write on, vol. 8: what are you searching for?
Dear friend,
I hope this missive finds you wearing a very good pair of socks, looking out a window at some sunshine, and anticipating your next snack—as I was Sunday afternoon when I began typing this note to you, my beloved readers.
Before I go further, a brief PSA: I added a few folks to this email for the ~first time~ so if you are receiving this Maggie Cooper quarterly life update in horror, feel free to quietly delete, unsubscribe, or both and move on with your life! I promise I will not be offended.
You may recall that this time last year, I made 100 zines for the 100 Days Project, and guess what? I'm at it again, this time with a new focus. While last year, I chose to organize my project around the medium (the zines); this year, I am focusing on content but switching up what I make. I'm calling the whole thing WHAT ARE YOU SEARCHING FOR? and every day, I'm recording every Google search I make into a big spreadsheet, which I then use as inspiration for a doodle, collage, or other creation.
This was one of my favorite mini-projects: an embroidery where each color thread represented a category of searches (blue was work, yellow was food, etc.). This shows one week's worth of searches.
I'm approaching the halfway point, and now, I desire your assistance, should you be up for it. Although my own Google search history is quite fascinating, I'm ready to switch it up, and what I would very much love would be for you to record your own Googling for one day & share the results with me. Your reward: my undying gratitude, the knowledge that you are supporting my Endearingly Quirky artistic pursuits, and a glimpse of whatever I end up making inspired by your Googles! If you're game, scroll down to the bottom of this note for FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.
Now, with no further ado, the rest of my quarterly updates:
READING
I'm happy to report that 2024 has gotten off to a very solid start in terms of reading. I've particularly loved:
The Whalebone Theater by Joanna Quinn, a capacious historical novel that I had been eyeing since it came out a few years ago, and which satisfied all my desires for dusty manor houses, eccentric artists, and semi-closeted British aristocrats
The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by K.J. Charles, possibly the best gay historical romance I have ever read, which manages to be both quite plotty and quite spicy (and also features a semi-closeted British aristocrat—you sense a theme?)
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino, a really charming literary novel about ~what it means to be human~ whose main character is an alien growing up in Philly in the 80s in the body of a seemingly ordinary young woman (or maybe she just thinks she's an alien? I appreciate the way the book is very loyal to her conviction that this is not all in her head!) (no aristocrats in this one, closeted or otherwise)
I have also been browsing through lots of cookbooks lately — there's something so delightful and luxurious about looking at pretty pictures on a weekend afternoon, and sometimes I even make some of the recipes (lately: the stuffed s'mores cookies from this book and the black sesame white chocolate cookies from this one). When we lived in North Carolina, I had the incredible realization that one could check cookbooks out of the library, and honestly, my life has been much improved since.
On my travels to SF in February, I got to visit famed cookbook bookstore Omnivore, where I could have spent the whole afternoon.
AGENTING
I got to share two new deal announcements in January, for deals that I made late last year—one for the brilliant Kathryn Jezer-Morton's nonfiction book, The Story of Your Life and another for the lovely Alys Murray's sexy rom com A Little Buzzed. These two are truly on opposite sides of the Maggie Cooper spectrum in terms of subject matter and style, but both thrilling in their own ways.
Now, some still-secret news for newsletter subscribers only: in an even-more-thrilling twist, we sold ANOTHER book by Alys in January, after three years of working together in which we had made zero book deals and both had to pluck up the wherewithal to keep calm and carry on in the hope of this eventual happy ending. That book isn't yet announced, but it's my favorite thing she's written, and it was extremely satisfying to find it a publishing home. I'm currently in the midst of long submissions for three other novels that I truly love, and I just have to keep reminding myself that hopefully, they too will have their happy endings.
Looking ahead to May, I have three client books coming out all within a few weeks of one another, so keep your eyes peeled for Nina Sharma's memoir-in-essays The Way You Make Me Feel: Love in Black & Brown, Zoë Bossiere's Cactus Country: A Boyhood Memoir, and June Thomas's A Place of Our Own: Six Spaces That Shaped Queer Women's Culture (formerly called Where Are All the Lesbians? and while I understand why they changed the title, I mourn it nonetheless!). I'll be in NYC in early June for events with all three of these amazing humans, and I can't wait!
EATING
On the home front, I have been baking up a storm, upping my sourdough game and also delighting in The Practical Kitchen's mini breads (just one cup of flour), which I have found to be great low-investment, high-reward baking projects. MINI! BREAD! Two of my favorite things, truly.
In my travels, I particularly enjoyed some gourmet cheese-stuffed tater tots on the last night of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference in Kansas City and of course, the absolute parade of deliciousness that was the five-stop pastry tour that Peter Cooper and I put together in San Francisco.
In my natural element, photographing a black sesame kouign amann and peanut butter condensed milk bostock, part of the special Lunar New Year menu at b. patisserie.
ALSO
As a WFH gal, one of my big challenges, especially in these cold and gray winter month is CABIN FEVER. In reaction, I have lately adopted the practice of what I have christened Weston Wednesdays, whereby I drop Ash off at Brandeis and then continue on to the Weston Public Library to do my day's work. This past week, I got myself a chai latte at the cafe down the street; the previous week, I went for a woodsy walk at lunchtime. Living large!
You may recall the James Joyce Ramble, an annual road race in Dedham, Massachusetts honoring a certain modernist writer? I'm considering participating again this year, so hit me up if you'd like to join me for 10k on April 28th. I'll likely be wearing these, my new spring running shoes—this color, chosen for its attractive sale pricing, is called "barely rose/rosequartz."
I had been having some trouble rousing myself from my bed, and while that has not been completely cured by my new NYT Games habit, I have found that completing the Mini Crossword and the Wordle immediately upon waking allows me to indulge my desire to use my phone while providing a clear end point to my scrolling. Is it just me, or does it feel like the process of making it through the day is mostly a series of little games and challenges we must create in order to trick ourselves do the things we are supposed to be doing?
THE END
How do you feel about miniature things (breads, crosswords, or otherwise)? What is the best cookie you've ever baked? Your favorite read of 2024 so far? Tell me everything—and don't forget to read on for more if you're up to participate in my Google search shenanigans!
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GOOGLY WOOGLY
How to Find Your Search History:
On your computer: whatever web browser you use, there should be a way to check your history (on Chrome on my Mac, this is what it looks like, below). Once you’re in here, you can search for “Google Search” to see just the things you’ve searched rather than all the websites you viewed.
On your phone: open your browser (on my iPhone, it’s Safari—screen shot below) & find your history there. Again, you can search for “Google Search” to see just your search results.
The only catch is that if you often let your browser autofill the site you’re looking for, you may not actually be searching as many things as you think—so if you keep that in mind on the day of and want to err on the side of actually Googling vs. letting sites autofill, that will provide me with more material. That said, it’s up to you as to whatever feels most accurate and representative.
Feel free to send me either a transcribed list or just screenshots. For example, here are my searches for Sunday—on work days, I tend to have lots more computer and less phone; on the weekend, vice versa. Be bold & don’t feel like you need to censor yourself—I too have weird searches and embarrassing typos, but if there’s anything you really don’t want to include, it’s fine to redact a few items!
As you can see, I also track the "type" of search (i.e. work, food, etc.) so that I can do all of my weird little statistics, but you don't have to do this unless for some reason you really want to!
You can choose any day that you want to do this, but I am planning to start my guest contributions next week & would love to hear from you anytime in April! Feel free to text, email... whatever is best. And of course, let me know if you have questions.