write on, vol. 2: detective maggie takes on the internet
Dear friend,
Unless you are a far more virtuously unplugged human than I, you may know the feeling of falling prey to a sponsored Instagram post. Mine are typically food- and cooking-related, but after briefly browsing some dresses for the upcoming wedding szn*, the fashionbots served me up an ad for a cute dress from a company called Downeast Basics.
I thought, "hey that dress is cute!"
I thought, "Downeast as in Maine? I like Maine."
I thought, "will Instagram ever give me a moment of peace if I click through to this account?"
Reader, I clicked. After browsing a few more (still cute!) dresses on the site itself, I began to wonder: what sinister truths lurk behind the unobjectionable facade of this e-commerce brand? The prices were low enough that my first thoughts were poor manufacturing and labor practices, fast fashion devastating the global ecosystem... (I know, I'm a bundle of fun!). I found the "about us" page, which seemed fairly tame—they're actually a certified B-Corp (okay, okay) and donate a portion of their jewelry-related proceeds to fight human trafficking (good, I guess?). Yet it still seemed like a piece of the puzzle was absent. Under locations, I found the missing link: the company is based in Utah.
Friends, Instagram had delivered unto me a MORMON FASHION BRAND, which I discovered, on further Googling, has been described by one blogger as "both trendy and modest—a combination that can’t be beat." MormonWiki (yep, you read that right!) confirmed my suspicion: Downeast Basics was founded by three brothers, all members of the Church of Latter Day Saints, and now includes both apparel and home brands.
This is my absolute favorite kind of internet rabbit hole to go down, where I get to feel like an investigative reporter without leaving the comfort of my couch. I am happy to report that a deep dive on Downeast indicates that, as far as companies go, they actually don't seem too bad—the LDS Church is big on charity, and the nonprofits the company supports aren't the anti-LGBTQ terrors that you might imagine. I haven't bought any of the dresses (at least not yet!), but I also just don't buy many new clothes, partially because I rarely have anywhere to wear the ones I already have, partially because I don't really need them and I'm trying to be a less wasteful human, and partially because I'd rather spend my money on kitchen cabinets and books and nice restaurant meals (as below!).
When I do think about buying things, I am easily stymied by the tension between seemingly limitless choice and the absence of any truly optimal outcomes. Perhaps you relate, or perhaps you can get in and out of the grocery store in less than twenty-eight minutes. All of which is to say that I probably will not purchase this jumpsuit, but I will undoubtedly be seeing ads for Mormon-friendly fashion until the endtimes descend, the grid goes dark, and the internet withers into nonexistence.
On another note, here is a photo of a not-very-modest but extremely trendy lady from the amazing murals at Philadelphia's Magic Gardens, which I visited last month.
READING
Before I set the apocalypse aside, let me briefly say that one of the most memorable books I've listened to so far this year was Sequoia Nagamatsu's debut novel How High We Go In the Dark, which I can't in good conscience recommend insofar as it's a pandemic book in which the death of children is a major plot point. I didn't know this going in, and if I had, I might have hesitated—but if you like Cloud Atlas and literary science fiction and reading about extremely depressing shit, maybe you, too, can read this book and we can talk about what our favorite parts were! (And if you read this book and/or Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land, then I highly recommend this essay by Lincoln Michel about what he terms "the speculative epic" and why this genre feels particularly timely.)
In much more fun book news, I prepped for the latest season of Bridgerton with historical romance queen (and Rhode Island native!) Sarah MacLean's latest, Bombshell, and experienced some hilarity at the experience of hearing lengthy sex scenes on audio. Typically, I listen on my morning runs, and there was one scene in this book that lasted a full mile. (File under: trendy but definitely not modest!)
This is a collage that represents my hopes and dreams for 2022: cake and many browser tabs.
AGENTING
One of the hardest things about my job is that a big part of it is not only receiving many dozens of "passes" (a.k.a. rejections) from editors, but then having to turn around and pass those rejections along to the writer in a way that is both honest and still encouraging. I haven't sold any books yet in 2022, which means that there's been more of that than I would prefer, for books that I love and continue to believe in, but may or may not be able to find publishers for in the current market. I'm already getting better at dealing with this—there was a time last year when I truly believed for several weeks that I would NEVER sell another book, and now I only feel that way in short flashes. It seems like the only fix is really to just KEEP GOING? I'm getting ready to submit two new projects this week, & I'll let you know how it goes.
