Kimberly Hirsh

Finished reading: A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles 📚

A Tory pursuing seditionists for the Home Office and a radical pamphleteer fall in love in Regency England and it’s just as perfect as you’d expect. 🔥🔥🔥🔥

In Austin Kleon’s newsletter today, he writes about 7 questions he asks himself when he doesn’t know what to do next. (The newsletter has free editions on Fridays and paid ones on Tuesdays.)

At the end of the newsletter he asked his subscribers, “Do you have a question that helps you?”

My response got so big and I liked it so much, I decided to turn it into a blog post, so here you go!

I feel like I have stolen this like an artist in the best way, in that I’ve taken from multiple sources that get at this idea and combined them into something new:

“What does my body need right now?”

I manage multiple chronic illnesses, and the answer to that question can change from moment to moment. I often feel like a brain floating around in a meat cage. So I drop in to my body and see what it needs: water? A nap? A shower? A hug? Stillness? Motion?

Because I can’t do everything I need or want to do, I have to prioritize, and asking this question helps me choose what to do first, what to expend my energy on in a way that gives me hope of sustaining or even increasing my energy for the rest of the day.

Finished reading: A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles 📚

Just excellent.

Help me out, Internet. I saw someone talking about a cross-posting service a while back, maybe @pratik@writing.exchange? What is that service called? Thanks!

Me just now: I think my boots don’t look as cool with the laces looser on the foot and tighter on the ankle.

Also me: Kimberly, you are a middle-aged school librarian. You don’t need to look cool.

Stepping away from timelines and replies for a little while, but still planning to share resources and blog. If you want to be sure I see what you have to say, every post on my website has a Reply by email button.

Sharing more resources to help you defend libraries. Kelly Jensen works so hard on the Book Riot Literary Activism newsletter. It is the best place I know of to get news about censorship. Sign up here.

In the coming days, I’ll be sharing resources for defending libraries in the United States. Today, I wanted to share the American Library Association’s form to tell Congress to show up for libraries.

According to ALA, personalizing messages increases the likelihood that congress members will respond to and act on them. Sometimes, I don’t have the brain power to do a good job of this, so I thought I’d share what I did today.

First, in the first paragraph I made sure to refer to myself as a supporter of the Durham County Library, rather than just saying “my local library.”

Then, I added a paragraph about specific library programs DCL offers that I think will resonate with my congresspeople. I focused on business and Maker/STEAM services.

In the last paragraph, I change “libraries” to “libraries in general and the Durham County Library specifically.”

I hope this is helpful. Maybe the institution you’re going to defend is something other than libraries. If so, see if organizations related to it have similar ways to help you take action.

Take care and stay safe, y’all.

🔖 Read Please Don’t Use Generative AI To Mimic Historical Figures.

This is all kinds of a bad idea. The BlueSky thread linked in the post shares a conversation that makes me think the LLM wasn’t trained on Anne Frank’s writing, given its ignorance of the ethnic part of Jewish identity.

📚💬 “Kill the protestors, arrest the leaders, gaol the journalists. It’s what they do. It’s what tyrants do.” K. J. Charles, A Fashionable Indulgence

Just… In case you were wondering whether romance tackles serious issues.