Wild Thing: new animal short story out today + a bonus doodle!

My new short story, "On Pasture," was published today and features a bull as one of its main characters. For paid subscribers, I've got your monthly bonus doodle coming in...well, cold.

This morning I woke with a heating pad on my face.

With an hour and a half to meet my running group at Central Park to complete the six-mile outer loop, I had a familiar conversation with myself in my head: Am I doing this out of care for myself? Or is this work?

Our Wednesday meet-up was canceled due to black ice, and my neighborhood has been covered in ice since then making training runs improbable, so was it even smart to push through for a long run? I’m still nursing a foot injury from December.

Work is on my mind because the colleges I teach at open on Monday, and I’ve enjoyed the loose days I’ve filled with doing a rewrite on my book for the past month. As many creatives know, there’s an odd dance we do between love and labor, between care and cranking it out, that nobody, at least for me, taught me the steps to. But running is something that offers to me a consistent, although quickly forgotten, lesson, one that is often easier for me to live out in my body than through my mind: I can go further than I can imagine.

So, I put on my cold weather gear and got on the train north to the park.

When I returned home, I was reminded that the community anthology my new short story, “To Pasture,” was selected for back in the fall is out today. The collection contains some seriously wonderful writing working through…work. The anthology was edited by Sarah Madges for The Seventh Wave, and Sarah also happened to recently do a generous and smart read-through of the novel I’ve been living in this past month after how much I enjoyed the edits on this piece.

For those employed by any industry, especially those who make money from their passion, this issue goes in some extraordinary places, and I’m grateful to be just one voice in the chorus.

My story is called “To Pasture,” and follows a young film PA in Queens who is tasked with housing the studio’s in-house bull as their environmental game show is investigated for animal welfare violations.

All of this put me in the mood to do something essentially silly, which is to make a new doodle for you all. As I sat on the phone with my mom, I pulled out my pens and started to sketch the sweet little winter owl pair I got myself around the holidays because…well, look at them.

While the final doodle will be shared below the paywall (ha, we are talking about WORK after all?), I’m really excited to share my new podcast episode next week with all of my subscribers. The monthly essay to accompany it will also be readable for all.

As a reminder, those two things always comes out the Final Friday of the month, and the paid content begins the Monday after. There are trials and referral programs to make all of this more affordable for you if the subscription fee is too much. Just know, however you choose to be here, I’m so grateful :) and I hope these sweet owls warm you up.