Greetings on this slightly surreal Monday.
 I'm sure that many of you, like me, are struggling to make sense of the arc of history in which we currently find ourselves. The moral universe may indeed bend toward justice, but right now injustices abound, thanks in no small part to our new president here in America and the team he has chosen to surround himself with. Given that time moves in a single direction (as far as most of us know!), it is impossible to know for certain what is going to happen in coming weeks, months, and even years. As individuals, it isn't even clear what we can do to combat the persistent spread of nationalist fervor and xenophobia throughout much of the Western world.
Recently, as no doubt many of you have done/are doing, I have taken some time to think about what I can do in my own life, in my own bubble, to help bend that arc toward justice. The short answer I have come up with is that I will write. Not that that's anything new; I've been writing since I was ten years old, and intend to keep doing so as long as my mind and body will let me. But what is new is that I recently quit my day job so that I can make writing my sole professional focus. For at least the next year, I will be writing fiction and essays from my home studio during daylight hours, instead of fitting a thousand words in around my nine to five job in higher ed.
I will continue to write positive, hopeful stories about characters that move me, and I will continue to write about LGBT civil rights and other social justice movements. I am also planning to volunteer with a local organization that provides services to homeless youth. In particular, I'm hoping to teach homeless queer youth and other at-risk youth how to write their own stories. Most of us don't have a national or international stage to work from, but the ripple effects from even one life changed for the better can be incredibly powerful.
And now, the news I know most of you are skimming this email for: an update on Outside the Lines, book three of the Girls of Summer trilogy! I anticipate releasing book three in late spring/early summer; the excerpt should be ready to go out in April, possibly sooner. I'm taking a break currently to work on a couple of other projects, including a collection of essays I expect to release in the next six weeks, and, um, fan fiction... That's right, I've gotten sucked into the Supergirl fandom on Archive of Our Own! There is a ton of great writing out there, so if you haven't checked out AO3, give it a whirl. I have plans to turn the novel I'm working on there into a standalone sci-fi novel at some point, or possibly a YA series. We'll see...
In the meantime, happy reading, and RESIST, my friends. Be well.
Best,
Kate Christie
P.S. As of last night I have a new American-history-themed blog post up at https://katechristie.wordpress.com/, so check it out if you get a chance.
P.S. #2: The photo at the top is of my oldest daughter at our local Womxn's March last weekend. The whole family is featured below...
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