There I was telling my people (i.e. Patreon) that it wasn’t going to be a difficult week, and all I hear is that it’s been a difficult week, and I’m sitting here without looking at my Astro calendar but knowing that Mercury has probably entered Virgo by the time you read this.

Virgo Season already? No, not quite. Just Mercury, and Mercury will start its retrograde in Virgo (and back into Leo) soon enough.

Mercury landing in Virgo pushes him out of my hidden 12th House and into my 1st and I wondered if that was why writing went smoother today but actually it was still in my 12th when I was in the library, completely alone, and it was glorious. Nothing a writer likes more: a library to herself.

I’m obsessed with how the world is changing, and how I don’t think I fit into… any of the slots. It’s a weird feeling, a weird place to be. But Mercury into Virgo will have us focused and in the details, meticulous, too busy to worry — until the retrograde plunges us back into the past. God I wish I could get that unpublished novel published, find it a home. Will it ever be? I do not know. Retrograde dreams.

Growing older is another thing I’m obsessed with these days. And lately when I visit any app on my phone I get this parade of women in my feed, my age or older, dancing or getting dressed or getting undressed or thrifting or whatever the fuck they do (it often revolves around clothing and makeup and hair and I’m not sure why since… those aren’t my interests), all talking about getting older, aging.

My unpublished novel traverses some of this territory: aging, legacy, fathers. And not a hair care tip in sight.

What are the novelists to do? The ones who don’t really want to make Reels about their lives. It’s a weird time to be alive, my friends.

So. Mercury in Virgo. Mercury retrograde. Mercury back into Leo. Why do I feel like this particular Mercury retrograde will be more of a look back than usual? Mercury retrograde is always a time to look back, to review, but this one feels more heightened to me even though it hasn’t started yet. I can see the chart in my head.

I was editing chapters in that library today and each chapter was in a different state of done-ness, and I hope to enter those edits (did them by hand) into the computer tomorrow.  Will writing become some weird niche thing like… knitting? Sorry knitters, I mean no offense but when I think of people knitting I think of… long ago and far away. Are we museum pieces already? Are we covered wagons?

How to write a book in 2024? You have to do it anyway. You have to do it despite all the reasons not to, whatever you tell yourself and whatever the world is telling you, that instead it’s better to make a Reel where you announce your measurements and try on clothes. Into eternity go the masses and masses of women trying on boots and letting us know our bodies are OKAY. Is anyone even in their body?

I have a writer friend who told me writers wouldn’t matter anymore because of AI about a year ago and yet he has a new book coming out and did we ever matter? Yes, things are changing. Yes, I yell at people who write their school papers using AI because I find it gutless. The screens exhaust me. I prefer my own mind, my own screen, my screen memories, but even I get caught up in the scroll.

Gutless. I like that word.

This world is beyond repair. The least you can do is write. Keep human creativity alive.

How us oldsters are going to survive this next wave of the digital revolution I’m not really sure, but we’ll see. Maybe this Mercury in Virgo retrograde will give us some clues.

Alright. Enough complains for one day. I hope you have a good weekend.
Keep passing the open windows xo