The Weekly Catch Up

19 small things I want you to know about writing + summer.

Do you ever feel like you have so much to tell a friend that you don’t know where to begin? And then you start talking and you get so excited to get it all out that it bounds out of you in a sprint. That’s kind of how I’m feeling today: hyper, excited, buoyant, nostalgic. So here’s what’s been on my mind.

• I love seeing the sunflowers turn their faces to the sun in big open fields. This might sound funny but they really feel like old friends waving hello.

• When I woke up this morning and went on the deck with my over-sugary coffee, the air was warm but cool and soft. I thought: “It feels like the Vineyard.”

• I’m obsessed with this shirt.

• My 11-year-old was Mary Poppins in “Mary Poppins.” Cue the tissues. It was my favorite movie as a kid, and if you could have told my 12-year-old self that one day I’d have a sweet, smart and confident daughter star in the play as Mary, I would have never believed you. Full circle moment.

• My husband and I have planted so many flowers in our backyard garden that it’s exploding with color. The bright fuchsia blooms of our clematis vines are climbing the side of our garage. Japanese spirea glow hot pink along the deck. My rose garden along one side of our white picket fence are a mix of reds and pale pinks. Yarrow is as yellow as the sun. Blooming soon: I just planted a giant hibiscus.

• I’m terrified of the television show “Widow’s Bay,” even if it’s the series of the summer—When Pennywise chased Matthew Rhys through the crawlspace, I had to hide my eyes, and then I jumped when I saw a shadow in the living room. It was my 16-year-old.

• My 16-year-old is leaving for a three week arts camp in the midwest, and I think I just need to get used to it, him leaving us. He’s getting older and the years are flying and he just took a big math final and he came out of his brick school building grinning at me. “I think I crushed it,” he said. How does a boy’s big goofy smile always melt a mother’s heart?

• I started researching my 2028 book.

• I sold my summer 2027 novel. Cartwheels.

• We’re throwing my daughter a small graduation party where a hibachi chef is going to cook in our backyard. This excites me more than anything. Open wide!

• I’m reading and LOVING the tender-hearted Bug Hollow by Michelle Uneven. Final chapter to be finished today.

• I’m 80 percent finished listening to The Calamity Club, and it’s such a captivating historical fiction story it’s making me want to write something equally ambitious.

• My daughter is still in school and won’t finish until NEXT Thursday. Why does it feel like the rest of America is already finished with the grind?

• The Knicks won the championship, and somehow it feels like I won it too. It had been a very long drought and in that sense, my New York team was actually the underdog.

• I’m counting down the days until we get to the North Fork. There’s nothing better than letting your dogs run free on the beach early in the morning and late in the afternoon. Get me on the sand.

• Is anyone else loving the Olivia Rodrigo song “Drop Dead”? It’s been on repeat in our house.

• My writer pal, Eliza Knight, just had a new book come out and I blurbed it. It’s called Lost in the Summer of ‘69 and the mother/daughter story in it is totally worth the read. Eliza and I are both Terps, and I love her books.

• I can’t wait to read Whistler by Ann Patchett, along with every other Patchett fan this summer. Why does Ann Patchett feel like everyone’s favorite aunt?

• Last, should I buy these sandals? I’ve already bought another pair of Jellies and I’m Jelly obsessed. Do you all remember wearing them as a kid?