I just need to say something about micro/macroaggressions in publishing. It's not just painful to weather these things as a Black, POC, and/or queer author--it is costly. I hear about what happened today and think about the blow to mental health AND the working brain power taken.

As authors when we show up to the page we use our minds, our emotions, and our energy. These experiences unsettle us on every level. I have lost anywhere from several hours to full DAYS of working brain power processing and recovering from micro/macroaggressions against WHO I AM.

Experiences that, in effect, are an undermining of my identity. These aren't hurt feelings. These harms exist within a spectrum of oppression, and for many identities, physical violence, historic or current, is on one end. Also there? Loss of access, $, security.

And you have to work thru that, sometimes more than you expect, before getting back to the work. To writing. This is costly when writing is your job, even more so when you are wrestling with and deconstructing oppression in your stories, as many of us are.

What happened today was costly. Not just painful. Or horrifying. Or inappropriate. Or mismanaged. And I hate that so many of us have to develop the skills to *recover from incidents* alongside the expected skillsets of the job, like writing craft, branding, and career strategy.

But "time to recover from incidents that are demeaning, insulting, and devaluing of your existence and lived experiences, of your family and/or your people and/or things you cannot change about yourself" is not in the publishing contract. It's not built into your deadlines.

This type of recovery and "get back up again" is not accounted for when negotiating. And you can't always predict how much it will cost, how much time it will take, and how to prevent another round.

You can cultivate a good team as best you can, and a circle of other authors for support. And try to look for signs. But today and this week shows that these incidents can happen to any of us, at any level, at any time, with adults or children. And wow. That's a lot to take in.

I don't have all the answers and tools. I do my best, and support my peers and educate when I can. If I can. But I just wanted to speak on this hidden cost and impact. to every author who has taken a hit this week.