Award-Winning Writer Alert
And, what do you want to see me write more about?
Hey there,
I’ve got some bits and bobs for you this week. Small chunks that might add up to a larger whole, or maybe not. Mostly I’m excited to be writing to you on time and also looking forward to lunch. 🤣
That Newspaper I Started
I haven’t had time to share this anywhere, but that little news publication I started a few months ago has been doing really well! I started on a whim on February 20, and 4 months later, on June 24, I won a real actual award from our local public access TV station for “Enthusiastic Newcomer.” Which perfectly encapsulates the energy I bring to this endeavor. I even got my own little highlights reel, which was super embarrassing to watch.
I’ve been a debate panelist, interviewed folks on TV and on my podcast, profiled political candidates, and covered important issues in my town. Now that primary campaigning season is upon us, I’m going to be interviewing some candidates for state office in the next couple weeks - which is super exciting! I also set up a table at our local Pride event on Sunday, where I got hot as blazes and a little sunburnt, but also made and reinforced valuable connections to folks in my community. I’m really proud of what I’ve been able to build and maintain, and am convinced I provide a public service that is of value to my community. Yay! 😊
Sleeptime - Worktime Sabotage
I feel like this could be a song in a really bad parody album by sleep-deprived moms like me who just can’t accomplish anything. But none of us have the time or the brainpower to create and record actual songs, so you’ll just have to imagine it.
I was up til midnight last night getting some work wrapped up because the sitter had to call out and I didn’t get to work during the day. This morning, my alarm went off - as always - at 6am. Just as I was about to swing my legs over the side of the bed, I heard the pitter-patter of little baby feet walking down the hallway. I went out into the living room to find my son just hanging out, looking for someone to play with.
Same thing happened yesterday.
So I’m staying up late to catch up on work, I’m getting up early to catch up on work, I’m hiring people to watch my kids so I can work, and still my time is being sabotaged. I keep telling myself this will pass, remembering those days when my older kids were in school all day and I was able to focus and work for six hours straight - but years feel interminable when it’s already been more than two, and there are still a couple more to go. Smack in the middle of a holding pattern that’s not supposed to be a holding pattern.
The good news is that my husband and my older kids take care of the younger one from time to time, so I do actually get stuff accomplished. Just not everything, which I guess I should just be used to by now.
The Book With No Name
I’m finally going to rename the book. I’m sure I’ve told you before that The Other Women is a title I just kinda came up with in 2018, before a single word of the book was written, because I had to name the project in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) progress tracker.
The more I write and read, the more I realize that this title, while I do believe it aptly captures a lot of what goes on in the book, is not evocative of the kind of book it is - which is super important. The Other Women seems like a kind of dark romance. Which it is most definitely not.
I’m marketing this book as upmarket (intelligent but readable) women’s fiction. Searching for women’s fiction titles gives me a lot of poetic sounding titles that suggest more of a feel than a theme or topic. So that’s what I’m on the search for: a title that suggests the feel of the book but doesn’t approach the content literally.
My friends offered some hilarious non-contenders the other day, including How Lucinda Got Her Womb Back and Whose Uterus Is It Anyway, when I had to come up with a title so I could submit the first 500 words to a contest, and I am now dead from laughter.
They nailed down a really good one, too, which I’m tentatively using, but I’m still keeping some brain cycles set aside to consider this in the background as I button up the manuscript draft for submissions in September.
Importantly, with the (*searches brain’s databanks to find a synonym for fuckery, but can’t; blame sleep deprivation*) fuckery coming out of the Supreme Court, this book is more relevant now than ever, and if someone doesn’t pick it up soon, I might just have to yeet it into the universe and watch what happens. I have, however, sent two queries in the last two weeks. So I’ll maybe have something to report back in another year. (I’m exaggerating. A little. But let’s be real - I might never have anything to report back because these agents, like many others, could just never respond.)
New Work?
I have some essay ideas swirling around in my brain, but aside from the one I pitched to The Cut, none of them is fully-formed enough to see the light of my bedroom yet, and unless I somehow obtain either more sleep, more caffeine, or both, they will probably be irrelevant by the time I get them together - like most of my best ideas, tbh.
The main one that’s been kicking around is about how this country is broken beyond repair, and we did this to ourselves. I’ve been trying to talk myself out of this one, because it feels so fatalist, but damn, people. I just can’t reconcile what’s been going on nationally with what our country says it is. Another idea is about how difficult it is to remember that not everyone has the same background knowledge as me on certain topics, especially after reading a book like Caste (see below).
I don’t know, what would you like to see me write about? Let me know using this handy dandy polling feature that Substack introduced last week. If you don’t see your answer here, just leave it in the comments.
What’s Entertaining Me?
I watched the last episode of The Time Traveler’s Wife this week - reluctantly because, like the book, I really, really didn’t want it to end. It was good, and I did not cry as much as I expected to. I was sad it was over, because I wanted to keep watching, but very happy at the loose ends it left hanging, because there is no freaking way they will not continue this series into another season. It was just so beautiful. And I’m not just talking about a frequently-nude Theo James. Although he is also beautiful.
What’s Enlightening Me
Enlightened is one word. Horrified is another. I’ve just finished Caste, and I will never forget it. I bookmarked quotes I wanted to pull out as I listened. Here’s one:
Slavery in this land was not merely an unfortunate thing that happened to Black people. It was an American innovation, an American institution, created by and for the benefit of the elites of the dominant caste and enforced by poorer members of the dominant caste who tied their lot to the caste system rather than to their consciences. Chapter 4
I’ll be sharing more of this on social media, if I ever get a chance to log on, and probably here in future installments. But in the meantime, I recommend we all read this book and reflect on our place in this system, and our role in perpetuating it - or breaking it down.
Until next time.
