Helllllooooo,
I’m really happy to be back here on this editor’s desk. I want to write to you every week, like I did last summer, until Restful is out into the world, and hopefully in your hands. Each week until then, I’ll bring you updates. And I’ll share some words about whatever.
Update:
Do you know we are still in January? I have a regular cycle, and I’m in my second period of the month. At this point, the month feels mystical to me. Like I entered Narnia halfway through Jan and now a year has passed.
I travelled to Lagos just before the start of 2025 to resume work on making Restful. Spent the first week sleeping and eating to recover from Sweet Medicine’s intense run and the holidays. Then, I spent the next two weeks going to Somolu (and once to Mushin) every day that I did not have a migraine or an application to submit. I spent the two weeks in different parts of Lagos, two completely different and hectic experiences. Then I made my first attempt to move to Ibadan for good and saw that it was not indeed my Promised Land. Returned to Enugu and slept and ate for another week. This week, I’m back on seat reviewing plans and making new ones. And it’s still January.
During this time, I made samples of Restful. Thank you to Segun for his support in the process. I went back (not sure I ever mentioned this to anyone before) to thinking of Restful as an anthology and not a magazine. The National Library isn’t able to issue serial numbers for magazines (ISSN numbers) at the moment—since September—and that was enough reason for me to revert to calling Restful an anthology.
I found beautiful papers to print Restful on. I’m very serious about the part where I say: “I’m making a beautiful object to serve as a sleeping aid.” I am very nervous about coordinating the printing from Enugu because I’m a perfectionist, and this year I’m embracing my perfectionism. I said perfectionism o, not imperfections. I want everything to be perfect, and I respect my desires. I know not everything will go exactly as I plan, and I look forward to loving the things that will insist on themselves because everything is a gift.
I learnt a lot about how books are made (or not made) in Nigeria—more on this later. I also found printing partners with whom I’m happy to make this baby.
This week’s goal is to start/maybe finish the final editorial design adjustments using the feedback I gathered while in Lagos. Wish us luck. ❤️
Other words:
Lately, I’ll be on the road of everyday living and next thing we’ll meet what, in the past, my head would have registered as a tragedy… or a crime for which my head could never prove me innocent. A wound, a wound, a wound. But now we meet such things and a new friend in my caravan makes herself known, a feeling like ~that? it won’t be a problem~. She keeps the caravan’s headmistress asleep—poor lady aged tremendously by stress and wickedness. New friend has pretty shoes, and they are made by this brand.
When was the last time you felt a new feeling, a feeling you don’t remember ever feeling before?
-Immaculata