Month-in-Review Highlights: April 2025

Me asking James Ellroy a question about redemption in his novels at the 2025 Quais du Polar. Lyon, France. April 7, 2025. (Photo credit: Arnaud Chevallier)

I postmortem each month shortly after it ends. Previously, I used these posts to hold myself accountable on progress toward my annual goals. Starting in January 2023, I broadened these posts to address more generally my observations and experiences for the month. (To read previous months’ reviews, click here.)

As anticipated in my post looking back on March, April meant a lot more moving around, given weather improvements and the shift to summer time.

While that included seeing friends here and there in Lausanne, it also meant a long weekend in Lyon for the 2025 Quais du Polar literary festival and another long weekend at a yoga retreat here in Switzerland.

The literary festival was a blast—French literary events are, I can honestly say, the absolute best—and the yoga retreat felt like breaking free from winter hibernation. Sure, yes, of course I practiced throughout the cold-and-dark season, but something about three days focused solely on the practice with other practitioners and fueled by delicious, freshly prepared, healthful food helped me feel like I was shaking off the cobwebs that had woven around me in my den. (Also known as “my apartment.”)

Two long weekends doesn’t sound like a lot of travel, but the race to get things done before and after on all fronts always consumes a lot of energy. Nevertheless, in addition to regular work and life-maintenance administrative tasks (including, ugh, taxes), I worked throughout the month on the initial draft of my plan for my next novel. I needed to step away from the novel I’m revising to see it more clearly. Having two projects underway at once and addressing them in intervals keeps me fresh for them both while giving me writing to work on every day (or most days, anyway).

As the month wound down, I returned to the revision work with a little more heart for it and in a better headspace for seeing what I needed to do with it for this second-pass revision of the second draft. Working through it will consume most of my writing time for May, if I’m to stay on track for having this second draft completed before our summer vacation plans.

I’m sticking out the current novel-in-revision despite concerns that its subject matter may seem quaint in the current political climate. (Yes, that’s vague. Read into it what you will.) Though part of me wants to shelve it and focus my energy on the novel-in-planning, I’m learning and growing as a writer through this revision. Besides, I won’t be able to see clearly this novel’s value (or lack thereof) until I’ve sharpened it up a little more. More time passing in this crazy world will help, too.