Ampersand Gazette #91

Welcome to the Ampersand Gazette, a metaphysical take on some of the news of the day. If you know others like us, who want to create a world that includes and works for everyone, please feel free to share this newsletter. The sign-up is here. And now, on with the latest …  

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The Subversive Joy of BookTok

My professional life revolves around reading and writing books. But for years, I carried a little secret: I didn’t read much for fun or pleasure. This wasn’t always the case. As a teen I devoured books, and my library card was my most prized possession.

But somewhere between graduate school and professional academic life, books became objects to analyze, critique or assign. Slowly, without realizing, I traded reading for binge-watching Netflix and doom-scrolling social media.

But after November’s election, I needed an escape from the barrage of dread. I bought an e-reader. At first, I loaded it with books I thought I should read—prizewinners, critical darlings. But that just felt like homework.

Then, late one night, the algorithm led me to a whimsical and hilariously dramatic corner of TikTok known as BookTok, where people gush about novels that supposedly altered their brain chemistry, or that they wish they could inject directly into their veins.

The algorithm caught on, and soon my feed was full of people speaking passionately about the thrill of a good story. In the aftermath of an election that left so many of us feeling powerless and adrift, the simple act of reading fiction—and finding community among fellow readers—offers more than comfort.

To read for joy, for wonder, for emotional truth is to hold onto something deeply human. And in a moment when the stories we’re allowed to tell and read are increasingly politicized, if not outright banned, that act feels quietly radical. In this context, reading for pleasure becomes more than self-care—it becomes a form of defiance, a way to reconnect with imagination, emotion and the fragile work of hope.

Escapism, it turns out, isn’t always avoidance. Sometimes it’s a way back to yourself. In the past five months I’ve read more novels than in the previous five years combined.

According to the American Library Association, book bans hit record highs in 2024. As politicians work to erase these stories from classrooms and libraries, young people are seeking them out, turning to books for what they can’t find on the news: nuance, empathy and the space to imagine a different world. We should all double down on reading for pleasure, and to feed our imaginations.

At a time when creative arts are under attack, when libraries face cuts and outright purges, BookTok creators are encouraging people to read. Not for grades or prestige, but to find joy and sanctuary in deeply troubling times.

Thanks to a BookTok tutorial, I learned how to connect my library account to my device, allowing me to replace the infinite scroll with what the infinite read. In a political moment defined by scarcity—of empathy, of imagination, of hope—it has given me a new feeling of abundance.

So if you’re spiraling, as I was, open a book. Download a novel. Listen to a voice that’s not your own. Get lost in an absurdist plot. Not because it’s noble or productive or good for you, but because it’s fun. And if it happens to alter your brain chemistry? Even better. 

Excerpted from an Opinion Essay by Yarimer Bonilla in The New York Times
The Subversive Joy of BookTok
June 10, 2025 

One of the things that keeps me laughing in these ridiculous times of ours is the counter in my Kindle that tells me how many weeks in a row I’ve read a book. It disappeared the other day, and that made me laugh even more. I might have broken it. 

I can tell you how many weeks in a row I’ve read a book. Every week. Every single week of every single month of every single year since I taught myself to read at age three. (For inquiring minds: 3,328 weeks.) Kindle doesn’t stand a chance with numbers like that. 

I’m not a BookTok-er, although I did take a class in how to do it. It doesn’t appeal to me as a promotion mechanism, but that’s because of its brevity. It’s too choppy for my taste. That’s the same reason I prefer a good, long series of books to standalones, no matter how many bestseller lists they’re on. 

The most interesting thing to me about Dr. Bonilla’s venture into fiction isn’t reading it, although, as I said, I do a lot of that. Because I do so much factual research for my books, I read fiction in the evenings as my treat. 

But, again, the most interesting thing to me is not reading it, it’s writing it.

Dr. Bonilla writes, “To read for joy, for wonder, for emotional truth is to hold onto something deeply human. And in a moment when the stories we’re allowed to tell and read are increasingly politicized, if not outright banned, that act feels quietly radical. In this context, reading for pleasure becomes more than self-care—it becomes a form of defiance, a way to reconnect with imagination, emotion and the fragile work of hope.”

Switch the verbs: To write for joy, for wonder, for emotional truth … I do those things. Every day. To write becomes a form of defiance … definitely my form. To write is a way to reconnect with imagination, emotion, and the fragile work of hope. All of the above. I check every box.

That’s why I take on social issues, or at least one social issue in depth, in every book I write. It doesn’t really matter which issue, except that it’s a human issue. There are all kinds of activism in this world, Beloved, as many kinds of activism as there are activists.

