My mood broke with the
weather and I realized that
summer depressed me.
Sweet September
In September, the house is sheathed with spiderwebs. At every corner of every window they build their deadly, gossamer castles and lie in wait, bloated and insatiable.
Crane flies perch and hover at windows and doors. Fledglings pick at the seeds of weeds I’ve left to grow unchecked all the hot summer long.
Grasshoppers munch, leap, munch, leap, fly.
Some flowers are spent.
Others are just beginning to bloom.
Others send out a few last blooms as an encore to June’s performance.
The nights are growing longer minute by minute.
Everything that flies or crawls or hops is preparing for the harder, colder season ahead.
Even me.
I finally trim back the overgrown and uproot the unwanted.
I remember how much I like tea.
I go on a real grocery shopping trip.
School has begun. Summer, for all intents and purposes, has ended.
And I am not sorry to see it go.
I never am.
On Looking Thirty
The window in which we actually want to look our age is rather small, isn’t it? When we’re young, we long to be older. When we’re older, we long to be younger.
But all we ever are, for good or ill, is what we are. Even if we don’t always look it. <– Click there or on the image below for the latest episode of Your Face Is Crooked.
Woman, in Italics
Bullies. Queen Bees. Frenemies. Whatever you call them, lots of us have had them in our lives. Here’s a little something about mine.
What do I have in common with both Olympic athletes and old ladies?
More than you might think…
Click the image above or right here for the latest episode of Your Face Is Crooked.
New Paintings in the Shop!
There are seven new paintings in the shop, and several markdowns on others so I can make room for more in the coming months.
Here’s what’s new:
Head on over to Erin’s Artful Life to see more. It’s not too early to start thinking about holiday gift giving. (Well, it is, but I encourage you to do so all the same.)
How to Be a (Mild) Rebel
It’s Monday morning, which can only mean one thing — a new episode of Your Face Is Crooked!
This week, I make a subversive fashion choice to assert my independence.
Click the image (or right here) to listen.
Boys & Girls
I attended my 20th high school reunion on Saturday. It was a blast. It was great to see old friends and catch up, great to be in my hometown, great to be offered Manischewitz by a friend’s dad.
So it’s appropriate, I guess, that this week’s episode of Your Face Is Crooked happens to be about school (middle school, though, not high school). I saw a few of the boys I’d “gone with” (early 1990s dating parlance, which didn’t necessarily mean you had ever gone anywhere with each other beyond walking down the hall at school) back then. Blessedly, several others I didn’t see.
Click here or on the graphic below for the ep.
#Debut19Chat starts today!
After I sold my debut novel and got a 2019 pub date, I joined a group of other writers on Facebook whose debut novels are coming out in 2019. The writers in this group are all writers of adult or new adult fiction. They are men and women of various backgrounds writing in various genres — contemporary, historical, sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, romance, and more. We’ve been holding each other up, comparing notes, reassuring each other, and answering one another’s questions for months as we’ve gone through the process of getting edits, seeing galleys, seeing cover designs, etc. It’s been an awesome resource and a great source of encouragement to all of us.
Starting today, you get to meet them!
If you love to read and you want to be up on the up-and-comers, head over to Twitter and follow the #DebutAuthors19 and #Debut19Chat hashtags. Starting today and every day throughout the month of August, we’ll be introducing ourselves, talking about our books and our publishing journeys, and giving you an inside look at what’s coming to bookstores in 2019.
Hopefully, you’ll find several great new books to add to your Goodreads shelf and/or pre-order.
I’ve already added my post for day 1. Go see who else is tweeting!
How do you know if you’ve gotten the right fortune cookie?
Yesterday’s episode of Your Face Is Crooked, in which I consider the inherent risks and rewards of grabbing the first fortune cookie. Click on the graphic to listen.
Oddly enough, I ate Chinese food last night and was not even given a fortune cookie. I had not considered the implications of that phenomenon before recording this episode. 
Erin Bartels 
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