Hello! It’s been a while. Between moving (not exactly a gas, but I’m happy to have done it), traveling to the Midwest for some book events (a gas, and a joy to meet a bunch of women who read this newsletter), and hosting some American visitors (massive fun), I’ve been a bit distracted. But as we approach the last quarter of the year, I’m ready to return to routines (the good kind) and productivity (the non-masochistic kind).
Later this week I’m going to be starting a part-time freelance editing gig at The Mill, a very exciting local-media startup in the UK. “Very exciting” is usually business-speak for “dull as ditchwater,” but in this case, I mean it. I wasn’t looking for work, but the energy of founder Joshi Herrmann and the kind of writing they’re publishing made me want to re-commit to the 9-to-5, at least for a couple of days a week!
Now that Q4 is right around the corner, I’m also keen to get back to work on the proposal for my next book. I’ve been researching, my favorite bit, for a while, and I’ve discovered some CORKING nuggets, but I have to pause that fun and do the less exciting job of writing the proposal.
Amid all this, I don’t want to forget A PLACE OF OUR OWN: SIX SPACES THAT SHAPED QUEER WOMEN’S CULTURE. The book has now moved off the “New Nonfiction” tables, but its time isn’t over. (Pause for all manner of superstitious hand gestures and table rappings.) I warn you now that there’ll no doubt be many upcoming recommendations of its suitability as a holiday gift, but in the mean time it’s hard to know what to do to get the word out once interviews and events slow down. (I do have a couple of things coming up, though; see below.)
So, I did what any oversharing weirdo would do and started a YouTube channel! I watch a TON of YouTube—more than I watch TV, which I’m sure would shock anyone who has known me for a while. My YouTube tastes are undoubtedly psychologically revealing—I have spent more time watching studyTubers and houseworkTubers than I’ve ever done studying or doing household tasks—and I am particularly drawn to unglamorous content, you might even say to dullcore videos. (Of course, my own videos are FAR FROM DULL.)
Writer friends had warned me about the period a little bit after a book comes out, when the media focus has turned to the latest cycle of new releases, but you know you need to act to get the word out, without it being clear exactly what you could do. Making videos about the places I wrote in my book—as well as a bit of meta-content—felt like an action I could take. Maybe only 10 people would see the videos—that’s actually a pretty accurate count of how many viewers they’ve had so far—but that would be 10 more people who knew of the book’s existence.
To be fair, I haven’t exactly promoted them. I sent abashed emails to a couple (literally) of friends, and I forced one of our houseguests to watch one. But since this feels like a safe space, let me practice blabbing about my YouTube videos. Click these links if you would like to hear about “Why Feminist Bookstores Matter,” “Softball as a Tool for Lesbian-Feminist Organizing,” “7 Tips for Great Author Events” (yes, from a person who has done about seven of them; what a cheek!), and “A Tour of My Bookshelves.” (That last one is mostly because, just a few weeks after our move, my bookshelves haven’t yet become a disaster. Also, because I love looking at other people’s bookshelves.)
As the people who make YouTube videos about making YouTube videos always say, your first YouTube videos will suck. I don’t think mine suck exactly, but I hope they’ll get better as I keep making them. (A case in point: In the bookshelf one, I had originally filmed the A-roll thinking that a good chunk of it would not be seen, and that I would instead show video of my bookshelves with the audio serving as a voice-over. In the end, I switched to still photos and used quite a bit of the video, and I noticed that I look a lot less manic in the footage that I thought no one would see. So much to learn!)
COME SEE ME!: I’m a massive fan of Sinister Wisdom and its tireless editor Julie Enszer (tireless is such a weird adjective to apply to a human, but it always comes to mind for Julie, because she gets so much great work done), and I’m very excited for the virtual panel they have organized, in conjunction with Charis Books & More. I put the lovely banner up above, but the basic deets are that it’s a free Zoom event that will take place at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Oct. 9. You can get more info here. I’m also going to be on a panel at the Edinburgh Radical Bookfair in November, which will be live-streamed. I’ll share more info about that event once it’s all set.
RECOMMENDATIONS: More time between newsletters means it’s harder to choose just one thing to recommend. I’ve read some great books recently, but LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, is spectacular. The pace is extraordinary, so much so that friends have told me they found reading the physical book to be uncomfortably stressful, but the audiobook, narrated beautifully by Edoardo Ballerini, provides enough distance to avoid the anxiety.
LISTEN TO ME: I need to change this section to FROM ME or something, since the Working podcast came to a close at the start of September. Still, I have a few things for you to enjoy when you’ve finished all those YouTube videos! In the last couple of episodes of Working Overtime, Ronald Young Jr. and I talked about transitioning from one creative project to another (my key contribution here: get a new notebook!) and how to know when it’s time to leave a gig. Then in the final Working, Ronald, Isaac Butler, and I talked about the things we learned from hosting a show about the creative process. I also reviewed Pedro Almodóvar’s new book The Last Dream for the Washington Post. (TLDR, since I know the Post’s paywall isn’t kidding around: Pedro’s a genius of outstanding proportions, but you’d never know it from this book!)
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