doctor’s note

At work last Monday, I mentioned that Loui and I were going to Louisville the following evening.

“Why?” asked my friend Kris.

“Books,” our coworker immediately said.

He was, of course, correct: We were going to a reading by Markus Zusak for the twentieth anniversary of The Book Thief. I first read that novel well over a decade ago and have loved it ever since.

Zusak had a funny and insightful conversation with Kentucky author David Arnold—about writing, about “moments of beautiful tragedy,” about the color yellow. Here’s one of a few quotes I noted: “Writers are inherently selfish people, and you have to be. You have to carve out time.”

When I met Zusak in the signing line afterward, I told him I was using that line as a doctor’s note: “Please excuse Bailey Vandiver from [insert responsibility here], as internationally bestselling artist Markus Zusak says she must carve out time for writing.”

It’s truly crunch time for a big writing deadline coming up in a few weeks. It’s a busy spring, full of family gatherings and exciting work projects and midterm grades, and I have to be disciplined to find the writing time I need. I have to, as much as I can, shape my life around the writing rather than the other way around.

So, please excuse Bailey Vandiver from writing a longer newsletter this week….