By Leslie Lindsay
A curated newsletter on the literary life, featuring ‘4 questions,’ reading & listening recommendations, where to submit, more
Leslie Lindsay|Always with a Book
~MUSINGS & MEANDERINGS~
Hello, Fall!
Rejuvenate and Reset
How’s the writing going?
This is a common question once people figure out you’re a writer. They’re generally interested, want to know, and so the question, innocent and naïve as it is, gets asked. Sometimes a lot. What if you’re not writing? What if it’s going poorly? What if you have nothing to say about it, you’re between projects?
Do you tell them that?
What if you said, “It sucks, thanks for asking!”
Do you say, “I doubt myself all the time. It’ll probably never amount to anything.”
How about, “Why do you ask?”
What I really think people want to hear is, “Great! My book is coming out in six months and I have another on the way.”
Writing, friends, is not glamourous. It’s not easy. It’s not even fun, but sometimes it can be. Writing is not about sitting at one’s computer and smiling manically, then tossing papers in the air—poof—a book!
Having recently completed a manuscript after rounds and rounds of edits, I can tell you that it’s exhausting, this writing thing. But no one wants to hear that you find this magical thing you do exhausting, that it keeps you awake at night, that you obsess over tiny lines, worry if you did too much or not enough, that you went over the words fifty-sixty-stupid-gazillion times.
What I’m getting at is rest.
We’ve all heard the adages. No work, no play. Rest when you’re finished. Work hard, play hard. All are good and fine and might work (ha!) well for you, but, after a large project (writing or not) is finished, rest is earned. Required, even. And that’s where I sit.
“I’m resting,” is what I told someone recently when he inquired after my writing. And what does that look like?
I want to spend less time at my desk, and more time outside in the beautiful fall weather. It’s a great time to handwrite so I can take the stress off my arms and hands and lower back. I can jot things down in a notebook on the patio. Maybe it’ll become fodder for the next project, maybe not. That’s okay!
Read plenty. I’d trying not to read in my genre, which is really hard because I love memoir and poetry. I’m also trying not ro read craft books. What I’m craving right now is a fast, delicious semi-mindless escape.
Drink lots of water. I always think better and feel better when I am adequately hydrated. No big revelation there.
Take care of my children. And dog. they will always be there, even if a book never gets published.
Eat well. Salads at least 6 times a week.
Sleep well. I really pushed myself the last three months. It took a toll on the quality of my sleep. I love sleep. It helps me process and often dreams feed my imagination. But waking up at 2, 3, 4 in the morning because some new thought about what I was writing pinged my brain is not good for me. I need to be better about listening to my inner clock.
Be mindful, considerate, kind. ‘nuf said.
Only spend time with people who care about me. It’s a vulnerable time, having a manuscript ‘out there,’ so I try to surround myself by like-minded, supportive people, not the naysayers.
Question:
How about you? How do you respond when someone askes ‘how’s the writing going?’ Are you brutally honest? Are y ou more reserved? And how about this self-care list? What might you add that I forgot?
Respond here in a comment, or find me on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.
xx,
~Leslie : )
This issue of Musings & Meanderings is jam-packed with some really great stuff to get your [writing and reading] year off on the right foot. Coaching, book recommendations, journals to submit to, reading recommendations, author interviews, recently published prose, and a quick 4 questions insights interview with Lang Leav on her novel, OTHERS WERE EMERALDS (Harper, September 2023). I have new interivew up at Hippocampus Magazine (Alice Carrier, which makes a fabulous non-fiction companion piece to our featured author’s work), poetry in Ballast, Neologism Poetry Journal, Empyrean, photography in Western Michigan Review, and a photo-essay featuring miniatures in On the Seawall.
There’s more to this newsletter. Keep Scrolling.
By the way, I do not get any ‘kick-backs’ or other kind of payment (in-kind, or otherwise) for mentioning these classes/workshops/books/individuals. Sharing because if helps me, maybe it’ll speak to you, too.
Three Writerly Things:
- If you’re looking to hone your craft, fall offerings are now open though StoryStudio Chicago. Some are in-person, and some you can doin your jammies. Some are a one-and-done thing, others long-term.
- Maybe you want an in-person sampler pack? Last fall, I attended the Writer’s Festival through StoryStudio Chicago and felt so held, nurtured, and inspired. It’s the first weekend of November and offers keynotes, break-out sessions, generative workshops, all genres. Maybe I’ll see ya there?
- Do you write flash? Kathy Fish will be judging Craft Literary’s contest, open now through October 31.
