Stacy Horn

I just updated the Events page with a few new events that have been scheduled for my book. I also learned that there’s going to be a review of my book in the New York Times on July 1!! Getting a review in the Times is a big deal and I am SO excited!! This is everything I’d hoped for. Except me being me, I’m terrified about getting a bad review. I’m going to be a complete and absolute wreck until it comes out. Ohgod, ohgod, ohgod. But YAY!!

I didn’t have my camera with me so I didn’t get a great shot, but I was walking behind these nuns yesterday, and it made me realize I never see nuns anymore. Researching the history of one nun for my book made me reflect on nuns I have known. Not a lot of them, and they could be terrifying, but they were also great teachers. It made me sad to think of them disappearing. Come back nuns! Church: be more supportive of them!!

I wrote about singing with the Virtual Choir in my book Imperfect Harmony. If you are not familiar with Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir, watch this (the video I linked to has been removed, it was a Ted Talk given by Eric Whitacre, if you want to google it). It’s a great talk and a moving introduction to a unique singing experience. Now is the time to give the Virtual Choir a try! Eric Whitacre specifically wrote music that any singer could sing. It’s just a few bars and the music couldn’t be simpler.

Six years ago I made a video of myself singing. I wanted to see how bad I looked singing. Now I look at it and I can’t believe how I’ve aged in only six years! Oh well. At least I’m still here!

For the past week I’ve been trying to write an op-ed and I’ve been mostly paralyzed by a crisis of confidence. There are three publications I admire most and I have the opportunity to write an op-ed for one of them, which is great. It doesn’t mean that what I write will be accepted, but I have the chance! Except I keep starting and then I stop, after finding something more urgent that must be done. Like making a new litter box for my cats, which is what I did on Thursday, the last day I had a chunk of time to write.

Then this morning, another op-ed I wrote about bringing back asylums came out. I re-read it immediately. When I got to the end my first thought was, “I can’t believe I wrote that!”

Maybe I can do that again. I’ve got a free day to write.

Santa Cruz Noir is a new book of short stories edited by Susie Bright! “Bright joins the ranks of Akashic editors to rip the lid off the California coastal town that’s never seemed less laid-back.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A few [stories] spotlight surfing, a few more feature psycho killers on the loose, and others offer magical overtones.” —Publishers Weekly

From Susie’s blog: “It’s 20 addictive short stories on the dark side … with no moral compass whatsoever.” It’s her first new book in five year—congratulations Susie!!

The ASPCA is starting a big push to find fosters for kittens this season. They’re calling it Meow for Now. Having kittens in the house is the best mood-enhancer. If you follow Paris Zarcilla’s tweets you’ll see exactly what I mean. A cat made its way into his apartment and had kittens, and his delight in finding himself a “father” is just irresistible. An example. You can scroll up to see more. Everything is better when kittens are in the house.

If you follow Hannah Shaw, aka the Kitten Lady, she’s going to talk live about it on Instagram at 2:30 EST today.

This is either Bodhi or Bali, kittens I fostered-to-adopt. The ASPCA calls it that when you’re fostering kittens under 8 weeks old, but you plan to adopt them. You can’t adopt a kitten until it’s old enough, but you can foster kittens at any age. That’s called foster-to-adopt. For me the younger the better, I love bottle feeding kittens.