Infections, Flares, and a Feeding Tube: My Tumultuous Summer 2026
It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that summer and I just don’t mesh well. Summer 2024 served as the onset of the significant health problems that have more or less dominated my life since; the unprecedented heat of last summer provoked a multi-monthly POTS flare during which I struggled daily with dizziness, nausea, and fatigue; and as for this summer … well, it may just take the cake as the most troublesome, topsy-turvy summer thus far in this current chapter of my life known as Chronic Illness. In my last post–in March–I wrote that I hoped not to suffer a repeat of summer 2025 and be sidetracked from my writing
A Brief Life Update (Before I Begin a New Project!)
A couple of weeks ago, I discerned a concerning regression in my mental health: I was struggling to fall asleep amid racing, obsessive thoughts, and during the day felt compelled to bounce from one task to the next without ever giving myself time to simply be. Anxieties about things over which I have no control–climate change; AI; traditional publishing–resurfaced, and my focus and creativity both tanked. An analysis of my recent habits revealed to me that I’d been spending more time on YouTube than usual–not an exorbitant amount, mind, but enough so that its effects were apparent and destructive. Determined to reclaim the mental quietude that has been my saving
The Year I Fell in Love with Classic Literature
This is ordinarily when I’d compose writeups for the best books I read over the course of the year; however, I consumed so many incredible novels in 2025 that I’d be hard-pressed to decide which eight or ten I enjoyed the most (and I sincerely doubt I’d have the capacity to come up with twenty-odd blurbs). Since reclaiming my love of literature several years ago, my literary tastes have evolved almost as much as I have. At the beginning, I didn’t know what I liked; I hadn’t read regularly in four or five years–the result of a technology addiction as well as a general dissatisfaction with the young adult genre–and
Managing Symptoms and Maintaining a Positive Mindset
It’s hard to believe that over two months have elapsed since my last post. I’ve been focusing most of my creative energy on finishing my work-in-progress, the stand-alone sequel to the YA book that’s presently out on submission with agents, and have had neither the time nor capacity to tackle smaller projects. Now that the manuscript is about 99.8 percent complete, however, with only a few minor edits left to go, I can finally attend to all that I’ve had to place on the back burner, including this blog. I’m excited to dive back into short stories in the coming months, as well as to write some personal essays about
Food Frustrations and Query Preparations
I sometimes feel as if I’m destined to always have a dysfunctional relationship with food. Granted, growing up my relationship with food was pretty typical–and there was a period in my early twenties, shortly after I went vegan, when I genuinely enjoyed food and reaped the benefits of a nourished body and mind. But I don’t really remember the former, and the latter lasted so briefly that, in the scheme of things, it seems like a mere drop in the ocean, a fleeting taste of what could have been–and what I now fear will never again be. I’m hopeful that time will prove otherwise; however, in the indefinite interim, food
Surviving the Summer with Chronic Illness
I recently read Thomas Mann’s 1924 classic, The Magic Mountain, which tells the story of a young German man’s prolonged stay at an international sanitorium at the turn of the 20th Century. The sanitorium is located high up in the Swiss Alps: a beautiful setting that boasts fresh, clear air and peace of mind. It got me thinking how much I’d like a Magic Mountain to which I could retreat during the summer, in particular, and forgo the insufferable heat and humidity of the flatlands for a relaxing sojourn in a cool place. Despite the much-welcome quiet afforded by my new home in Southern Vermont, the climate here is virtually