So Long, Farewell . . .

Lovely friends, this will be my last newsletter for a while (hence the image of the hot air balloon taking off into the wild blue - take what you will from the “hot air” part of that).

I close this chapter with so much gratitude to all of you for sharing this journey,

This newsletter includes a book review, some fabulous Two Over Easy All Day Long news and other writing news, a reminder to subscribe to The Dogs of Looser Island, if you want some happy distraction from the too-much-with-us world, and musings on our nation’s birthday (last rather than first in this newsletter, in case you feel like skipping it).

I will continue to keep this website updated with new writing information, but I think this newsletter has run its course for now, and between working full time, getting ready for grandchild number two (!!!), and sharing twice weekly episodes of the Dogs of Looser Island, my plate is full, and I’m guessing yours is too.

Booky Booky Book Club

(“Booky Booky Book Club” stolen from the podcast
Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone)
(and of course this is just my review, not really a book club)

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

I loved this book - and that surprised me. Gritty post-apocalyptic is not really my "thing," but the narrator's tenderness in the face of a reality that is horrifying and requires horrifying acts made this book like nothing I've read before.

A few of my favorite quotes:

"There is no one to tell this to and yet it seems very important to get this right. The reality and what it is like to escape it. That even now is sometimes too beautiful to bear."

On our divisions, and his partner Bangley's kill-or-be-killed philosophy versus the philosophy of cooperation: "Shoot first ask later. . . . Follow Bangley's belief to its end and you get a ringing solitude. Everybody out for themselves, even to dealing death, and you come to a complete aloneness. You and the universe. The cold stars. . . . Believe in the possibility of connectedness and you get something else. . . . Help asked and given. A smile across a dirt yard, a wave. Now the dawn not so lonely."

Of the unlovely carp that have outlived all the other species: " . . . they simply refused to budge, which wasn't fun, but then there wasn't much fun any more and I came to admire their stoicism. A stolid refusal to be yet consumed by the universe."

On grief: "There is a pain you can't think your way out of. . . . You can't metabolize the loss. It is in the cells of your face, your chest, behind the eyes, in the twists of your gut. Muscle sinew bone. It is all of you. When you walk you propel it forward. . . . it sits with you. Pain puts its arm over your shoulders."

I now know Peter Heller has written many books, and I will henceforth be checking out the others!

Writing News

• Kirkus Reviews featured Two Over Easy All Day Long in its Vacation Reads list AND in their June 2025 magazine! And then, as if that wasn’t delicious enough for my writer’s heart, on June 10 the book was also featured in their Critic’s Pick newsletter. Kirkus Reviews is “The most trusted voice in book reviews since 1933,” and features fewer than 25% of their reviewed books in their monthly magazine. Their Vacation Reads lists, which go out weekly through the summer, typically include fewer than twenty books on each list. To say I’m honored would be a ridiculous understatement!
  
  You have already been so supportive, but if you’d like to do more, I am still joining book clubs and giving readings at bookstores, and have several planned for the fall - arranging for readings and bookclubs is always welcome!
  

• A dear family member convinced me to try BookTok, TikTok’s platform for readers and writers. I am dipping my toe in this by reading snippets from my children’s novel, The UnFairy Tale. If you’d like to watch me make a fool of myself, my handle is sharilane88, and the name of the page is Story Time!

• Speaking of making a fool of myself, I’m still posting short readings from The Dogs of Looser Island on my YouTube channel, @sharilane38.

And speaking of The Dogs of Looser Island: Who Laughs Last is about halfway through, but there’s still time to subscribe. Paid subscribers get access to full episodes and archives of past episodes, so new subscribers can get caught up on the stories. Subscribe to receive episodes as they post at sharilane.substack.com.

Want to subscribe but paying is difficult? Let me know and I can comp the subscription!

If there’s enough interest I may just continue to the sequel, and the next sequel (though I will definitely pick a less frenetic pace - twice weekly is tough for this still-working/not-yet-retired girl!)

Fourth of July Musings: Time for a YOPP!

This year for the Fourth of July I am not going to share my usual Happy Periwinkle Day post, reprised many times (though I still believe we are less divided than the media and social media would have us believe, and I still believe we need to find our common ground and work together for a better future), nor am I sharing I Do Declare (my Declaration of Independence from fear and anxiety), also reprised a couple of times. I’ve shared the links below if you’d like to read them.

This year, I’d like to talk to you about Dr. Seuss’s
Horton Hears a Who.

When Horton the Elephant discovers a whole world of Whos on a speck of dust, he is determined to protect them, but the other animals in the jungle mock him for his tender-heartedness and send the speck of dust far away. Against all odds, Horton finds the Whos, but the other animals beat him and lock him in a cage, and declare they’re going to boil the dust speck. They don’t believe the Whos exist or, if they exist, they don’t believe the Whos matter. From his cage, Horton begs his new friends to make themselves heard.

***

“ . . . Don’t give up! I believe in you all!
A person’s a person, no matter how small!
And you very small persons will not have to die
if you make yourselves heard! So come on now and TRY!”

