Must Do Before Tomorrow List: I actually have some freelance stuff that’s due tomorrow, which is kind of good, because I don’t get to sit around and be all freaked out. My launch party isn’t until this Saturday, at the library at the end of my road. There will be cake!

I’ve also got to order Hope is a Ferris Wheel by Robin Herrera, who was my classmate at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Robin is a fantastic writer and artist, and one of the funniest people I know. I’m thrilled that our debuts are launching on the same day!

Arm: Felix! He’s a rescued blue and gold macaw who we’ve had for several years. He enjoys nuts, arm hair, bells, old pants, clementines, and the Bee Gees. He does not enjoy shred guitar, people with face paint, and anyone doing the dishes.

(There’s a character in Strange Sweet Song called the Felix, but she’s not named after Felix the bird. Although they both can get pretty homicidal.)

Bookshelf: The library I amassed for my junior high classroom that then had to come live with me when the program got cut. All the novels and picture books and comic books from my childhood. A 9-volume version of Les Miserables my parents got me for my 8th grade graduation. The 13 volumes of A Series of Unfortunate Events. All the Terry Pratchetts. My great grandfather’s Balzacs from his days at Proctor Academy just before WWI, and the new novels my friends Beatrice and Olivier have brought me from France. Novels — classic, trashy, whimsical, awful, fantastic — that have come down through distant and not-so-distant generations of my family. Books by authors I love and authors who are friends. Those are the best.

Ceiling: Spiders. There are a lot of spiders in my apartment. Mostly big ones now. They live predominantly over my shower, and they scuttle for cover when I turn on the water. Can you have too many spiders? I don’t know.

Playlist: Stravinsky’s incredible Symphony of Psalms, one of my favorites, that I’m re-memorizing for a concert run at the beginning of April. I’ve usually got some choral work or other on repeat. I sing in the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, the chorus of the Boston Symphony Orchestra/Boston Pops, and we do virtually everything from memory. I put in a lot of study time! And, of course, My Chemical Romance. Because Gerard Way. Yep.

PS3: Dragon Age 2 for the forty-bazillionth playthrough. When I need to step back and get my brain in order, video games are my happy place. Launching my first novel is awesome, don’t get me wrong. But it’s also terrifying and stressful. Sometimes you just have to immerse yourself in another world for a little while, and it helps if, in that world, you get to wield a big sword.

Kitchen Table: Pickles, ibuprofen, a couple of empty Red Bull cans, a still-wrapped fortune cookie, a tube of Cool Mint Colgate, and a baggie of the Strange Sweet Song bookmarks I had printed up to give away. Swag!