Most of my books live in the category fiction, it’s true, but they also write worlds of people working hard to live based on their real values, taking on real issues, and working things out. As Tony reminds me, “All of my books hold redemption within them.”

Because that’s the world I want to live in.

Where would you like to live? Read those books, and if they don’t yet exist (as was so in my case,) then I guess you’ll just have to write them.

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“Our Lives Are A Series of ‘And’” 

Ezra Klein interviewed Kathryn Schulz about her new book, Lost & Found …

I’m here to try to figure out: What’s the feeling of “and”? What does this idea, this word do for us? And what’s the role that it plays in language? Which is a different way of saying: What’s the role that it plays in how we think?

Did you feel like you came to an answer to that? What is the feel of “and”?

A little bit. In distinction from every other conjunction that the English language has—“but,” “if,” “or”—all of those actually describe a necessary relationship. “If,” “this,” “then,” “that”—that’s a causal relationship. It actually tells us something about the two halves of the sentence we’re creating.

The beautiful thing about “and” is you can stick any two things together with it. They can have absolutely no relationship to each other—I give you “apples and oranges.” Or they can have every relationship to each other—“Romeo and Juliet.” Or none on Earth—“crab apples and tuxedos.”

So part of this feeling of “and” is the sense that everything is connected to everything else. Which, I want to say, can be a really beautiful thing.

The sense that everything is connected to everything else is also the sense that we can make a difference. If indeed we are all connected, then our actions matter: They matter to each other, they matter to people far away, they matter to people we will never meet because they’re not even born yet. It’s overwhelming, but also kind of hopeful. Kind of exciting.

But there’s this other feeling that “and” has: the feeling that something is about to happen. If you’re telling me a story and you stop talking, what I’m going to say to you is: And? Meaning: What happens next? It’s almost a feeling of suspense.

“And” is this little word that propels us into the future. In that sense, it gestures toward temporal abundance, too. So I think it is a feeling of connection, it’s a feeling of continuation, it is a feeling of abundance. All of those, to me, are fundamentally and ultimately quite hopeful feelings.

Well, then let’s end on a point of word nerdery. I learned something in your book that I didn’t know, which is that the English alphabet used to end with the symbol for “and.” I was really surprised to learn that.

I was really surprised to learn that, too. I mean, talk about scale and space and time. This was true until quite recently, all the way up to the end of the 19th century: When children learned the alphabet, the procession started with A, B, C and ended X, Y, Z, &. That’s literally how they were taught the alphabet.

But why was it part of the alphabet? We don’t spell words with the “and” sign.

The only answer I can reasonably provide is it actually did feel that crucial. We learned to write the alphabet so we could learn to write words, and we learn to write words so we can learn to write sentences. And actually the word “and” is the third most common word in the English language. The only ones we use more often are the article “the” and various conjugations of the verb “to be.”

But I agree, it’s very interesting. It suggests a kind of importance to the ability to make an “and,” to incorporate that into how we write down our experience of the world.

As a metaphor for what you worked with in your book and what a lot of us are working with in our lives, it struck me as quite moving.

What a beautiful idea that anything should end in “and.” That something that seems like an ending is actually an explicit reminder that there’s always more, that something else can be connected, that something else can happen next. I find it very beautiful. 

Excerpted from “Our Lives Are A Series of ‘And’” in The New York Times,
An interview with author Kathryn Schulz on The Ezra Klein Show
May 30, 2025 

My friend the late Barbara Winter was on the “Seeds” list almost from the beginning. Over the years she reprinted them in her Winning Ways newsletter. I miss her, and I want to tell you about an email I received from her now almost four years ago. 

I signed Ampersand Gazette from the beginning with “Be Ampersand.” Barbara wrote and asked me what that meant, and how to do that. She’s the only one. 

Here’s what I wrote to her: 

“Here’s what it means: We live in a world of polarity based on a universal law called the Complementarity of Opposites. If you look, you’ll see it everywhere. Stop-Go. Day-Night. Expansion-Contraction. It’s a world based on Or. 

“I’m sure you’ll agree when I say that it’s not working—not for a lot of us. And, we need a world that works for everyone. No exceptions. None. At all. Ever. For e-v-e-r-y-o-n-e. Forever. 

“So when I say, “Do you ampersand?” I’m asking if you, too, want an inclusive world, one that isn’t all about you v. me, or your tribe v. mine, or your God v. my God. Nope, when I say everyone, I mean everyone.  

“This practice, and one other—saying yes to what-is—are how I run my life. Every day. I created  The Ampersand Society as a sort of loose order, if you will, of people who also want to live based on And rather than Or.” 

