Newsletter 9: Sunglasses and Salutations

February 2024

Every time I’ve gone on a walk the last two months, I’ve ended up taking my sunglasses off because the world seemed too dark. And I almost didn’t wear them today because I was beginning to wonder if I had made up my need for them entirely. But as soon as the sun emerged from behind the clouds, I was so grateful I had thrown them on out of habit. I remembered that, yes, the sun is very bright, it can be sharply bright when at an angle, and that sunglasses, which I have worn since I chanced upon a lost pair back in college, are indeed a very good and helpful accessory.

Maybe my sun-forgetfulness sounds silly. Maybe it sounds like the lack of sun addled my brain and common sense. But, at least in my own life, I don’t find this experience to be an odd one. I find that often a pattern doesn’t need to have existed for too long before I begin to assume it is always going to be this way. It will always be gray, I’ll always be a bit depressed, I’m always going to be a morning person (after getting up early only two days in a row).

Sometimes this is good. Like the time, sixteen years ago, when my dental hygienist told me to floss or I would get a lot more cavities (which I did not have insurance to pay for) and that all it would take was a month of daily flossing for it to become a habit. Now, I can count on one hand the days I’ve skipped flossing.

But it can also hinder my life as well. A bit too much social media convinces me everyone else always has perfect teeth, skin, homes, lives. Or steeping in the extremist views our country has divided into can tip me into assuming it will always be like this, we’ll always be fighting. Eating ice cream after every meal to finish up a carton becomes buying another carton because now it's the new meal plan. Or, possibly the worst of all, not letting myself be fully present with my loved ones or myself in a simple moment of beauty because I forget it won't always be like this.

All this from a pair of sunglasses?, you might ask. Yup. Welcome to my brain. 🤪 But for me, this sunglasses moment is another touchstone in my life. Another small and simple reminder to breathe through the tough moments, breathe in the beautiful ones, and rest in the moments between. It strengthens the understanding that life is a series of moments, of shifts, of remembering the sun will come out. And, it’s also a moment to be very thankful to the person who lost their sunglasses at that rave twenty-four years ago, so I could learn that driving directly into the sun while squinting, unsunglassed, has always been a painfully ridiculous undertaking.

Welcome!

I want to take a minute to welcome all of you who are new to Petra Glyphs this month! I’m so happy you’re here. It’s really cool to watch the map of readers begin to fill-in from around the world. Thank you for being interested in my stories, poems, and novels-in-progress. :)

Are We There Yet?

This month has been full of writing poems. But I have managed to get in a very small amount of editing on Lucky (my working title for my spicy romance novel), which feels like a reasonable amount amidst writing a poem a day.

In other book news,

Adam Lombard

and I have made a pretty big decision about Manly Hero, Book One in The Discovery of Legends series. We are going to be getting rid of our joint pen name (Adrastus Rood), and instead publishing our co-writing under both our names. We’ve been talking about making this change for years (no exaggeration), and we’ve finally decided to just move ahead. This makes sense to us for two reasons: Firstly, as we are getting ready to publish our own solo novels, we can have name congruency across our work. Secondlier, the amount of times people have been confused about our pen name (and its pronunciation), or tried to find our book under our real names, is not a small number. So we’re hoping this will help with the ease of readers finding our work.

However, there is a downside: Amazon does not allow an author to change their name without republishing the book. And that means we will lose all the beautiful reviews (I wrote about one of them here) and ratings we’ve received so far. And the one awesome one-star review I wrote about as well.

Since we’ll be starting from scratch on Amazon, we figured, why not take some time to both re-edit the book and reskin it. So, the next few months will be filled with fine comb edits, searching for a new cover artist, a new cover designer, and rereleasing the book, hopefully by the end of the year. We won’t be taking the current edition down from sale sites until we have republished the updated edition, in case you feel like checking it out. And we are still working on book two, as well. So no fear, we’re moving forward. :)

If you know of any skilled cover artists and/or designers I’d love for you to either send me an email with their website or share their website in the comments.

#FebruaryPoetryAdventure

This month has been amazing! I have been blown away by the poems everyone has been sharing. I am lucky enough to be able to read most of the posted poems, as well as to have some dm’d, texted, and read to me personally. So I get to see a lot of really beautiful, honest, brave creativity from so many of you. I’m also really lucky to live and be partnered with an amazing poet who beautifully pens our lives into poems I will cherish my whole life. 

I do not take any of this for granted. 

Thank you for writing poems (shared and unshared), sharing poems, reading other poets’ poems, liking the poems, and supporting each other in the comments. And for those of you that participated, take a moment to revel in how awesome you are for showing up in whatever way you have, and braving the honesty and exploration that comes with writing poetry.

If you want to check out the poems that have been shared publicly you can find the links to each day’s prompt in the post February Poetry Adventure Prompts. Most of the poems can be found in the comments under each day’s prompt. There are some great ones shared so if you have time and love poetry, dive in.

February Poetry Adventure Is Over, What’s Next?

Being creative is so much fun and such an interesting exploration. But sometimes we can get a bit stuck. And often, all we need is a small nudge or spark to get us back in the flow. I talk about my story prompt cards in my post Word Play. I love a good prompt, so I thought I would bring a few more to Substack.

Starting in March, I will be sharing one short story prompt and one poetry prompt every month in my Notes. I’ll be posting the short story prompt (a genre and a word) the first Thursday of every month, and the poetry prompt (a poetic style and a word) on the third Thursday of every month. Keeping with my ‘choose your own adventure’ theme, you can use whatever part of the prompt sparks something for you. And, as always, you’re welcome to post a link to your creation in the comments.

Bye For Now

Please pop into the comments and let me know something that has been bringing you joy this month. (My February moment of joy is snacking on Nature’s Bakery gluten-free raspberry and fig bars while I walk along the river. So much joy. 😀)

And may you enjoy the beautiful moments, survive the ones you can’t wait to be done, and rest in the reality that the sun will appear again, even if it doesn’t feel like it. 

Love you, Petra ❤️

P.S. Since several of you are new, and I always want to make sure I am respecting your time, I’m sharing the link to the Petra Glyphs subscription management page again. Adam (my partner and tech unicorn) has created this lovely how to manage your subscription page so you can choose what kind of posts you receive from me. I know every marketer would say ‘don’t give people a chance to opt out’ (I know this because I was a marketing minor in university), but I don’t care. You’re time is valuable, and I want our interaction to be meaningful for us both. So, feel free to tweak your subscription to whatever is best for you. :)

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Thanks for reading! As an indie author, I really appreciate your support. :)

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