New! Featured Author|Insights
Lang Leav
OTHERS WERE EMERALDS: A Novel
Internationally acclaimed poet Lang Leav’s debut adult novel combines her poetical lyricism and emotional acumen to create an enthralling coming of age narrative set against the backdrop of anti-Asian sentiment sweeping Australia in the late 90’s. A stirring portrayal of guilt, loss, and memory, Others Were Emeralds explores the inherent danger of allowing our misconceptions to shape our reality.
Leslie Lindsay:
Without responding in complete sentences, what would you say OTHERS WERE EMERALDS is about?
Lang Leav :
A love letter to my youth and immigrant roots, the danger of allowing our misconceptions to shape our reality, a heartrending story of first love and friendship.
Leslie Lindsay:
Where did you write OTHERS WERE EMERALDS? Do you have any special writing routines or rituals? Do they change with each project, or remain constant over time?
Lang Leav :
I wrote “Others Were Emeralds” at my kitchen table in Auckland, New Zealand. During the height of the pandemic, I felt nostalgic for my hometown of Cabramatta, on which my novel is based. My writing process has remained unchanged throughout the years. A cup of coffee in the morning, and I am ready for the day, never knowing what to expect. I could write a whole chapter or spend the entire morning crafting a sentence. Although for me, each day I get something down on paper is a good day.
Leslie Lindsay:
If you weren’t writing, you would be…
Lang Leav :
Constructing detailed architectural models. It’s an absolute joy to spend the afternoon working away with my scalpel, tweezers, and a pot of glue.
Leslie Lindsay:
What book did you recently read that you can’t stop talking about?
Wifedom by Anna Funder is a beautifully rendered portrait of George Orwell’s first wife, Elaine. Although her contributions to Orwell’s work were immeasurable, she is hardly mentioned in his biographies. Wifedom was a fascinating insight into the life of a remarkable woman, which history has largely forgotten.
About the Author:
Leav’s coming-of-age debut is poetic and lyrical, her prose rich in beautiful imagery. She tenderly explores grief, trauma, and love as Ai reflects on her past and makes sense of it in order to move forward.
—Booklist
For more information, to purchase a copy of OTHERS WERE EMERALDS or to connect with the author via social media, please visit her website.
Novelist and poet Lang Leav was born in a refugee camp when her family were fleeing the Khmer Rouge Regime. She spent her formative years in Sydney, Australia, in the predominantly migrant town of Cabramatta. Among her many achievements, Lang is the winner of a Qantas Spirit of Youth Award, Churchill Fellowship and Goodreads Reader’s Choice Award.
Lang has been featured on CNN, SBS Australia, Intelligence Squared UK, Radio New Zealand and in various publications, including Vogue, Newsweek, the Straits Times, the Guardian, and the New York Times. She currently lives in New Zealand with her partner and fellow author, Michael Faudet.
Browse my Bookshop.org for more books featured on Musings & Meanderings, and see what I’m reading in 2023…and more! See other books featuring mental health/illness.
Three Readerly Things:
What’s on your fall reading radar? I want to know : ) You can respond in the comments or shoot me an email or connect on IG.
- Ever wonder what books writers return to again and again? Eula Biss will be in conversation with Laura Joyce Hubbard at Book Ends & Beginnings in Evanston October 2. Writer’s Talking Books is a ticketed event but includes either a 20% discount on a book purchase (student rate) or book + 20% off discount on purchase.
- I had the pleasure of meeting Kathleen Rooney in person at Anderson’s Bookstore in Naperville, IL recently. Her book, From Dust to Stardust (Lake Union, Sept 5 2023) is out now. She’s also wrote this article in LitHub on the Craft of Writing. And lo and behold, it has something to do with my own passion of houses and architecture.
- Abby Geni has a collection of short fiction forthcoming this spring and I’m totally digging her cover for The Body Farm (April 2024, Counterpoint)
Recently Published Interviews, Prose, Etc.:
- It was an honor to speak with Alice Carriere about her new memoir, EVERYTHING/NOTHING/SOMEONE (August 29 2023, Spiegel & Grau) about family dysfunction, mental illness, art, houses, among other things, for Hippocampus Magazine. Check out our conversation, and grab yourself a copy of the book!
- This piece, MODEL HOME: A Study Under Compression, in On the Seawall, is something I am so proud of. It was conceived in a craft store when I wandered down the model train aisle. At home, I already had the moss and tiny house and vials. I wanted to depict something with words and photography that would spotlight my family falling into disarray…my mother’s mental illness, the ‘perfect’ home, the family divided. This was my answer. It’s my first text + image publication. Here’s a sampling:
- I am bowled over by the reception my poem, CREVASSE, received by Luke Johnson in the Spring 2023 issue of Ballast. Check out our dialogue about one another’s work HERE. Also, that landing page! Swooning.
- You can find some of my other poetry at Empyrean Literary Journal. This piece was conceived in a workshop at StoryStudio Chicago in which the prompt was to combine two totally different things with one’s childhood street. I chose my grandfather’s profession as stained-glass artist and the year 1989. The resulting piece is COLLAPSE.
