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~
It’s Not Procrastination!
I have a new venture…it pairs beautifully with my work-in-progress and I assure you, it’s not about procrastination.
Like every other writer in the world, procrastination a thing. I don’t believe in writer’s block, but I DO believe in procrastination. Like the rest of us, I need to get the dog’s meds and run the vacuum. It’s easier for me to bleach the trash cans than it is to sit down and write. Triaging the mail? Watering the flowers? All of that. But you know what? I always feel better when I get that pesky writing thing out of the way. More accomplished, more bad-assy. And that’s sort of the power of writing, isn’t it? We’re magicians of sort. Sit down and paint story with words. Beautiful, right?
Write.
The new thing is…
This is Where We Live
It’s an off-shoot of my work-in-progress. It’s a store. Well, a mini-store. A store-within-a-store. You can visit me at Hudson Design House in downtown Oswego, Illinois. Well, not ME-me, but the shop. Although you may find me there on a few occasions rearranging stuff and setting up.
Writing can be very…well, head-y.
I like creating in both worlds–the tangible and cerebral. I love home decor and old stuff and literary things, house things, photography, art, and that’s what the book I’m writing is all about, so you see,
it all ties together.
And much of it will contain written prompts to get you excited about storytelling.
Each piece in your home tells a story. Let them speak.
My husband is sure this shop is a distraction. But it’s not. The shop feeds the writing and the writing feeds the shop.
Come on by!
This is the good part!
What Brought You Here?!
Are you aware of my postcard project,
This is Where We Live?
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] 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 Evan Friss about the history of the American bookstore. I have a new author conversation in Hippocampus Magazine, plus poetry in Ballast, Neologism Poetry Journal, Empyrean, photography in Western Michigan Review, and a photo-essay featuring miniatures in On the Seawall.
Musings & Meanderings is a labor of love. Lately, it’s been more labor than love. I’m going to try just one per month in order to focus on my own work. Find me on IG and Twitter, where you’ll find recently-published interviews, essays, photography, and poetry.
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:
- Last month, I shared my interview with Andromeda Romano-Lax about writing workshops and trauma. [Here it is again, in case you missed it]. Here, she dives into similar waters, but in a slightly different style, in The Rumpus, how writing memoir can be traumatizing and re-traumatizing, how there is very little ‘after-care’ or trained therapist workshop leaders.
- Maybe you’d like to write in the Himalayas? This retreat nestled in the mountains of India is being offered through Writer’s International in 2025 with the lovely and talented Abby Geni leading. I can attest to her great instructional style and crisp writing. It’s nearly all-inclusion, with the exception of your flight. Sounds like an amazing opportunity! Learn more HERE.
- Is your manuscript query-ready? How to tell from Author’s Publish.
New! Featured Author|Insights
Evan Friss
THE BOOKSHOP: A History of the American Bookstore
An affectionate and engaging history of the American bookstore and its central place in American cultural life, from department stores to indies, from highbrow dealers trading in first editions to sidewalk vendors, and from chains to special-interest community destinations
“If you love books, and bookstores, you’re absolutely going to love Evan Friss’s The Bookshop. . . . ‘That bookstores continue to endure is, in some ways, something of a miracle, ‘ Friss writes in his introduction. But we’re so thankful they do–and that there’s this tribute to them.”
–Town & Country‘s “39 Must-Read Books of Summer 2024”
Leslie Lindsay:
Without responding in complete sentences, what would you say THE BOOKSHOP is about?
Evan Friss:
Bookstore magic
Leslie Lindsay:
Where did you write THE BOOKSHOP? Do you have any special writing routines or rituals? Do they change with each project, or remain constant over time?
Evan Friss:
Having spent several years working on The Bookshop, I wrote bits and pieces of the book in many different places. But my two regular haunts were my attic and the local coffee shop. Both have a particular allure. The attic is quiet (when nobody else is home anyway), comfortable, and lined with books. The coffee shop—people watching, background music, caffeine—keeps me going. I also spent a month at MacDowell, an Edenic artist residency in middle of nowhere New Hampshire. With everything one could want—all day to write, excellent food on offer, no chores to do, etc.—I probably got about a year’s worth of writing done in a month.
Leslie Lindsay:
If you weren’t writing, you would be…
Evan Friss:
On a daily basis: running and reading
As a career: an architect or urban planner
Leslie Lindsay:
What keeps you awake at night? It doesn’t have to be literary.
I have two recurring literary related fears. One is the fear of being scooped. In this nightmare, someone (somehow) has been writing the same exact book as I’ve been working on and beats me to the punch. The other fear is (somehow) losing all my notes, files, etc. Everything just disappears. This is why, every so often, I’ll print out a copy of my manuscript in progress and stick it in the freezer. It also serves as a good reminder: get back to writing and stop eating so much ice cream!
