So you might have noticed that there’s nothing here anymore.

But I’m not gonna talk about that yet.

There’s this girl I know— personally, I’m not that fond of her, but we sort of live together so I’m stuck with the kid—who exists in the conflux between praise and fear. Her self-worth is a malfunctioning pendulum, shoved every which way by clumsy hands until she hides her face in her arms and tries to pretend she hasn’t forgotten what honesty is. Somewhere, she realizes that the teenage demigods of literature haven’t got much more than a prettier case for the insecurities (and a few bloody hearts drawn out on their floors), but she knows that she’ll just keep turning her mind around the marginal lathe in a botched-up attempt to make them happy. She’s melted her fingertips in pursuit of something she doesn’t even respect, and the world is going numb.

Last night, she woke up and changed her mind.

Over the next few months, I intend to focus on settling around the concept of college, stretching out my cover-letter-writing wings, and finishing up this young-adult novel (mainly because I’m over it already and ready to move on to the next project!) I guarantee that those of you who might want to keep up with my outside life already have my contact information, and, as always, I’ll read/share anything that you guys might want to share/see. Send me links! Send me word docs! I’ll fangirl/critique/thumbs up/whatever the situation calls for. I love love love the artistic dialogue here; I just wish that “here” was more of a professional discussion circle and less of a high school cafeteria.

And before you ask, yeah, I considered leaving it all here and just taking a break. Problem is, that girl’s starving and lonely, and it won’t take long before she wraps a fist around my nerves and comes crawling back on her knees, begging for validation.

I’m teaching her to stand—she’s learning, but it won’t happen here.