Oh man, y’all… things in Seattle are wild right now. I’m currently sitting in a hotel room that Jordan booked for when Emerald City Comic Con was still on. Now, just a week and a half after ECCC cancelled, everything is cancelled.
Last night our Governor, Jay Inslee, ordered all bars, restaurants, and theaters to be closed. Restaurants and bars are only allowed to do delivery and carry-away food service. The sickness is SO bad, but I’m more scared of the economic / world ripple effects than the sickness itself, I think.
These are scary times. Things are changing day by day and hour by hour. I still want to share the cool things I’m making, but I feel so torn because there are things that “matter” so much more in the world right now.
Personally, my anxiety has been at an all-time high. I’ve had to be so specific about the times I’m allowing myself to look at the news to stay informed so I don’t end up getting sucked into a spiral. The creative, fun, and wonderful things my friends and artists are making are the things that are currently keeping me grounded… so I’m going to keep posting because I’m hopeful that others might find some grounding peace in the things I’m making, too.
So if that’s where you’re at too; if you need something light-hearted and fun to lean into right now, click below to listen with your ears 
or keep scrolling to read with your eyes 
!
So as you can see / hear, Jordan is on my podcast for the second time in a row… man, she’s such a trooper. 😂
Since she still came to Seattle we’ve been hunkering down in her would-be-ECCC-hotel room and trying to maximizing the time by getting a TON of work done. Since I needed to record a podcast and she was here, I jumped at the opportunity to talk with another human during this weird phase of the world being isolated.
The weekend before she came to Seattle she was at home in NYC and attended a press event for V.E. Schwab’s new book, “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue”, coming out in October of this year. Jordan was so kind and brought me back an ARC (advanced reader’s copy) of the book. After hot-tubbing and grabbing a beer we’ve been devouring it every single night.
In this shortie episode Jordan and I talk about our first V.E. Schwab books (hers was “Vicious” and mine was “The Darker Shades” trilogy), how awesome Victoria is online with her championing of other makers, and gush about how much we already love “Addie LaRue” even 100> into it.
We’ve both identified that her newest book, her “genre-defying tour de force”, is definitely for sure our favorite of her books so far. Is there anything that Victoria can’t do? She’s literally doing it all!
My brain is all over the place, I don’t even know how to end this post so I’ll just end by saying that there are a lot of small businesses, authors, and artists that need our support right now as the world is falling apart. If you can support, please do. I’ll put a list down below.
Thank you so much for listening and for supporting me so endlessly. I am so grateful for each and every one of you. <3
xoxo
Mal
Follow Jordan and V.E. Schwab!:
- Jordan – @jordandene
- Her nerdy clothing brand – @jordandenenyc
- Her magazine / podcast – @thesartorialgeek
- Her social media business – @jordandene.social
- Her collaboration with V.E. Schwab
- (If you use my code “malaray” at checkout you can get 15% off your oder of $20 or more and I’ll get a little kickback which is always nice. 😊)
- V.E. Schwab
- “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue”
