“Randomness is not the domain of pessimists. It’s empty soil, a blank slate. The profound rarity that you ever came to be at all! That you are you as opposed to any other billion permutations of this microscopic lottery, that I am me. Despite it all, here you are, as you are.”

I’m at the ever-excellent Modern Loss community with my why-and-how of Animal Husbandry for Dragons: How will I stop either spitting or swallowing fire every time someone asks how I’m doing? Heat, loves. Heat is where fortitude grows.

The second clip from Penguin Random House Audio is live! “Having given anger a voice, you’ll grow a deeper appreciation and sensitivity to things suddenly feeling peaceful. You’ll get there faster, and laugh louder when you do. Ask any punk.”

I’m over at Modern Loss with a fresh take on resolutions: “Bracing yourself for a new year without someone important? Kate Inglis offers four ways to grieve differently in 2019 (hint: before it ebbs, it has to rage). This is one to share the hell out of...”

The wonderful PRH Audio is releasing excerpts of the audiobook, as read by me in a three-day marathon inside a little black cave-room in Nova Scotia. Reading aloud, re-living, time-travelling. And feeling very much with you, with us.

Hey! I’m on CTV Morning Live Atlantic talking about how to navigate grief with an open heart. It’s the day before my first life-after-death salon, tomorrow night in Halifax—a spirited evening I hope will happen more than once.

The Coast covered the run-up to my salon in Halifax this Monday night, and it’s wonderful. Steph knows grief, and as a fellow novelist, she asked: is it taxing to retread raw ground when I talk about the book? Yes. But everyone else has some, too.

NOTES FOR THE EVERLOST is in the world and I am on the moon. Kind of stunned, if I’m being honest, that eleven years of pain and growth and love and blood and sweat have culminated in something you can hold in your hands.

The third video reading—direct to you from the closet!—is on the silver lining of a heart full of holes. All the things that work exactly as they’re supposed to thanks to their holes: sponges, souffles, the foam inside lifejackets. And me, and you.

The second video reading from the book—on strength—is all about fluidity over bruce force, with public domain treasures that fit the words. Not muscle, but flow. That’s the way to life again, and I like thinking about that. I hope you do, too.