No news is good news...

There's a lot going on in publishing/writing right now. The Nobel Prize for Literature is cancelled this year (literally cancelled, not #cancelled), Junot Diaz is getting called to task for shit behavior to women, there are conversations happening all over social media about editors responsibility for diversity, their responsibility to seek out work, and not just throw out an open call.

It seems like it should be easy to pick a topic and run with it for the blog - but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around so many news items, let alone distilling one or all of them down into a blog entry that isn't just word salad.

I use writing to work out how I feel, and sometimes nonfiction (essays, blogging, articles) can help me do that, but sometimes it's too complex, too big, to work out that way. This is the gift of fiction - reading or writing it. We can take big, complicated, upsetting things and work them out in compelling ways.

Instead of waxing philosophical or raging on the news, I'm going to put my head down and work. This isn't advice, this isn't a mantra or a way I think writers should do things - it is our responsibility to be aware and engaged. But it's also our responsibility to know when we don't have the right words or view point to tackle something.