THIS IS IT. The story of the little fox has come to its end; we must now leave the fox to pursue his own destiny, absent our watchful eyes or his own lingering childhood neuroses. Perhaps we will check in on him someday. Perhaps, perhaps. This was fun for me! I hope you enjoyed it.

Friends, it has been a big week for publicity for me. I’m on the cover of the Tucson Weekly, and they printed an interview & an excerpt from The Daughters. This is very cool! The guys at the Italian deli I like (shoutout to Roma Imports & their impeccable meatball sub) recognized me from this! Glorioski.

Also, my segment on Arizona Public Media aired on Friday, and you can listen to it here. (I’m told I appear between 22:37 to 14:45 in the August 5th stream.) I’m incredibly grateful about all the ways I’ve been able to connect with the local community through my residency at the Pima County Library. It’s been such a lot of fun, and it’s hard to believe there’s less than a month left!

In non-solipsistic news, here are a couple of great essays to check out:

• “How to Survive as an American Writer in Bulgaria” by Allegra Hyde, in the Lit Hub. This is a moving account of the shiftlessness & fear, self-doubt and lonely tenacity that accompanies the process of writing one’s first book, not to mention being just out of grad school. Allegra’s book is available for pre-order here, btw!
• “In Defense of Villainesses” by Sarah Gailey, for Tor.com. This is just delightful.