(P.S. you can skip ahead for the urgent news!)

My son weighed less than three pounds when he was born.

No one was surprised by this. The surprising part was his arrival twelve weeks early, and the way my wife went from trying on maternity dresses to express-delivering a human in four hours. (A story for another time.)

For forty-three days, he’s been crossing off milestone after milestone in the NICU. If strength is proportional to age, we may need to hire a weightlifting agent for this kid before his third birthday.

A few days ago, we got a picture from his attending nurse along with this cutesy message:

Today I weigh 4lbs 12.3oz and . . .

There was more, but my brain stopped processing around that point. I could only fixate on this gargantuan monster of a baby who’d infiltrated our lives like some kind of gurgling, crying human parasite.

And in the picture, he was smiling. He knew what he was doing.

“Everything goes according to plan,” he thinks. (In my head canon, our baby’s brain is a Bond villain.) “Soon I’ll be large enough to break free from this isolette and conquer the universe one deadlift at a time. No bedtime can stop me! Okay, time to cry again.”

True story.

I’ve talked about the surreal terror of holding my own baby on this newsletter before. If you want to read more, I wrote an expanded version of that story which became a Top Story on Vocal.

But in my brief tenure as an unlicensed father, the possibilities have grown with exponential dread. Soon this child will be walking, talking, saying silly things, disrespecting his parents, learning to control his impulses, and whatever else it is that kids do. Roblox, I think.

So my resolution is not to blink.

I’ll stop here for now because this story has so much room to grow. And, hopefully, so does Baby H.

Saturday Night Live?

We’re hosting an exclusive livestream tomorrow night at 8 pm EST!

We’ll have a Q&A about all things writing and Kickstarter, a limited edition giveaway (!), and a discussion of the journey that’s been Marrow and Soul.

And if you stick around until the end, we may even have spoiler talk! For the Kickstarter backers, ARC readers, and anyone else who’s gotten their hands on the book thus far, I want to dive into the story and break open those narrative oysters.

Respond to this email with your questions for the Q&A!

Writing Updates

SPOOKY SEQUEL // The edit has begun! We’re on schedule to finish in March, which gives me plenty of time to revise and run this story by beta readers.

SPOOKY THREEQUEL // I may have miscalculated a bit. My original outline came out to approximately 78,000 words. When drafting, I planned to aim for 90,000, and I’d hoped to make this draft shorter than the previous two.

At nearly 30,000 words, we’ve just reached the first plot point. For the uninitiated, that’s supposed to land at the 25% mark of the story.

Uh-oh.

That’s what editing is for. I’m crafting the best story I can, and if we have to cut some dead weight in revisions, I’ll hold the scalpel. But until then, this story is shaping up beautifully, if a bit long.

After three days drafting a harrowing action sequence, Safran is crossing the threshold into a world unlike any she’s ever seen. I can’t wait to share it with you.

Saturday, January 20, 8 pm EST. Put it on your calendar so you can join us for the livestream tomorrow night. See you there!