***

They try, but it’s not enough. The angry animals in charge can’t or won’t hear the Whos. So the Mayor of Whoville searches until he finds one small boy who is ignoring the crisis around him, calmly playing with his Yo-Yo.

***

“This,” cried the Mayor, “is your town’s darkest hour!
The time for all Whos who have blood that is red
To come to the aid of their country!” he said.
“We’ve GOT to make noises in greater amounts!
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!”

Thus he spoke as he climbed. When they got to the top,
The lad cleared his throat and he shouted out, “YOPP!”
And that Yopp…
The one small, extra Yopp put it over!

Finally, at last! From that speck on that clover
Their voices were heard!

***

This, dearest friends, is our country’s darkest hour.

Democrats and Republicans and Independents – we are all in this together. Even if you never imagined yourself standing shoulder to shoulder with "the other side," now is the time to find common ground and stand together.

We’ve faced some dark times in our history, and maybe you’ve found yourself on one side or the other of recent divisions.

Maybe you didn’t march for Black Lives Matter, protest the Family Separation policy that left so many children permanently separated from their families, or write to Congress to codify the rights gutted when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, threatened gay marriage, and eviscerated the Voting Rights Act.

Even so, I have to imagine there’s something in the last few months that made you gravely concerned about the future of our country.

Maybe you haven’t yet had difficulty accessing the Social Security payments you earned after a lifetime of working.

Maybe you don’t know anyone whose Medicaid or SNAP benefits will be lost under the “Big Beautiful Bill” (or maybe you know it will be painful but felt it was past time to shrink the government’s budget and role, not yet realizing the bill only shrinks health care for children and disabled folks, and food assistance for struggling families, in order to support tax cuts for the very wealthy, and increased funding for ICE).

Maybe you weren’t appalled at the pardoning of violent insurrectionists who called for the hanging of the Vice President.

Maybe you weren’t aghast at the withholding of Congressionally-approved military aid to Ukraine, the public bullying of Zelensky, and the false claim that Ukraine started the war.

Maybe you don’t care that businesses all across the nation are struggling, laying off people and even getting ready to close their doors under the double whammy of tariffs making operations too expensive and ICE raids sweeping up their employees.

Maybe you weren’t upset at the obvious grift in accepting an airplane from a corrupt government.

Maybe you haven’t been horrified that ICE is collecting people from hospitals, schools, and churches, from courthouses and immigration offices when they show up for mandatory check-ins to maintain their legal status in the country. Maybe you thought this is the logical consequence of illegal entry into our country, that masked men will tear mothers and fathers and children from the arms of sobbing friends and relatives.

Maybe you’re not alarmed that the president himself keeps raising the idea of deporting US citizens, and calling for the deportation and/or removal of citizenship status from those who voice political opposition to him and his administration’s agenda.

Maybe it doesn’t bother you that the party that claimed fiscal conservatism and reducing government debt as its guiding principle has just passed a budget that will increase the country’s debt more than any administration in our collective past.

Or that the party of No More Foreign Wars said nothing when its president launched missiles at nuclear sites in a foreign country, even though only Congress has the power to declare war and initiate military action, except in an emergency (and no emergency existed).

Even if all that is true, I’m guessing you are afraid of a government that refuses to comply with court orders, and that ignores the right to due process that is a foundation of our republic (the right to try to prove your innocence in a court of law before being jailed, detained, and/or deported), and that is willing to turn the military against its own citizens.

If any of those concerns ring true for you:

Now is the time to put aside our differences
and raise our YOPP!

We Americans are a diverse bunch. Skin color, age, country of origin or ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, language, education, income, gender identity, favorite books and favorite television shows and favorite family recipes . . . and, of course, political philosophy. That has always been true. What we share is a belief in governance of the people, by the people, for the people, a governance we will only have if those we elect adhere to the guardrails our founders put in place: the separation of powers.

Today, we celebrate our independence from tyranny, but tyranny once again threatens, this time from within. Our democracy only functions if our judiciary, military, law enforcement, and courts are truly independent and non-partisan, not tools for personal vengeance and oppression of opposing political views; if Congress insists on fulfilling its role as the only branch of government with the power over spending and the power to declare war; and if government officials obey court orders. The current administration and Congress are failing on all counts.

And so I say again:

Calling all Whos to raise a mighty YOPP!

As promised, if you’d like to read old 4th of July musings, you can find them here.

• Happy Periwinkle Day: https://www.dragonpepper38.com/news/happy-periwinkle-day (“If you mix the red, white, and blue of the flag you get . . . a lovely shade of periwinkle.”)

• I Do Declare: https://www.dragonpepper38.com/news/idodeclare (“So today I throw off the shackles of fear, and vow to embrace the present moment in all its glorious unpredictability. Today I see that the sun is shining, my flags are waving in a gentle breeze, my wonderful family is visiting, and I am, if not a picture of vibrant health, still upright and mobile.”)

I leave you with another huge dose of gratitude for sharing this journey with me, and a photo from last year’s Fourth of July.