Please don’t misunderstand. I’ve been behind Ampersand Living for a long, long time, and still, I screw it up. I forget that we’re all in this together. I forget that we’re more similar than different. I forget that if I withhold something from you, I also withhold it from me. I forget that if I want X blessing, I have to be okay with you having it, too. 

It’s easy to flip into Or. Too easy. But an Or world is a rough one to live in happily. In an Or world, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough money, there’s not enough love. In an Or world, if I win then you have to lose. In an Or world, no one is more important than me, myself, and I. In an Or world, I feel cheated unless I get the first, the best, the most. 

An Or world is a world of scarcity, or as I have been known to say, Scare City. In an Or world, people are afraid all the time. In an Or world, life is even more capricious than it seems now. In an Or world, we’re mad all the time. In an Or world, we hate.  

I don’t want to live in a world like that, and I certainly don’t want my loved ones to live in a world like that. I don’t even want strangers to live in a world like that. 

In an And world, there’s more than enough of everything. In an And world, we know how to be kind to one another. In an And world, we share. In an And world, we celebrate one another. In an And world, there’s always another chance. In an And world, you, in fact, everyone, is just as important as I am. In an And world, I want you to be blest too. With all good things. Always. Forever. 

G. K. Chesterton wrote, There is one thing which gives radiance to everything—it is the idea of something just around the corner. It is this sense of ‘and,’ this sense of discovery, this sense of curiosity that creates life every day on this planet.  

It's no mistake that the alphabet used to end with &, no mistake at all. Because isn’t there always the potential for something extra, something more, something better? Sure. Infinite possibility is real.  

It’s also how we create the future. And that’s why Ampersand Living is such a good idea. 

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In honor of Pride … and the courage it’s taking all of us to stay proud of who we are … 

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Here’s a universal affirmation. It works every time, for everyone, always and forever …

You’ll be amazed at how this one shift will change your perspective.

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 Here’s a bit of swell news … 

Oklahoma! Hex is #1 on the
Metaphysical Fiction Bestseller List! 

Which means it’s an Amazon Best Book of 2025 So Far! 

And wasn’t that a wee Giftie to get up to three mornings this week, and counting … 

No wonder I’m feeling drawn to writing Mex again. It’s been a while, and I’m so looking forward to Book Eleven. It’s called Shrew This! and it’s a romp through Taming of the Shrew. 

 I’ve been writing about starting this blog for a long time, a long time, and it just hasn’t happened. That’s not like me. But obstacle after obstacle has been thrown in my path toward getting it done, so what’s up? 

I decided to take a page out of my own book, and follow my own advice. Get still. Spirituality, in all its magical disguises, as I’ve said before, is going to have to be a part of our global recovery. We humans need that sense of belonging, that we have a proper place in the universal scheme of things. I entered the stillness. 

And once I did, the answers started to come. A huge relief. Wait. It’s not quite time. People are still too outraged to go within. Let it play out. When you feel the outrage turning to enrage, then start. It’s this kind of connection, or reconnection to the Cosmic Connection that, forgive the redundancy, keeps us connected to the Divine, to ourselves, and to one another.  

Part of living a spiritual life is knowing what you value. Without figuring out your own values, it’s hard to react appropriately to the world around you. Like Archimedes, lever or no, first, you need a place to stand, that place is always within, and it is foundational and spiritual. The place where you stand tallest, strongest, and best is with what you value. Without that, the lever is useless, and so is connection.  

So in the meantime, I’m taking questions for potential posts. AMA spiritual. Please.  

 When I send my books to my editor across the living room, I usually split them into two files, otherwise they can take forever to upload and appear. One of the little tricks one learns over the years … Tony has sent me back the first half, but then we decided I’d wait to incorporate the edits till I receive the second half. 

Here’s why. Each book is a world. It’s got a who, or several, a where, or several, a why, or several, and a how, or several. It’s not a place to dip into. It’s a place to go visit and stay for as long as it takes to get the book just right. When I’m incorporating editorial changes on a first round, interruption is not fun. It’s as important as the first draft otherwise I’ll lose the threads of that world. 

After I add them in, then we read the book aloud—the best way, bar none, to proofread, and then I’ll publish it. No guessing the date yet, but I’ll keep you posted. 

I finished Jaq Direct on Friday, June 13th! 

It was a tear, a mad dash, and a blast. And that means I’ve finished the series, which I’ve never done before. When The Subversive Lovelies, my speculative fiction series, arrived in my brain, it arrived whole. 

I knew it was four sisters, at least to start. I knew it was New York City. I knew it was late Victorian/early Edwardian. I knew they’d go into business, and appear to be doing one thing, but instead be doing another. And no, this does not mean I had an outline! Heaven forbid. 