- This interview with poet Pattiann Rogers in LitHub was such a dream. Pattiann is 82-years-old and still writing and publishing poetry. This piece is about nature, curiosity, and the flickering that happens in all creatures.
- Super-excited about this illustrated review in DIAGRAM, which has sorta been like a dream place of mine to get work published. It’s a beautiful melding of all things that bring me joy: fonts, words, ideas, art, books, and the human body. I mean…the only obsessions missing for me is architecture, travel, nature, and basset hounds. Check it out and the book, YOUR HEARTS, YOUR SCARS: Essays by the late Adina Talve-Goodman (Bellevue Literary Press, Jan 24 2023), which happens to be a Powell’s pick for January.
- Hippocampus Magazine…Juliet Patterson’s SINKHOLE: A Natural History of a Suicide (Milkweed, September 2022).
- Kathryn Gahl in conversation with me about her poetic memoir, THE YELLOW TOOTHBRUSH (Two Shrews Press, September 2022), about her incarcerated daughter, perinatal mood disorder, more in MER, November 28, 2022.
- Sarah Fawn Montgomery’s HALFWAY FROM HOME (Split/Lip Press, Nov 8) in Hippocampus Magazine, about her working-class unconventional childhood in California, moving across the country to pursue writing, home, displacement, and so much more November 13, 2022.
- Prose in SEPIA Journal Oct/Nov 2022 issue. Interiors is about an Appalachian family, black bottom pie, trains, and ear aches. It was inspired by my own family lore, and also: this journal is STUNNING!
- An essay about an experience at a workshop/retreat, featuring design/architecture, and how we are all works-in-progress, in The Smart Set.
- Speaking of Apraxia: A Parents’ Guide to Childhood Apraxia of Speech, 2nd edition (Woodbine House, 2021) through some online retailers, your local library, used bookstores (it’s now officially out-of-print), and the audio edition is downloadable (with additional PDFs, resources) through Penguin Random House.
There’s more to this newsletter. Keep scrolling.
What’s Obsessing Me:
- The Haunting of Hull House. Not a typo. Jane Addams was a social reformer in Chicago back in the day. And now, you can tke a tour of her haunted mansion, select dates thru October. Sign up HERE.
- Book publicity. Does it need to be the number of followers you have on social media? Word-of-mouth? A newsletter? A really great product? What makes a great product? I came across this FREE workshop with book PR expert Leah Paulos from PR Shop. The next one is Oct 5. SIGN UP HERE
Much of writing is made up of obsessions. We might use our obsession as catalyst, something that gets us writing and, if lucky, keeps us writing.
Sometimes we write about our obsession directly, hoping (perhaps futilely) to be purged free of it, once and for all.
Susan Sontag, while talking about writing and the writer’s life, said it simply:
“You have to be obsessed. It’s not something you’d want to be—it’s rather something you couldn’t help but be.”
What subjects do you keep returning to—from harmless infatuations to downright obsessions? Is it a piece of art of music? Why are you (okay, me) so obsessed with houses and homes? Old photographs? Paper and erasers and pencils? Basset hounds? Postcards? Old letters? Miniatures? I mean, really….the list could go on and on.
Until next time, happy writing & reading.
You are reading Musings & Meanderings, a consistently inconsistent weekly newsletter about the literary life from Leslie Lindsay, and home of an archive of bestselling and debut author interviews. I’m also on twitter and instagram. I try to answer comments as best I can. Feel free to find my book suggestions on bookshop.org, and also check out the authors I’ve hosted in in-depth interviews HERE.
In the meantime, catch me on:
Reviewing books and talking about them with others on-line and in-person is one small way to engage with & support the literary community.
Thank you for letting me guide you on your bookish journey.
What I’m Listening to:
I recently came across this memoir, Pulling the Chariot of the Sun, about the author/poet (Shane McCrae) being kidnapped from his Black father when he was four years old by his racist white maternal grandparents. This one is about writing down memories that weren’t always clear, why they aren’t exactly ‘facts,’ and the way his story affected his loved ones, more. Listen to the NPR interview hosted by Tonya Mosley on NPR’s Fresh Air.
Photo by Leslie Lindsay
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THANK YOU!!
Some of you have been reading my reviews, interviews, and meanderings for more than a decade now. That’s huge and I am so humbled. Thanks for being here.
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Wishing you a lovely late summer season
Created by Leslie Lindsay. I’m a proud book nerd. Connect with me on Instagram, and Twitter. See what I’m reading on Bookshop.org. Find my reviews on GoodReads. I’m also a Zibby Books Ambassador.
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Leslie A. Lindsay 
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