I’m struggling to work on my newest project at the moment, so naturally, I decided the best way to manage this mini creative block was to make up a whole new assignment for myself.
Sometimes, the only way is through, right?
I’ll be honest. I’m starting this on a bit of a whim—which makes sense. When I write, I’m a pantser, no question. But if travel blogging through the 2010s taught me anything, it’s that these projects are meant to start as one thing and evolve into whatever it is they want to be (and if you’re really lucky, take you wherever you want to go).
Over the past few years, I’ve been slowly dipping my toe into this semi-blogging world of Substack. More recently, I felt pulled to start my own little collection of things… musings, current obsessions, feelings about the state of writing as both a freelancer and (aspiring) novelist.
So, here we are.
Without further ado, a brief recap of things that made a mark this June, plus, at the very end, my favorite writing prompt from a monthly critique group call.
read.
Hello, Beautiful by Ann Napolitano. I’m a sucker for all things Little Women, so it’s shocking it took me as long as it did to dive into this one. I opted for the audiobook, and I needed a minute to adjust to Maura Tierney’s relaxed, conversational approach to narration. But once I was in, I felt like I was sitting with a friend who was casually telling me stories about this intricate, complicated family she knows.
There’s also so much to love on a line level, but this quote is such a stunning observation on motherhood (in a book full of stunning observations on motherhood), I had to pause for a moment and think about it:
“Julia wondered if all four girls’ voices lived inside their mother.”
An Innocent Abroad in Mark Twain’s Paris by Caity Weaver. I’ve loved Caity’s writing since her Gawker days, and this was exactly as delightful as I hoped it would be. I inhaled it in the morning over coffee and grinned the entire time.
The Antico Forno Roscioli cookbook. We’ve been going to Roscioli in Rome for over a decade, but it seems the rest of the world has caught on. Thrilled for them, sad for us, relieved we can relive the magic at home now. The first recipe we tackled was their famous carbonara, and it was a hit all around. Honestly, the cookbook is exactly what you want it to be.
see.
Jon Batiste at Royal Festival Hall. We somehow nabbed tickets to his sold-out Maestro tour at Royal Festival Hall and I’m not overstating things when I say it was pure magic. He’s kicking off a US tour soon, so if you have the chance to see his genius in real life, go. Go, go, go. And pick up The Book of Alchemy by his wife, Suleika Jaouad, while you’re at it.
The Piano (series 3). In preparation for Jon Batiste, the kids’ piano teacher suggested we watch the latest season of The Piano on Channel 4. If you haven’t seen the show, two judges travel around the UK visiting train stations with public pianos so they can listen to amateur pianists share their talents. Jon is the newest judge this season, alongside British singer Mika. They have a quirky, borderline contentious Odd Couple energy together, but the whole thing is incredibly charming.
Sirens on Netflix. This was the visual equivalent of a fun, campy beach read, but I could probably watch the heavy-hitting cast play a game of Monopoly and be entertained. Really, they had me the moment we arrived at Julianne Moore’s coastal estate somewhere in Fictional, New England.
shop.
Saucy Books. If you don’t live in Notting Hill and aren’t constantly lurking on Booktok / Booksky / Bookstagram, then you might not know it, but London’s first romance bookshop opened earlier this month to much acclaim. The owner is a fellow American expat, and the shop is as cute as social media leads you to believe. Go for the current beach read-themed aesthetic, but plan to head back when the seasons change. Apparently, they’ll update the design regularly to fit the reader moods of the moment. For my first visit, I opted for Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan and One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle.
The Six Bells. Annoyingly for me, this is a long-distance love affair because they don’t ship to the UK, but oof, it is most definitely love. And I’m now dying to stay at their Countryside Inn in the Hudson Valley someday, somehow.
PINCH Design. We’re currently furnishing a tiny cottage in the Cotswolds, which is emotionally draining after a horrific year of scammy contractor + shameless interior designer drama. But clicking around the Pinch website has been a truly reinvigorating way to feel inspired again. I want it all.
write.
One of the things I’m most grateful for these days is being a member of two amazing writing groups, both full of incredible women. The first I found through Write Mentor, and the best part about us is that we can fall off our meetings for a stretch but then pick right back up as if nothing has changed.
The second I met through my Curtis Brown Creative course back in 2022, and we’ve managed to all keep regularly in touch for three years running (mostly thanks to our unofficial leader Rachel, I think we can all agree). We do our best to meet monthly, and we usually succeed. One reason, I think, is that we make a point to hop on together it even if no one feels like swapping any pages. In that case, we fill our calls with anecdotes and life updates and, at the end, a writing prompt.
(This is starting to feel like when you find a great recipe online but you have to first read the blogger’s 30,000 word essay on why they wear red lipstick when they cook.)
ANYWAY, during our most recent call, Rachel suggested we do a writing exercise inspired by Coco Mellors, as shared with the audience when we went to her paperback launch of Blue Sisters back in February.
this month’s prompt:
Write a scene where the characters are experiencing emotions incongruous to their setting—for example, laughing at a funeral.
le fin.
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Disclosure: If you buy some of the books linked above, I may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops.