Two months from today, July 26, is the pub date for my new book If You Could Live Anywhere! It's like a birthday and a ball of stress rolled into one!
If you're anywhere in the vicinity of southwest Virginia, I'd love to see you at the launch event at Blacksburg Books on Tuesday, July 26, at 7 p.m. I'll be reading and signing and talking about what makes a great place. This is SUCH a cool little indie bookstore, you really should come hang out.
And, you know, maybe preorder If You Could Live Anywhere either online or from your local independent bookstore. The book is all about crafting a personal location strategy and building a great life and career where you live. So it's for people who could live anywhere (probably you), who like thinking about places they could live (probably you), or who already live in a place (definitely you). I hope you'll pick up a copy for yourself and all your place-dwelling friends.
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Shameless self-promotion portion of the newsletter: I'm speaking on June 8 at the RuralX conference and you can still register to come, online or in person. (Seriously, South Dakota is awesome). I was on the Women's Wealth podcast and I love that it's only like 12 minutes! Plus, Majora Carter, Jim and Deb Fallows, and favorite readers Erika Layland and Lynn Kreutz were on Top of Mind with me, talking about what makes cities great. Know a podcast I should be on? Let me know.
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7 items of interest
- More and more towns are being forced to figure out how to recover from tragedies.
- How to find your community as an adult (even though, yes, it's harder than you remember).
- Rural America is (supposedly) shrinking—but would you move there for free land and cheap houses?
- When I think "happiest city in America," I for sure think... Fremont, California? As I also think of Utah as the least stressed state. Hmm.
- When you know NYC is for you.
- Home prices (well, all the prices) are shocking lately. Community-owned housing might be a solution.
- Everyone could take a lesson from how Disney tells stories through places. Maybe my deep-seated love for Main Street comes from my dozens of trips to Disneyland as a kid. (Link via @izurietavarea.)
xoxo, Melody
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P.S.—As always, random bonus material for reading this far: I am officially a fan of solo travel. It's between Rural Juror and Queen of Jordan for me. My next vehicle (except this is me unfortunately). I adored the other two detective novels in this series so this book is at the top of my TBR pile. If you don't have Hulu to watch this super crazy show, at least listen to the wacky podcast it's based on. Such a helpful map! If only I had time to journal. The Ben Schwartz musical episode was my favorite in this series. Everything about nonfiction publishing you wish wasn't true but is. Beautiful things to look at. Candy bars you can pretend are healthy! "It is too hard!"
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