This found me at just the right time.

I'm currently coming to terms with a piecemeal "career" with no "upward mobility," alongside which I've self-published my debut novel and a book of short stories. I've just finished a freelance contract that was my first paid work in far too long, and now I find myself in the first day of a short "sabbatical" to jump into my next novel, hoping to stave off the panic of having to find the next job until it's absolutely necessary (tick-tock…).

Similar to Doll, it was never a question of what I wanted to do, but finding a way to do it despite all my other responsibilities and circumstances as a person in this world.

"Settling" often has a negative connotation, so I appreciate and sympathize with Doll’s approach to the concept—it's not a melting into stagnance but a change of shape. Settling as sublimation, transition. Sure, as the saying goes, "shit rolling downhill" is a type of settling. But so is a bud opening into a flower.

There's something beautiful and hopeful about this.

I look forward to more.