🚀The Dark Age: Muddle and revise
Hi, friends! I’m writing this a day late (apologies), but maybe nobody really noticed? If you are anything like me, you subscribe to many newsletters such as...
Making and pointing
Making and pointing Hello, friends! Today's newsletter is a few hours late because I'm on a break, and, to be honest, forgot to write something. That's good,...
🚀The Dark Age: Astronauts Don't Get Pregnant!
Hello, friends! If you've been keeping a pulse on the rapid change in the AI space, perhaps you've seen things like Microsoft's AI that says it wants to be...
In the mood
Hello, friends! Before I forget: St. Martin's Press is conducting a Goodreads giveaway for The Edge of Sleep! There are two weeks remaining to enter your...
🚀The Dark Age: Skimping on the details
Hello, friends! Squish and I have been taking turns reading to one another at night. She'll choose something to read to me one night, and I'll read something...
Ted Lasso, misappropriater of quotations
Hello, friends! Last week I mentioned The Menu, which is a recent movie about an exclusive restaurant and its privileged guests. Of course it's more than...
🏷️🤑📚️ Barnes & Noble pre-order sale: The Edge of Sleep
Hello, friends! A quick bonus newsletter this week to share a special offer from Barnes & Noble: From Wednesday, 1/25, to Friday, 1/27, you can get 25% off...
🚀The Dark Age: Casual encounters of the third kind
Hello, friends! If you’ve been paying attention to the internet at all in the last year, you’ve probably heard people discussing AI, and what good or evil it...
Take a second
Good morning, friends! As I write this it's Monday morning, Martin Luther King Day, and I'm enjoying a bit of daylight here in the dining room. It's been...
🚀The Dark Age: Nervous breakdowns in space
Hello, friends! I've just completed the day's work on The Dark Age, finishing another part of Philip's story. Spending time writing this character has me...
2023, don't let me down
👋 Hello again! I’m writing this on Monday, January 2, the final day of a short winter break. Tomorrow I return to work, and the new year gets rolling in the...
That's a wrap on 2022
Hello, friends! We’re coming up on the end of another year. Because this will be the final newsletter this year (I’ll be taking the next two weeks off, and...
🚀The Dark Age: Fathers and daughters and time
Hello, friends! We're approaching the end of (yet another long) year, and while I'll share how my 2022 reading habits played out in my main newsletter, I've...
The Edge of Sleep
Hi, friends! Very happy to share some just-announced publishing news today... What if the whole world fell asleep...and didn’t wake up again? Dave Torres, a...
🚀The Dark Age: Escaping the grind
Hello, friends! This is the 100th edition of Letters from Hill House. That's including all of these Dark Age letters, the first of which appeared in April...
Enlargement over happiness
Good morning, friends! Can you believe this is the ninety-ninth of these newsletters? As I write this, it's Sunday, and I'm a little behind on my own...
🚀The Dark Age: Schrödinger’s spaceman
🚀The Dark Age: Schrödinger’s spaceman Hello, friends! The Dark Age sometimes feels to me like several different kinds of novels in one. The largest part of...
A sloppy drum solo
Hello, friends! It’s gorgeously foggy as I write this, a little past eight Monday morning. Down the slope from Hill House, roughly equidistant between our...
🚀The Dark Age: Arses, asses, and chairs
Hello, friends! In the last update, I wrote about all of my projects in a state of waiting. As these things tend to do, one of them broke free a day later....
Give it all, give it now
Hello, friends! I've been thinking a lot about deep work lately: About how difficult it can be to enter any kind of focused state when life and its many...
🚀The Dark Age: The doldrums!
Good morning, friends! I find myself in an uneasy state. When I sit down at my writing desk, I am projectless, oddly adrift. It isn't, of course, that I have...
At least I tried
Good morning, friends! I’m writing this on a Monday, the beginning of a new work week. I’ve been up for a few hours now. All summer I’ve had this reliable...
🚀The Dark Age: There goes another orbit
Hello, friends! I’m sitting here in my study at the tail end of a week’s vacation. Our family’s still taking COVID precautions, so we didn’t travel anywhere...
Living in a van under the stars
Hello, friends! I’m off work this week, and spending that time bouncing between good books, three-hour naps, and revisions of my current work-in-progress,...
🚀The Dark Age: Science? What's that?
Hello, friends! Recently Squish has taken a strong interest in astronomy. As a result, we’ve been watching a large number of science videos on YouTube....
