On Dragons, and A Year That Was Meant To Be Bad Luck

Plus Patrick Stewart, and what's keeping librarians up at night.

Dragons

I didn’t buy this only because it sort of makes me feel like Jareth, of Goblin King, tight pants fame.

I’ve always liked having my Chinese zodiac be a dragon. Dragons are cool, right? I was born on the last day of 1988, so—Year of the Dragon.

This year—2024—is also the Year of the Dragon. That means it’s supposed to be my year, right?

Unfortunately…no. In fact, it’s meant to be the opposite. When your zodiac year comes back around, it portends bad luck, instability, and setbacks.

I’m not really into astrology of any kind, although I love stargazing, and I definitely did not mind all the dragon-y stuff at the China pavilion in EPCOT. (Get ready, Snakes!)

But this did get me thinking. Because, honestly…2024 didn’t feel like my year.

I definitely wouldn’t say it was a terrible year by any means. Nothing dramatic or awful happened. In fact, quite a few great things happened (Like having not one but two books come out—that’s pretty wonderful!)

But 2024, for this dragon, was…slow.

Much of the really productive writing work on the two books released this year happened last year. I did not write a new middle grade novel or a new screenplay or make terribly much progress on the adult novel I started last year.

It’s been a bit of an interesting health year, which is a significant reason for this slowness. (When I told a friend this, she asked how old I was and then said, yep, your warrenty just expired, and I thought that was about perfect.)

This year I:

• Participated in 2 sleep studies (one at home, one recent in-lab) and I’m hopeful that this will go a long way towards finding answers. I took a picture which I will not post here, to spare you all from the Matrix-creature vibes.¹

• Started physical therapy and discovered a surprising but true love of long walks.

• Began the process of getting to the right cardiologist, including current figuring-out-insurance questions. (Nothing dramatic, but with a congenital heart defect I need to be proactive.)

• Got a plant in February and it’s still alive!

• Honestly, watched so many incredible movies and shows. I am begging, begging, begging you all to go find Professor T.

• Snuggled a lot.

For those of you who know the Gallup Strengsthfinder assessment, you’ll know what I mean when I say that with Achiever as my #6 it’s not easy for me to feel, as I told my friend, that I’m operating at 10% of my optimal Leslie Knope levels. (Nobody likes that feeling, of course!)

But looking back, the right projects did happen this year, and I’m incredibly grateful to the villages of people that helped me with them:

• I was asked to write another chapter book about a girl with Turner syndrome. I believe this is still a secret project, but I will be able to talk about it soon. And here’s the thing—the writing of this chapter book flowed like warm butter. It felt so natural and me. I was still anxious as ever when I turned in the first draft, but then my editor told me it felt like Judy Blume and I about died of happy. I am so, so grateful for that, and for this particular writing experience this year.

• I finally had some breakthroughs on a picture book about Turner syndrome that I’ve wanted to write for years. Now me and my incredible agent are polishing it up for submission.

• I got asked to participate in a spooky middle grade short story anthology. (Also more on that soon!)

• And like I said, I was lucky enough to publish my fourth middle grade novel, plus a writing guide for young writers with three of my utterly incredible writing friends. And not to brag, but my mom said Monster Tree is her new favorite of my four books, so you should buy it.

Both of these would make excellent stocking stuffers for the middle grade readers and young writers in your life!

The most important thing that happened, however, maybe happened because of the slow pace itself.

In a lot of ways, I feel like I started this year with a spinning compass. A sort of flaily feeling. Not even in a bad way—in sort of a, ooh, look, shiny, I want to do all the things sort of way. Well, in this year of not really being able to do all the things, the compass has…slowed. It’s started to stop spinning.

It’s started to point somewhere.

Since finishing Monster Tree, if I’m honest with myself, my middle-grade well has felt a bit dry. Now I feel it slowly filling again. I feel my illustration practice starting to focus. I can see direction on some script projects that have needed revisions for…over a year. I feel much more certain about the kinds of projects I want to write. I’m even clearer on what I want to do here in the newsletter.

My feet can sense more groundedness beneath me in more personal areas too. I know more people here in Orlando. I am talking to more guys on the (utterly stupid) dating app than I have before, with less anxiety than I did before. There are some other creative things my 10 year old self has always wanted to do, and for 2025, I’m feeling ready to try.

This silly little dragon might have needed a rest, but maybe that rest has taught it what treasure it really wants to hoard, and now—I hope—it’s starting to wake up.

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10 Sides from the Buffet

1. If you’re wondering about picture book structure, then check out this super helpful outline from Kidlit411. It goes through various picture book genres and outlines page-by-page how they might be structured. Personally, I find these kind of guidelines very helpful.

2. If you’re looking for newsletter strategies that feel authentic and natural for you then I highly recommend this podcast episode from

   Claire Venus (she/her) ✨
   and
   Linda @ Substack
   about leaning into your unique genius.

3. What’s keeping librarians up at night? Well,

   Erin Becker
   has the answers, and it’s a fascinating read. I was not shocked at all by the love for graphic novels, but quite surprised at how much librarians use a certain tool for book discovery.

4. This list of pet dog names from the middle ages was just too much fun. I think perhaps my favorite one is Makehitgood. I hear it in Patrick Stewarts voice.

5. Speaking of Patrick Stewart…

6. This is a fascinating post from

   Counter Craft
   about the specific ways prose changes when we write it as if it’s playing on a TV screen, and the differences between what TV and prose can do well and what they can’t.

7. This comics blind accessibility project from

   Sunday Haha
   is so, so cool! I hope we see a lot more of this kind of thing in the future.

8. I’m often at a loss for words to describe the sort of ineffible differences between age categories and genres in literature, but some writers hit it spot on. Maggie Tokuda-Hall has an excellent post about the differences between YA and Middle grade and

   Maggie Stiefvater
   has an excellent recent post about YA vs Adult. Honestly really enlightening.

9. This interview with Fred Rogers on Letterman is one of the most soothing things I’ve seen in a long time. God bless the Fred Rogers of the world.

10. And to close off our talk of the Year of the Dragon, here’s an absolutely delightful recommendation for you. I’ve only read the first bit, but I plan to get back to it soon when I can get my hands on another copy, because the voice in this is truly spectacular.

    

How about you? What is your Chinese zodiac, and do you have a favorite book that features that animal?

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Teachers, librarians, and homeschool parents, I would love to do a free virtual Q&A with your class or book group! If you’re interested in scheduling a visit you can reach out to me via my website. Let me know how I can support you! I’ve also got free classroom resources to accompany each book. You guys are rock stars!

Thanks for reading!

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Thanks for coming along everyone! 1) Subscribe, 2) get a copy of the book bebes, and 3) keep glowing, you shining star you.

-Sarah

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1. As I wrote this, I got the results from the sleep study and they were *drumroll*…inconclusive lol. More specifically, my sleep efficiency was so poor that it can “underestimate the severity of sleep-disordered breathing” and so they want me to come back in again, but this time do it on drugs. Woopee!