A quick announcement before we get into it: the next round of Fail Better Club will be November 17-23, 2025. You can learn all about Fail Better Club in this post, and if you want to participate, you need to be a paying subscriber. (If you’re a paying subscriber, you’ll get a more detailed email about how to participate next week.)
Here’s something new and different! Today I’ve got an interview with my friend Iva-Marie Palmer about her new book Christmas People. It’s a hilarious rom-com about a woman who is facing her career and relationship failures, and doing her best to avoid the jolly happiness of the holiday season, when she ends up stuck in a Hallmark-esque holiday movie. Read the first chapter of Christmas People here!
Iva and I talked about writing process (which had surprising overlaps with the holiday prep process!), baking, movies, comedy, and yogurt.
You can watch Iva and I talk in the video above, or listen to the audio by clicking on the “listen” tab, or read our conversation as a transcript by clicking on the “transcript” tab (both of these tabs are in the Substack app or at Substack.com).
Iva-Marie Palmer is giving away TWO copies of Christmas People just for readers (and I guess, now, listeners?) of Do the Work (U.S. only please, because of shipping costs). I’ll choose the winners on December 1, 2025.
To enter to win a copy, answer one of these questions in the comments:
What would be the worst part of being stuck in a holiday movie?
What would be the best part of being stuck in a holiday movie?
Where to find Iva:
