Vaccinated (Part Two)

People are being very outspoken on Twitter and on various podcasts about how much the second shot hurts, and I don't know what's going on with them. I hope they're okay. I am a delicate flower who bruises if you so much as look at me the wrong way; and, for me at least, the second shot was much easier than the first, which wasn't even painful to begin with.

And goddamn it felt so good to walk around outside without a mask yesterday.

Anyway, this is my new guidelines for best practices:

(1) Don't be mean to vaccinated people who stop wearing a mask.
(2) Don't be mean to vaccinated people who continue to wear a mask.
(3) Don't be a dick about business or community rules about wearing a mask.
(4) Don't be a dick to East Asian people wearing masks for non-Covid reasons.

Putting the far-right "freedom" nuts aside, I have to admit that I've been mystified by all the discourse surrounding mask wearing. I personally think masks are cool and cute, and I'm relieved that people in the United States understand what the culture of wearing them is about now, but the theater of virtue signalling through wearing or not wearing a mask is silly.

Even after a year of experimenting with various things, I still find wearing a mask to be extremely uncomfortable (and it gives me the worst acne, holy shit), but it was fun to coordinate my mask with my shoes and belt. If the pandemic taught me anything, it was that I can absolutely get away with wearing bright colors and bold patterns. Honestly we could all die at any point, so why not dress like a wizard in the meantime?

Before and After the Book Deal

This is an interesting, engaging, and well-written book filled with practical advice that reads like complete fiction and does not apply to me in any way, shape, or form.

I'm not hating on the author, I'm just saying that most people probably aren't going to have the experience of successfully writing and selling mass-market literary fiction, going on book tours, and being on bestseller lists.

Also, it doesn't address the most important thing to most writers interested in a book like this, namely, how the fuck do you find an agent who isn't a scam, how do you even. The idea seems to be that we all live in New York and go to magical book parties with our magical book friends, and agents will just magically find us once we're ready for prime time.

Another idea, which seems to exist primarily among people who aren't on the market and don't know how to Google things, is that you should try to reach out to the agents who represent the authors you love. Which is hilarious, because neither those big-name agents nor their entire big-name agency is ever open to accept unsolicited queries.

Given the lack of real talk surrounding finding an agent, I have a feeling that the process is actually distinctly distressing, which is why people don't like to talk about it. I guess I'll find out.