For now, it's nicer to dwell on the books that will be making their way into readers' hands around the time the next installment of this quarterly missive makes its way into your inboxes. On June 28th, Berkley will publish Jessica Martin's absolutely delightful For the Love of the Bard, a summer rom com about a literary agent who lives in the Boston area! Most of the book takes place in the main character's Shakespeare-centric New Hampshire hometown, which Jess's publicist describes as having "strong Stars Hollow vibes," and features a pet pig, high school crushes reunited, so many Shakespeare puns, and some light backstage sexytimes. I'm biased, of course, but I think it's the perfect beach bag/vacation flight/summer-afternoon-sipping-lemonade kind of experience.
EATING
The kitchen is done! We are overjoyed by pretty much everything about it, and while there are a few components still in the works, it is such a delight to enjoy so much natural light and counter space. A wee before & after:
It actually took me a hot minute to really settle in and begin cooking again, but in the last several weeks, I have allowed the new digs to inspire increasingly ambitious baking hijinks, including my first-ever bagels (with lots of guidance from this new book) and my first-ever croissants (with lots of guidance from this NYT Cooking recipe & video by the inimitable Claire Saffitz). Both managed to exceed my expectations, and while I may have had a small mental breakdown mid-croissantery about the advisability of making nine croissants for two people, I ended up having a glorious time getting into the wild world of croissant leftover recipes & can now highly recommend chocolate croissant bread pudding and cinnamon sugar croissant brittle! I suspect that both could be made very successfully even with mediocre grocery store croissants, but I'm going to say they were all the more decadent having been born from my lovingly hand-crafted pastries.
Another culinary highlight of the past month or so was my trip to Philadelphia for the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, during which I managed to squeeze in a remarkable number of tasty morsels, including a 9:30 am lamb barbacoa taco, some incredible sourdough bagels, and a dreamy meal at Her Place Supper Club that concluded with the chef personally handing every diner tiny sourdough chocolate chip cookies, warm from the oven. Call me a hipster (or whatever the 2022 version of this term would be?), but "supper club" is one of my new favorite genres of restaurant—as someone who likes talking to strangers and dislikes deciding what to order, the intimate dinner party/set menu vibes cannot be beat.
ALSO
I made this fancy little Bookshop.org page so that all can gaze upon the beauty of my current & forthcoming books—which reminds me to say that if you're not buying directly from your local indie bookstore, Bookshop is one of the best ways to escape the Amazon ecosystem while enjoying the convenience of pre-orders and books shipped straight to your door. [To be clear, many local indies will allow you to pre-order books & can offer shipping, but not all have the infrastructure to do so, and Bookshop allows you to select a store to get a cut of every order you make with them. You can also buy through affiliate links from your favorite authors, "influencers," etc. (I'm not actually entirely sure how it works, but I think if you buy a book through my link above, I get a commission—honestly, I'd much rather you help me keep our sweet little Newtonville Books alive and order through them.)]
It seems a little meta to link from this newsletter to... another newsletter, but I appreciated this email from writer Abby Rasminksy, about the 100 Day Project, which I am currently in the midst of completing. I've been making tiny collages around new-to-me English words: the first 33 cards featured the word and its definition, and I'm wrapping up the 2nd round of 33 cards now, which center on a sentence using the word in context. It's been a callback to my English teacher days and a tiny little slice of tactility in my mostly digital days. I'm not exactly sure what I'll do for the last 33 + 1 days, but as Abby writes, part of what's been enjoyable about this project has been letting things be a little spontaneous.
After what felt like a bit of a dry spell, Netflix has now served up new episodes of two of my favorite things: Bridgerton (as previously mentioned) and The Home Edit (now rebranded as Get Organized? is it just me, or did they change the name?). We've been savoring them slowly, which means that I haven't finished either, but I'm sure you can imagine the joy I felt at seeing the ladies re-organize The Drew Barrymore Show's backstage test kitchen or watching the below scene while digging into one of a seemingly endless number of new Ben & Jerry's flavors (!!) that have been on special at Star Market.
HIT ME WITH YOUR UPDATES!
What kinds of trendy yet modest fashion is popping up in your Instagram feed these days? What's the best croissant you've ever eaten? Feel free press reply and tell me all about it—or just say hi and tell me one thing that you've read recently that stuck with you.