I learned who they were. I learned what they wanted to do. I learned about the Gilded Age. I learned as I went, which is how I do all my books. 

I figured it out just now, and with the Jaq Direct count not yet finalized, I’ve written almost a million words for The Subversive Lovelies, and isn’t that a delicious fact? 

 I met with my favorite web wizard, and we were both under the weather so we made a plan to revisit the switch when everyone is on their feet and better. Yet another postponement! 

As I said, I’m feeling a pull toward Mex! I think the next writing project might be Shrew This!, book eleven of The Mex Mysteries, and that’s exciting. It’s my favorite Shakespeare play. I think I might write the first of three novellas, which are the next books of The Boots & Boas Romances, too. It’s called Assenting Transition, and it tells Geoff and Greg’s story. I’ve never written a novella before. They’re between 40,000 and 70,000 words as opposed to over 100,000. We’ll see. 

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I’m happy about Oklahoma! Hex being on the Bestseller List again. That book has over 40 reviews. Now, I need to get books 2-10, and The Mex In-Betweens reviewed, too. Can you help? 

As always, whichever book of mine you enjoy, would you please leave a stellar review, if you loved it? Those reviews are how others find indie authors like me.  

Reviews really are the engine that powers the career of an indie author.

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Tony Amato is my favorite editor for lots of reasons, but mostly because he has an uncanny ability to seek, find, see, and polish the truth of a writer’s voice.  

It doesn’t matter the genre either. I write mysteries, romances, speculative fiction, and nonfiction. Others of his roster write for academic journals, radio plays, micro-fiction, erotica, memoir, poetry, screenplays, essays, workbooks, teleplays—you name it. His incisive mind can help with any kind of writing.  

If the truth of your voice as a writer is in need, may I encourage you to reach out for Tony’s spectacular book-husbanding? Seriously, this is the guy. He’s edited my books for more than 20 years, so I ought to know. Find him here. Oh, and here’s his substack Subscribe here. 

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Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel by Loretta J. Ross 

From the blurb … From a pioneering Black feminist and MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, this urgent and exhilarating memoir-manifesto-handbook provides bold, practical new ways to transform conflicts into connections, even with those we’re tempted to walk away from.
In 1979, Loretta Ross was a single mother in Washington who’d had to drop out of Howard University. She was working at the DC Rape Crisis Center when the organization got a letter from a man in prison saying he wanted to learn how to not be a rapist anymore. At first, she was furious. As a survivor of sexual violence, she wanted to write back pouring out her rage. Instead, she made a different choice, a choice to reject the response her trauma was pushing her towards. This choice would set her on the path towards developing a framework that would come to guide her whole career: Rather than calling people out, try to call even your unlikeliest allies in. Hold them accountable—but with love.
Calling In is at once a handbook, a manifesto, and a memoir—because the power of Loretta Ross’s message comes from who she is and what she’s lived through. She’s a Black woman who’s deprogrammed white supremacists, and a survivor who’s taught convicted rapists the principles of feminism. With stories from her five remarkable decades in activism, she vividly illustrates why calling people in—inviting them into conversation instead of conflict and focusing on your shared values over a desire for punishment—is the more strategic choice if you want to make real change. And she shows you how to do so, whether in the workplace, on a college campus, or in your living room.
Courageous, awe-inspiring, and blisteringly authentic, Calling In is a “masterclass in constructive confrontation” (Adam Grant) and a practical new solution from one of our country’s most extraordinary change-makers—one anyone can learn to use to transform frustrating and divisive conflicts that stand in the way of real connection with the people in your life.” 

I know I say all the time that I don’t recommend books unless I’ve finished them, but this review gives that the lie once again. I do—especially when I think a book is urgently relevant to our time. Loretta Ross is a veteran of reproductive justice, and an avid supporter of human rights work. Her insights speak to our time with uncanny prescience. I’ll probably read this book again as soon as I finish it, it’s that good. 

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Are you waiting for a sign?
How about this one? 

Could these wings
belong to you?  

No one else needs to know
you have them,
but you need to know it
without a doubt.

The reason is so that you know
unmistakably that you can lift yourself
out of any situation, even if
it’s only in your mind.  

So if the pols, the news, the law,
the world, the doom
get you down, 

OPEN YOUR WINGS. 

I’ll say it again: 

OPEN YOUR WINGS,
AND TAKE FLIGHT. 

I am, without doubt, certain that And is the secret to all we desire.
Let’s commit to practicing And ever more diligently, shall we? 

Until next time,
Be Ampersand 

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