HOT SCONES, JULIA, AND BEGINNINGS

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that's me!! 





Books for forgetting: If you've dated during the swipe right epoch, there's a good chance you've been ghosted. My best ghosting story came from an unlikely candidate – a man who baked me homemade scones on date number three, sealed them in Tupperware (still hot!!) and delivered them to my porch. And then never called or texted me again. Well, that's not true. He actually rang me two years later (TWO YEARS LATER!!!!) with an explanation that <never once> plagued me as to why the Houdini. I should have remembered Ghosted by Rosie Walsh and not picked up the phone. This book follows Sarah, who spends a perfect week with Eddie. He's the one!! But then Eddie vanishes. And she simply cannot quell her need for an explanation. She eventually gets one all right. It's satisfyingly dramatic and an ending you may or may not predict. Having received all the details around scone-man's ghosting, I can say confidently that some things are better left unsaid. 



What I'm writing: In last week's In My Own Words, I tried to answer the question, why do I love to match outfits with my best friends? The writing was a little bit Carrie Bradshaw-esque and a lot of bit me. I rang my galpal after we hit send to say, woof, personal storytelling is fun, but where are my boundaries? Bear with me as I figure it out. You'd think I was new to writing for the world to see after 12 years of doing it. But breaking out of the box that I wrote myself into (Oh hi there, self-growth/career-growth box) is going to take some time and some misses. But I'd love you to help me out by sending a writing prompt that you'd like to see me answer. Reply to this email with ideas! Examples that were given to me via IG: Tell us about a time you were scammed. Tell us about a time you thought he was the one but wasn't. Tell us about the pop-culture nugget that lives rent-free in your head and why. I'll answer it via an upcoming Thursday's In My Own Words!

WOMEN’S STUDIES


What gets passed down becomes our history. A few for the canon: 

I've loved Julia Roberts for as long as I can remember, and I came across this 1993 Vanity Fair cover story that was pure Julia gold, but also a battering of patriarchal bullshit from the reporter – it read like a gradual crescendo of sexist remarks. Julia handled most of them with the grace of a then 25-year-old going on 65. Still, it pissed me off that the women in the limelight continuously have to face comments like the one she gets here: “You're famous for all the men you've dated.” 



No one has dealt with that flavor of accusation more than Taylor Swift. Like everyone else on the planet, I listened to her album The Tortured Poets Department all the way through on Friday. I liked it. There were at least two songs that had me convinced she and I dated the same person (which highlights the Taylor writing specialty: achieving the universal through the highly specific). As a huge fan of Florence and the Machine, their collaboration on Florida!!! is my current fave. This critique of the album mirrored many of my own observations, but regardless of the nitpicks, what an artist she is. I will forever applaud the stamina of her creative drive.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here's one of mine: 

I've been thinking a lot about what it means to live a creative life. The highs, the lows, and following our life force wherever she goes. In the last week, some pieces on what it means to begin, and begin again, have anchored my heart. The New York Times Magazine has a beautiful feature story about why all artists remain perpetual beginners – it has given me comfort as my mind reels over what will I do? “There’s an undeniable mystery in why some among us become artists, but there’s a greater mystery to me still in those who survive the vicissitudes of creative life...” I can solve that mystery: It's like our Lady Swift. Keep creating. Keep showing up. And no matter what they say, always dig in for the stamina to begin again.



And if anyone out there is arm wrestling their writing, this piece is a beautiful and tactical collection of wisdom.

Woman on xx