Out of the Debauched Sloth

Chaz Brenchley's ongoingly uncertain newsletter

“The bad news is nothing lasts forever,
The good news is nothing lasts forever.”
— J. Cole

As witness: the steady downpours of this very wet winter seem at last to have petered out. This is probably a good thing, by and large. Rains after drought are a good and necessary thing in themselves, obvs, but we are already seeing severe and deadly floods, and the (record-breakingly deep) snowpack hasn’t even started melting yet. Fun times.

The most exciting new thing hereabouts is that I have invested in some little grow-lights for my chilli hatchlings in their clubhouse nursery, in hopes that they will thrive in this new regime. Light and warmth together: until now it was pretty much either/or, and they were not doing well at all. (Is it ironic, that I’ve had much more trouble growing chillies here in lovely hot dry California than I ever did in cold grey shivery Britain? I think it probably is, yes.)

Also I’m starting to get serious work done in the garden, and about time too. It’s this time of year that I am always determined to do more, better, bigger out there; the feeling rarely lasts, but it’s worth surfing the wave while it’s there.

I am waffling about the garden and so forth because—you may have guessed?—I really have no writing-related news for you at all this fortnight. In honesty, I have not been writing much since last you heard from me; life obstructs art, I find. It’s like rock paper scissors, only there are only the two elements and thus always the same result. Hey-ho.

Anyway: this is all the news that is the case. As this is quite often the case, I’m hoping to elide this newsletter into something closer to a blog, find other things to talk about: which is going to mean food and drink and gardening, mostly, likely. Sorry ’bout that. News as it happens, obvs.

Alexis Hall’s new novel, SOMETHING SPECTACULAR, is published today. You should probably read SOMETHING FABULOUS first, but you should definitely read them both.

’Til two weeks—

Chaz