LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT POLITICS FOR A MINUTE

I'm oversaturated like what right now, aren't you?

Before I say anything…I’m profoundly grateful to be getting paid to write about politics again. Thanks to the insanity of our modern news cycle, I have a daily quota to meet seven days a week. The timing couldn’t be more fortuitous, because the last three weeks have been going at nonstop Ludicrous Speed.

However, this makes my brain feel like it’s gone plaid by the end of the day.

When things get noisy in my head, I have to do what I can to make it quieter for my poor brain.

I know you need the break as well, even if the news got way better for all of us last week. There’s plenty of hate to fight against over the next 98 days, so right now I’d like to talk about love for a few paragraphs. So take a nice cleansing breath and we’ll continue.

I recently wrote about two couples who found love later in life, which is still really great for them even if it’ll never be for me. I don’t need to get back into that, it’s all good here as I have my own version of #bratsummer.

Over the last few weeks, three young couples I know have gotten married, two of them very close to my older son. One couple met in 7th grade and they’ve always been together. As in, they’ve never dated anyone else. The other couple has been together a long time as well. My son has been friends with all of them since middle school. In a few weeks, he and his girlfriend, who are the same age, are about to move in together. They’ve seen these examples, and I couldn’t be happier that all of these wonderful kids grew up to be wonderful young adults. I watch Jack and Danielle together and feel so happy they’ve found each other.

The third couple got married on Sunday near the Hoyt Arboretum in Washington Park. It was the perfect weather in a perfect setting for a wedding ceremony that brought as much laughter as it did happy tears. My friend Mimi’s daughter, Lucy, married her boyfriend of three years, Gavin. They’re 22 and 23, and they’re both on the spectrum. And they are so, so in love. They are each other’s perfect match. Their vows were pure and sweet. Mimi and her husband, Mark, are so happy that Lucy has such a stable and loving partner.

I was able to enjoy it all thanks to the last nine days of writing about Kamala Harris and the “Kamalove” she’s getting online. It brought us all new energy. I especially love how much her husband, Doug Emhoff, loves her. I call him Dougie Fresh and I want him to be known as the “First GentleMensch,” and I will keep tweeting that until it becomes an official thing, with merch and whatnot.

But at the same time, I felt like there weren’t too many opportunities to talk about my favorite couple of all the couples, Lila and Grady Donovan. I am obsessed with their rock and roll love story as though they were as real as Taylor and Travis. I want everyone to fall in love with them like so many of my readers have. I love them so much that I wrote more about both of them in a follow-up that my pal Thad says is even better than The Sound of Settling. That made me so happy because just like my readers, I wanted to spend more time with Lila and Grady. I can see and hear the streaming series in my head. I’m so ready for the proper publishing deal.

New five-star reviews keep coming in, but July has been a slow sales month thanks to my focus being on politics. I’m stalled at 731 copies sold, but I’m still super proud of myself for doing all of this on my own because it definitely hasn’t been easy. I’m still focused on my goal of hitting 1000 by its first anniversary, September 8th.

So come on now, don’t you want to read this book already?

Also, Elon is really losing his shit over this whole Kamala thing taking over Twitter, and far too many of my followers have been telling me I’m being shadowbanned or suppressed because ELON HATES JEWS AND WOMEN AND EVERYONE ELSE.

So I’m asking for you to show some extra love to The Sound of Settling today and boost my July sales a bit higher. If you’re reading this, please buy a copy or buy one for a friend. It’s free if you have Kindle Unlimited. If you don’t want to give Jeff Bezos any of your money, I understand! You can order it from powells.com and support an indie bookstore as well as an indie author.

If you’re strapped, you know I understand. It’s free to share the link on your socials and say it’s on your To Be Read (TBR) list. Maybe you’re friends with a literary agent looking to score with the next big viral book, so why not mine?

I’m also less than a week away from the 23rd anniversary of the Dave Grohl meet-cool that inspired my meta-fanfic, so the more attention I can get for The Sound of Settling, the better.

Thank you, I love you!

@taradublinrocks#TheSoundOfSettling #signtara taradublinrocks.com

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