Beth

I also believe her spirit contacted me (!) while I was working on the book.

I think if I solely loved it, I wouldn’t be me. And if I was solely terrified by it, you’d never have heard my name.

I’m old enough to tell young people now, that doesn’t change. I got some bad news for you: There’s always just got to be both. And hopefully more of that joy — which I think I’ve had.

Thinking through —rather than just thinking—is important. A thought or an idea is never that precious. People have thoughts and ideas all the time, many of them preliminary. Sometimes people mistake their feelings for thoughts and ideas, which are in turn mistaken for absolute truths. The point of writing and reading fiction is not to stay with the... See more

In the back of my mind right now is the AI “art” worshippers’ conviction that process is an obstacle to creation instead of being the whole thing. Like: what if we just removed the work part? What if we just removed the effort? I think it’s quite beautiful that Louise Gluck would say writing never gets easier. It shouldn’t! Ease isn’t the point.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that America runs on Dunkin and BookTok runs on Romantasy.

The recurring hypocrisy makes me wonder: Do we *actually* not want people to go through what we went through....or do we secretly think what we went through is foundational to good work?

Thanks for being here and for being nervous with me. I hope this week you see a bird you’ve been looking for, that you get to do a few of the things you love, and that if you love bran muffins you don’t feel shy about it.