pines on Santa Rosa is subtly magical. You must visit.

Finished two BSU assignments requiring any creative and creatively critical bits of my brain to merge in order to be taken seriously by professors. Begged both sides of my brain to please cooperate.

Resources: I was introduced to Emma Darwin’s substack: This Itch of Writing: Story/novel-building analyses via Emma’s canny, energetic writing. You might want to take a read and bookmark.

All semester new books were recommended to me. So far, I’ve read 3 (see pic w/puppy), however the 2 stacks of unread books on my nightstand remain skyscraper-ish.

June will be all about hurtling towards the conclusion of ‘Monster’, submissions, reading, reading, reading.

And breathing in America, Land of the WTH.

LMK if you’ve been to the channel islands. Include a picture if you like.

Yours in keeping on in the strangest of days,

PB