This Is Where You Belong Issue #41: Life Resumes

For five days in May I holed up at an AirBnB in Lynchburg, trying to finish my book, only letting myself out for daily walks and watering. (This photo was taken on the fantastic Percival's Island trail). And... I did it. The book is done! I even managed to beat my deadline by a couple days. Insert all the confetti emojis.

Of course it's not really done. There will be a year's worth of editing, designing, and marketing in tandem with the good people at Sourcebooks. But at least we have a title now: IF YOU COULD LIVE ANYWHERE. I'm really excited about this one, because I think we all ponder it at one time or another. Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the title conundrum, as well as everyone who sent ideas via email or agreed to be interviewed for this project. You are the absolute best.

With the book at least temporarily off my plate, I'm heading into the summer feeling like I can breathe a little. I hope your summer is shaping up to be something glorious too.

Shameless self-promotion portion of the newsletter: I'm doing a virtual workshop next week for the RuralX conference and I'm SO excited—and not just because they sent me fancy RuralX M&Ms. If you live or love rural, please consider registering for this one-day event on June 16. More good stuff: I was quoted in the Atlantic in Rainesford Stauffer's excellent piece about moving home to Kentucky, and you can hear me on the Therapy for Real Life podcast.

7 items of interest

“To visit a place is to constantly explore. To live in a place is to constantly return.” A family moves from Brooklyn to Boulder during the pandemic and discovers... place attachment? (Bonus points for the dad-level pun in the headline.)
What five places would you live if you could live anywhere? A Twitter thread. Don't let other people sway you, though. Get clear on what you want first.
I will always read about regional gas station snacks, but FWIW, I don't think Casey's pizza is good. Fight me?
Three inspiring small-town housing stories from Becky and Deb of SaveYour.Town. (Check out their survey of rural challenges while you're at it.)
Who's going to build the teen-approved swings in your town?
Remote work is changing big cities. We still don't know exactly how. Luckily, you can always move to a cool small town like Independence, Oregon. (I wrote about it in my new book!)
Gimme some BerkShares and a sandwich from Bizalion's.

xoxo, Melody

P.S.—As always, random bonus material for reading this far: Benedict Cumberbatch's penguin problem. The fun scale. You wouldn't have guessed that I really liked this documentary, right? I'm weirdly into rereading books lately and these all hold up. We couldn't believe this standup special was clean AND made us laugh! I bought (affordable) real art from these two talented women. 100% how I wrote my book. "Where to look for the good parts." Bon appetit.

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Melody Warnick · 1006 Kentwood Dr · Blacksburg, VA 24060 · USA