Dearest House of Rest Readers,
This is a newer poem, and as such is not included in my upcoming collection, but it’s something you all know I’ve thought a lot about in these past 3 or so years that have been largely without sufficient amounts of sleep.
Sometimes, there is a rest we need just as much as sleep—sometimes the dark we are awake for can also be restful.
this is a restful dark a place outside of daylight's demands the hours which tick and tock and mock my desire to make art. this is a restful dark and the candle burns low but small light is all I need to see the pen I scribble with the notebook clutched in tired fingers. why do I wake at break of day or even (often) before it? this restful dark which is not sleep but something just as vital— a chance for solitude and silence for the ticking clock to be my only companion as I watch the sky slowly lighten to grey then pink then oranges so brilliant I raise my coffee cup in salute to the creator of the dawn. after all the best sunrises start in the absolute dark. and who am I to question the necessity of this amidst all the screams louder for my attention? this is a restful dark and before day begins I will gather it— I will wrap it around my tired shoulders and stuff handfuls into my pockets. I will breathe it in like oxygen and drink it down like water from a mountain spring. I will wash my hair with it, and polish the dark circles beneath my eyes until they shine. and I will soothe my soul with the restful dark reminding her that soon enough dawn will come.
Of course, you all know, the dark is where I have done the lion’s share of my creating for the past decade (often with a baby in my arms and only one hand on the keyboard.) At this very moment in fact, I am typing while scooting the keyboard incrementally further away from one very cute two-and-a-half-year-old’s hands. (She loves to introduce creative typos into fully finished essays and posts.)
So many exciting shifts are on the horizon, I’m finding it hard to keep up with them all. as the Sparrow flies releases in less than two weeks. The ebook is finally up for pre-order on Kindle (though we are still waiting on Ingram for it to be distributed to other ebook platforms.) And this past week we crossed the threshold to 149 preorders. (WHAT?) All of this thanks to you Dear Readers—I am blown away.
For months now I’ve been working what feels like around the clock to get this thing ready for you, and I cannot believe it’s going to be in your hands so incredibly soon. You can now preorder as the Sparrow flies at most major retailers including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million, and Bookshop.org. It’s even up on some Indie bookseller websites, like Tattered Cover in Colorado, and some other little ones as well which tend to use Bookshop.org as their online catalog (every purchase supports local indie stores!)
Last week I mentioned that some shifts are coming for the newsletter, mainly that I will be combining the House of Rest with my poetry Substack and therefore, some of your monthly posts are going to start being poems. This post is only the first of many, so I hope you enjoyed it.
As I continue to work hard to give my first book the wings she needs to fly, I wanted to share a quick little reminder of things you can do to help support me in this work.
Pre-orders are huge! So a big thank you to all of you who have already pre-ordered the book. I am thinking through some pre-order bonuses right now as a thank you. (Let me know in the comments if you have an idea for one!)
Sharing my work with your friends. If a post resonated with you, sharing on your socials, via email, etc are all great ways to help other readers who might be blessed by my work to find it. Even just sharing the link on your phone via text message is awesome.
Okay this is a big one: once the book comes out and you’ve finished enjoying it, leave a review (everywhere if you can!). Reviews are HUGE for helping other readers find the book, and in fact, Amazon doesn’t even start bumping your book in their algorithm until you have 50, so that is a big goal of mine for the first month after the launch.
Okay, that’s enough promo stuff from me for now. :) Thank you all for being here, Dear Readers, and I hope you enjoyed my poem “this is a restful dark.”
May the restful dark meet you wherever you need it to today.
Warmly,
Grace E. Kelley