Love Letters - Vol. 2026, No. 3
Love letters from me to you about what I've been thinking about, playing with, and obsessing over. Updated weekly.
Hello hello!
It’s been a stressful week but I’m surviving. Still having some growing pains with my new self employment status. I have had several people reach out and yet somehow, no actual bookings. Just maybe and probably. Unfortunately, maybe and probably doesn’t give me a lot to work with when attempting to plan my life, nor does it bring in any money. I had a friend of a friend reach out to book me and it could be a good deal but the job is two states away and would take maybe a week or maybe six weeks. Or, you know, might not happen at all. Not the easiest thing to plan around.
I’m also feeling the unfortunate side effects of being a chronic procrastinator. Moving is so silly because if you pack up too early, you just sit in a pile of chaos for weeks before and in my case unpacking half of it because you need something from one of your boxes. But wait too late and you’re frantic and sweaty for days stressing about if everything is going to fall into place.
So all in all, I’ve been a wreck and my therapist got an earful during this week’s session.
I did manage to carve out some time away from trying to give myself a stress ulcer to read CG Drews’ Don’t Let The Forest In which is a fun little YA botanical horror. About a year ago I came across a fanfic about hanahaki, which is essentially a fictional disease where flowers grow inside one’s body due to unrequited love. And I was so excited! I thought damn, that’s a dope premise. Makes me think of that old ballad about Barbara Allen and her scorned lover who were together in death only as a red rose bush and a briar. But unfortunately I have not found a hanahaki fic that has quite worked for me. Usually it seems to be mostly a lot of coughing up flower petals.
Don’t Let The Forest In scratched the itch that none of those hanahaki fics managed to touch. There’s a lot of beautiful and terrible imagery of moss and vines and mushrooms growing where they should probably not be growing. Each page drips with plants and flowers and the book feels like cool dark earth and the moist place under a flipped over rock. I ate it up. Generally, I’m not a huge fan of books set at weird academies, but I was intrigued enough by the rest of the premise to overlook the boarding school setting. Essentially two boys, Andrew, a writer, and Thomas, an artist, who feed off each other’s creativity and are kind of obsessed with each other in sort of a “what are we” yearning pinning way. I do love me some yearning and pinning. There’s several layers of mystery, some scary monsters, some really strange wounds, and a deep obsession with the forest outside the school. Overall, very a fun read.
Well, I must get back to packing and stressing. Wishing you a great week ahead!
Much love,
Lucy
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