 As someone who works at home and lives in a small town, I often seek out situations online where I can be part of a community of like-minded folk who are also involved in the business of writing and reading. What I find, though, is that often these interactions create more anxiety and distraction than if I just hide in my bubble.
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 This is the state I've been in for a while now. I'm literally 1/2 way through two completely unrelated novel manuscripts, I still find myself looking at job ads that come across my virtual desk and think "I could probably get that job," and I keep thinking that I should start working in earnest on the non-fiction project(s) I've been putting off. Time to set up some concrete goals and get back to work.
I've vacillated in the past: Stay in Kindle Unlimited? Or go wide (meaning my books are available in eBook formats and from retailers other than Amazon). A year ago, I made the decision that I would be exclusive with Amazon and KU. I pulled my books in the Olivia Chronicles out from every other seller, and I planned to publish Elegant Freefall exclusively with Amazon.
Starting March 16, you will find Elegant Freefall at all major retailers of eBooks, as well as being available for libraries to loan through OverDrive when they purchase a library copy. The Olivia Chronicles books will be available April 20. So, why am I going wide again? Lots of reasons. And none of them really have anything to do with money.
Lately, it seems every week brings a new story--or two--about plagiarists, literary frauds, or just simple pretenders. And, while I look forward to watching Can You Ever Forgive Me? this weekend (yay, RedBox), I am incredibly conflicted about the whole thing, especially now that such scams are probably easier than ever to perpetrate.
Essays
Who's Coming to Dinner? (Spring 2016) Making the Most of Being a Lame-Duck Resident's Wife. (Fall 2016) Everybody's Business. (Winter 2018) Reviews AMA Guide of Medical Ethics (Spring 2017) Dreamland: The True Story of America's Opioid Crisis by Sam Quinones (Fall 2017) Love in the Time of Medical School by Sarah Epstein (Winter 2018) Memoirs of a Surgeon’s Wife: I’m Throwing Your Damn Pager into the Ocean by Megan Sharma (Fall 2018) Healer's Heart: A Family Physician's Stories of the Heart and Art of Medicine. by Pamela Camosy (Spring 2018) Forthcoming Review of The Thriving Physician: How to Avoid Burnout by Choosing Resilience Throughout Your Medical Career by Simonds & Sotile. Physician Family Blog Posts "Welcome to Resident Widowhood." Physician Family Blog. July 5, 2017 http://old.physicianfamilymedia.org/welcome-to-resident-widowhood/ “Match Making.” Physician Family Blog. March 2, 2016.http://old.physicianfamilymedia.org/http:/old.physicianfamilymedia.org/match-making/ (Reprint from my The Other Half blog). “Between arriving and leaving.” Physician Family Blog. January 26, 2016.http://old.physicianfamilymedia.org/http:/old.physicianfamilymedia.org/between-arriving-and-leaving/ (Reprint from myThe Other Half blog). Podcast Childless by Choice on Married to Doctors Podcast. (May 2018)  I'm not even certain when I started the kitchen sampler in the photo above, but I'm guessing no later than 1993 or so. Now some 25+ years later, I finished it, framed it, and sent it to its new home. I am glad to see it go to someone who wants it and who knows the person I've become since then.
 I do love Tig Notaro. And I love Cameron Esposito. The two of them together are almost too much for me. If you don't have the time to listen to the whole episode, be sure to listen starting around 45 minutes in. Tig, like me, is "inching up on 50" and shares that she knows what she ""put in to get" what she has, even though it didn't happen the way she thought it would.
 I don't really do resolutions. I do make plans, though, and I do a lot of reflection on the previous year. That's what I've spent the first few days of 2019 doing.
 I am sure I've complained in the past about access. Recently, I was flattered to receive a message requesting a copy of an essay I had in The Yeats Eliot Review back in 1999. The article wasn't available digitally to the grad student who was lucky enough to be at my alma mater and working with Dr. Jonathan Barron. He suggested to her that she contact me and see if I could help her. Fortunately, I answered the FB message and had a copy of the essay and a scanner. In return for my essay, she sent me a copy of her work, and for a brief moment, I felt connected to my field again.
I certainly don't feel that connection right now as I start making plans for research in 2019. 
This week, Cindy Hyde Smith was elected to office in Mississippi, even though she made statements about attending public hangings and voter suppression. In response, I'm seeing a lot of folks on the internet call for a Mississippi boycott. Here are my thoughts on that issue. Let's take a pause and consider what that would really mean and what we can see from the election results. For instance, what if the rest of the world decided to boycott the United States after the last presidential election? Would that be fair to those of us who voted differently?
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