Today is one week to the day since I turned in my next book’s manuscript to my editor, and I think I’m finally detoxed from the cortisol running through my body that was needed to get me over the finish line. For days afterward, I was knee-jerk jittery about meeting a deadline that didn’t exist; my body hadn’t yet caught up with my calendar that said I already did, indeed, meet that deadline and it was okay to go ahead and calm the heck down.
But I’m good now. Other than teaching my high school humanities class yesterday, I’ve enjoyed much saner days, and now I also have a week off of teaching for our fall break. I’ve got a stack of essays to grade, but otherwise, I plan to mop the entire house (oof, does it need it), give the backyard some attention (it’s been neglected for months now), and probably tinker with one of the many house projects on my eternal list (life in a 1935 fixer-upper for the win). I also plan to dust off my novel manuscript, which I’d set aside for most of 2025 to get this other book written, and I’m genuinely looking forward to getting back to it.
I’m also thinking about the future of my other work here: you know, this newsletter, my podcast, and the like. I always reflect on my creative endeavors whenever I have a season of shifting my usual rhythms, but it’s been a long while since I’ve really taken a heartfelt inventory of all the different plates I spin. And It’s been an even longer while since I asked you about you.
I have a favor to ask you, as a reader of The Commonplace: would you please answer a few of my questions? You’ll remain completely anonymous, and you can answer as many or as few of them as you like (they’re also all multiple choice; no need to overthink with essay answers here).
Learning info from those who partake of any portion of my work—such as you—will help me reflect on and plan my next steps, and I’d be very, very grateful.
Your answers always surprise me, in all the right ways—it was probably over a decade now when I first discovered that my readership tends to span a very wide age range, from teenagers to grandmothers, and I’m curious if that remains the same. I’m also quite curious as to how you’ll answer my questions about how you engage with the internet these days ...I know that’s changed for me personally over the past few years.
As for me—today, I’m going to start drafting an essay I’ve had in my mind for a few weeks. Maybe grade an essay or three. And then, I’m going to continue sipping my coffee, listen to my dog snore next to me, and clean out that drawer that’s asking for it. You know which one it is. It’s that one, over there.
-Tsh