Sometimes we forget the good things that happen because the bad ones feel so much bigger. In an effort to keep that phenomenon at bay, here are my five good things for this past week.

1. Yesterday, for the first time in a long while, I not only hit my word count goal but actually felt like I’d made appreciable progress. It was a glorious feeling. I have missed it greatly. Hopefully it continues for the next few days until I suddenly have a finished book!
2. Related to the above, my Entangled editor Kate Brauning continues to be epic and patient and encouraging. I am so happy I get to work with her, and I sincerely hope I can continue working with her for a long time to come.
3. My dear friend Tristina Wright got to share her words with the world recently! And this week, it opened up from just being available to subscribers to being readable by everyone. Which means you should go read it, because Siren Song is so amazingly beautiful, you guys.
4. I teach at a in-patient rehab center for teenagers with addiction and other issues. Over the summer I’ve been running a summer reading program, which I’ve done before. Previous incarnations didn’t achieve much in the way of new readers, but this year I had them all reading I am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells. I have never seen a group of students at this center so excited to read, and I have never been more grateful to an author for a book. Or for the perfect timing of a movie version of a book. They’re all looking forward to watching it on Monday! And, honestly, so am I. It looks amazing.
5. Thanks to the collected efforts of some authors on Facebook, I was able to find a short story I haven’t read since 2001! It’s stuck with me over the years, and I found myself thinking about it more than usual when I started lesson planning for the year, but I couldn’t remember the author, the title, or the anthology that I had originally read it in. Some sleuthing by some wonderful people didn’t just give me the title and author; I got a link to the full text of the story, too! It’s Velvet Fields by Anne McCaffrey for those interested. I highly recommend reading.