Only one story to tell
Hello, friends! I came across this quote, attributed to the playwright Arthur Miller, though I can't seem to track it back to its source: I’m a writer, and...
🚀The Dark Age: A completed draft
Hello, friends! I’m happy to share an update with you: The first draft of The Dark Age is complete! Ordinarily I’d let the manuscript sit awhile, then circle...
A comb with teeth missing
Hello, friends! Hayao Miyazaki is eighty-one years old, and legendary in the world of animation. There's a good chance you've seen some of his movies,...
🚀The Dark Age: Am hold you. Always.
Hello, friends! One of my favorite things to do when I like a piece of media—a book, a TV show, a movie, a song, etc.—is to go hunting for other things like...
Why aren't you faster than you are?
👋 Hi, friends! This week I'm thinking about the expectations that writers feel they must meet. I had a conversation a week ago about writing, and someone...
🚀The Dark Age: Writing well takes time
Hello, friends! I’ve had a very good weekend. Late last week I handed to my editor the copyedited ghostwritten manuscript, which means I’m more or less done...
No, no, no, no, no
Hello, friends! It's been a busy couple of weeks over here. While squarely in the middle of working on The Dark Age, the copyedits for my ghostwritten novel...
🚀The Dark Age: Resolve the goldfish
Hello, friends! I'm once again juggling novels: A couple of days ago, the editor of my ghostwriting project returned the manuscript to me, glowing with...
Just keep the bear
Good morning, my friends! The past week has not been friendly to my writing. On the days I did write, nothing felt quite good enough; on other days, I sat at...
🚀The Dark Age: Bricks and mortar
Hello, friends! A few months ago I came across this tweet from Heidi Pitlor, who has been the series editor of The Best American Short Stories for about 15...
Unforgivable mistakes
Hello, friends! I’m writing this Monday afternoon. Today marks the end of a short vacation. Ordinarily, at a time like this, I’d be feeling a bit of the...
🚀The Dark Age: Crossing the midpoint
Hello, friends! As I write this newsletter I’m entering a week-long vacation. “Vacation” doesn’t really mean all that much these days, since I’m not going...
Five-hour naps to soothe the soul
Hello, friends! A couple of letters ago, I wrote about creativity and walking and the dastardly hill that lays outside our front door. I’d like to say I’ve...
🚀The Dark Age: The most difficult character to write
Hello, friends! I've just finished writing a new scene in Fran's part of The Dark Age. Fran's story is woven throughout the entire novel, but this part...
Talk to me, Goose
Hello, friends! Happy Memorial Day weekend. This weekend, Top Gun: Maverick, was released. I grew up watching the original movie, and for the last few years...
🚀The Dark Age: What a family is for
Hello, friends! Lately I feel like I'm either scrambling to keep up with all the things I need to do, or I'm opting out altogether, and doing puzzles or...
What does Google smell like?
Hello, friends! Last week, my daughter decided the internet was garbage, and old books were gold. “Don’t you just think books are a better place to find...
🚀The Dark Age: Blowing up race cars
Hi, friends! Lately I’m thinking a lot about foreshadowing and echoes. Recently I watched Ford v. Ferrari again. I love this movie. It shows up to do a job,...
Hill House boss battle
👋 Hello, friends! One of my favorite things about where I live is this view: Each morning I sit at our dining table and, over breakfast, do a little reading,...
🚀The Dark Age: Summer goals, and an excerpt
Well, hello, friends! I've set myself a goal. It would be irresponsible of me to share that goal here, so that's what I'm going to do: I'm going to finish a...
Little bubbles of time
Hello, friends! Squish is reading her way through Madeleine L’Engle’s Time quintet presently. You know the books: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A...
🚀The Dark Age: Echoes
Hello, friends! There are times when, while working on a project, it feels like the world is echoing your themes right back to you. I don’t mean this in any...
How to fill the space between books
Hello, friends! What do you do when you’re between books? Yesterday I finished reading a mystery (I won’t name it, as it may be my least favorite book by an...
🚀The Dark Age: Juggling two novels
Hello, friends! I'm writing this as a week-long break comes to a close. I think here at Hill House we're all a little bummed to see it wind down. It's been a...
Write the ending first
Hello, friends! It’s my week off from work, and while I’m not traveling anywhere, I’ve got a lot on the docket. Though I haven’t taken one of my customary...