For more information, to purchase a copy of or to connect with the author via social media, please visit his website.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Evan Friss is a professor of history at James Madison University and the author of two other books: The Cycling City: Bicycles and Urban America in the 1890s and On Bicycles: A 200-Year History of Cycling in New York City. He lives with his wife (a bookseller) and two children (occasional booksellers) in Harrisonburg, Virginia.
Browse my Bookshop.org for more books featured on Musings & Meanderings, and see what I’m reading in 2024…and more!
Three Readerly Things:
What books or essays you’ve read and enjoyed or felt energized by lately? Is there a book you’ve been consistently recommending? If nothing comes to mind, can you make a plan to pop by your local bookstore for a second? I promise, you will find something. You can respond in the comments or shoot me an email or connect on IG.
- Ever wonder how audiobooks get cast? Check out this piece/interview from PRH Audio
- We are all writing stories…sometimes in memory, sometimes in air…and this one looks soo good. I love interconnected stories, and find them so full of intrigue and mystique, kind of like life and how we’re all interconnected.
- Good Catholic Girls, a love letter to the writing life, and more. Check out this piece by Katie McDougall in Hippocampus Magazine.
Recently Published Interviews, Prose, Etc.:
- What if you went to a writer’s retreat/workshop and the unspeakable happened? What if you were berated and torn to shreds and then worse…you went missing? Were presumed dead? That’s what happens in this novel by Andromeda Romano-Lax, THE DEEPEST LAKE, whom I interviewed for Fugue Review. Seriously, you don’t want to miss this one. It’s also about writing craft and the workshopping experience.
- I spoke with Barrie Miskin about her mysterious mental health struggles during pregnancy, the broken mental health system, and maternal mental health in Hippocampus Magazine. Check out her raw and moving memoir, HELL GATE BRIDGE (Woodhall Press, June 2024) and eavesdrop on our conversation, too.
- Suzanne Scanlon appears as if she has it all together in a literary sense–and she does–but there’s a darker history under the surface. She was once hospitalized in one of the nation’s most well-known psychiatric institutions. I loved COMMITTED: On Meaning and Madwomen. Check out our conversation in Hippocampus Magazine.
- Susannah Kennedy, author of READING JANE: A DAUGHTER’S MEMOIR (Sibylline Press, September 2023) and I chat about the archives we’ve read, carried, and made sense of after our mothers died by suicide, but we also discuss so many others in this February 2024 interview in Hippocampus Magazine.
- Identity and closed adoptions, plus a thirty-year journey to publication, Susan Kiyo Ito and I discuss her award-winning memoir, I WOULD MEET YOU ANYWHERE (Mad Creek Press, 2023) in the January issue of Hippocampus Magazine.
- Such an important and affirming interview with the lovely award-winning journalist Meg Kissinger about her recently-released memoir, WHILE YOU WERE OUT (September 2023, Celadon Books), about a large family with mentally unstable parents, a family plagued by suicide, plus a plea to improve housing for mentally ill. In the November 2023 issue of Hippocampus Magazine.
Click HERE for more of my published writing.
There’s more to this newsletter. Keep scrolling.
What’s Obsessing Me:
- Casey House Antiques. I had the utmost pleasure of spending time with a lovely little spit-fire of a woman at her historic home, known as The Casey House, which was built in 1816 Adair County, Kentucky. I’m telling you, aside from the gorgeous wallpaper in the old foyer, the plethora of stuff, I didn’t want to leave.
- Repurposing this old medicine cabinet from a Kentucky farmhouse purchased for a song.
- Bookstores. Seriously. This isn’t just a plug for Evan Friss’s book/4Qs interview (above). But I’ve been finding charming bookshops everywhere I go and I’m obsessed…with the places and the books.
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.
Sneak Peek: In October, I will be featuring Mark Haber’s forthcoming novel, LESSER RUINS (Coffee House Press, October 8, 2024). Go ahead and pre-order it HERE.
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:
As I sift through this new project, which combines genealogy, legacy, and untold stories, I’ve found the Photo Detective Podcast (Maureen Taylor) quite helpful and inspiring. Each episode offers little tidbits of research hints, photo tips, organization ideas, and more. I get mine through Spotify.
Get the book HERE
Let’s walk this bookish path together.
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.
More than 2,800 folks read Musings & Meanderings.
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.
Learn more HERE.
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Wishing you all the best this spring
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One last thing: I love Between the Covers podcast with David Naimon. Not listening yet? If you’re a serious reader and writer, I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Leslie A. Lindsay 
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