Tsk tsk. I had to check the calendar to write here and well, um it's much later than I thought. I got sick. Again. I've had the flu (or maybe once, COVID) twice, in TWO months! First came the body aches seized my limbs, then fire scorched my throat, a flood swallowed my sinuses, and it truly felt like my head was trapped in a deep freezer. I'm actually still trying to make a full recovery, but this period has been strangely perfect.

In my fog, I struggled to consume short-form content and social media, so I turned to books and reflection. Slow reading was the order and I started reading six books, finished four (re-read one nostalgic favorite!), tried out a new "reading tracker" app (Margins - lovely landing page), and listened to parts of this podcast episode twice.

I updated my baby blog: 1. added a new 'internet treasures' section, flip through a bunch of links that deeply resonate with me, in a kind of public diary form 2. posted two book reviews and a blog post about my budding obsession with book reviews (I know...) 3. added a notes section, mostly to capture quotes.

I don't get the hype around Rick Rubin's Creative Act. Couldn't read it linearly, so I tried random sections—same result. Any 'successful' artist could've written it, it's mostly platitudes and vague musings. Maybe it’s meant to be read when you are lost? I can see it being useful when you're desperately stuck or in your very early 20s (when self-help is most alluring) but otherwise it's a coffee-table prop.

My Jean Rhys deep dive has been very rewarding (for my curiosity). What began with revisiting Wide Sargasso Sea, a middle school favorite whose brilliance somehow reclaimed Bronte's Bertha, led me to her collected letters, published by the same house. This marks my first foray into an author's letter collection, and what an intimate portal it provides! These authentic, real-time communications preserve her essence far more faithfully than any retrospective biography could (Rhys does have an unfinished autobiography). The unvarnished Rhys emerges, letter by letter. Reviews forthcoming.

BOOK REVIEWS!!!

Younger me would've been shocked (and dismayed) by my obsession with book reviews. It's an art! James Wood, Parul Sehgal, every LRB and TLS contributor (including Virginia Woolf!), the list feels both endless and tiny. The Metropolitan Review, a new Substack is nailing it and might be my favorite publication there.

Speaking of Substack, I've loved spending time there for the past six months - Notes has basically replaced Twitter. A 75/25 split between long-form and short-form in my scrolling has been much more palatable.

I came across Writers' Hour Magazine on there and have been submitting to their weekly prompt contest—this week marks my fourth. Loving it, rejection and all. I learn so much from various writing Substacks, and this is where I put it into practice. Long way to go, but it feels good.

Yes, I agree:

​Engineering Impossible Architectures essay by Karen Russell: need to design rules, create consequences for the characters, pay extreme attention to emotion (reactions to said consequences), and get the reader to care!

This Ottessa Moshfegh Interview (podcast, so loosely quoting here):