1) I bought RICK THE ROCK for my kids for Christmas and am so excited to read it with them. It is so stinking charming.
2) Deep Work was a life-changing book for me when I read it a few years back.
3) I’m so glad to have found you/your substack this year. The community angle of SS is just not possible on Mailchimp and I’m so happy to have somehow stumbled upon Do the Work. I always look forward to your posts
4) MUSHROOM LULLABY is so sweet. Simple, too, which means (I’m sure) that it was anything but simple for the author to write
5) Happy holidays and new year! Looking forward to more of your posts in 2023!
There is so much to absorb in this post, Julie. But I'm currently stuck on a picture book taking 10 years from contract to pub. We'll have to make you a button for that, it's clearly some type of publishing-is-bonkers record.
I! Know! Part of me wonders if this book is ever going to come out. I will be so excited when it does. It has an illustrator now, so I'm hopeful. But it has been SO LONG that a part of me forgets it even exists, or will ever exist.
This reminds me of when I heard that elephant gestation was 22 months. I mean, I know elephants have long memories, but SURELY it's like the surprise of the century for mama elephant every time they have a baby after all that time. "What the?!?! OMG, I totally forgot I was preggers! And here I am, doing my morning Jazzercise routine, and BLAMMO! Welcome to the world, little...uh...what *was* your name going to be?..."
Of course, I enjoyed this entire post (except I want that Rooster book, like, yesterday! It sounds hilarious! Hope it comes out soon, for everyone's sakes!)
Yes on writing with honey on the side of a tree (#beenthere), double-yay on your impending Real Book and Ira Glass Gap notes and how your taste only gets (somehow) better the smarter you get so the cycle never ends, and yay on a fattening Drawer of, well, if not Doom, maybe...the Napping Drawer? Like, you are just putting your babies down for a little nap, so when you go to play with them later, they don't shriek at you (as much)?
As someone who gardens at night sometimes (wearing a headlamp), I have to say I had never really considered what the neighbors might think, but the Oleg post definitely opened my eyes. LOL! Too funny! I'm glad I have a fence to help obscure my late evening (occ. very early morning) nighttime pruning and raking.
And how excited am I about an imprint devoted to adult picture books?!!
So much to ponder. Thank you for all you share, Julie!
Also I use a headlamp sometimes when I'm writing my morning pages, and there's something lovely about that little beam of light showing you exactly what you're supposed to be focusing on.
Ohmygoodness, how did I never connect those two things! Next time I do it, I'll have a theme song by R.E.M.! Nice!
Not surprisingly, I did instantly adore The Fan Brothers' The Night Gardener. (Side note: there's *also* a MG called The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier that one of my critique partners read and loved).
I have read both the Fan Brothers book and the Jonathan Auxier book (it's spooooky!) and I love that you kept typing the words "gardening at night" without having that song insta-cued into your brainpan.
It must have just been a while since I've heard it! It's weird the connections my brain makes and the ones where it just goes, "eh, well, let's call it a day." 😂
Lovely roundup, Julie, very happy that I discovered your newsletter this year. I also wanted to note your point about the ability to leave comments on Substack posts: it's really a blogging platform with better ability to manage a mailing list than, say, WordPress. But to me the commenting feature is a huge part of Substack's appeal, at least to me as a writer and publisher.
I agree, Mark, about the commenting (and also I'm glad I discovered YOUR newsletter this year!). Sometimes when I was on Mailchimp, people would respond to the emails, and that was nice (and still is, when people do that), but there's something really lovely about having a more public comment forum, especially in a nice place like this.
I just emailed this to you but will also post here--those essays sound ripe for a class series taught by you!
I just happen to have something in the works! Not quite these essays as a course though (not...yet?) so now I'm going to think on this, thank you.
A few things:
1) I bought RICK THE ROCK for my kids for Christmas and am so excited to read it with them. It is so stinking charming.
2) Deep Work was a life-changing book for me when I read it a few years back.
3) I’m so glad to have found you/your substack this year. The community angle of SS is just not possible on Mailchimp and I’m so happy to have somehow stumbled upon Do the Work. I always look forward to your posts
4) MUSHROOM LULLABY is so sweet. Simple, too, which means (I’m sure) that it was anything but simple for the author to write
5) Happy holidays and new year! Looking forward to more of your posts in 2023!
There is so much to absorb in this post, Julie. But I'm currently stuck on a picture book taking 10 years from contract to pub. We'll have to make you a button for that, it's clearly some type of publishing-is-bonkers record.
I! Know! Part of me wonders if this book is ever going to come out. I will be so excited when it does. It has an illustrator now, so I'm hopeful. But it has been SO LONG that a part of me forgets it even exists, or will ever exist.
This reminds me of when I heard that elephant gestation was 22 months. I mean, I know elephants have long memories, but SURELY it's like the surprise of the century for mama elephant every time they have a baby after all that time. "What the?!?! OMG, I totally forgot I was preggers! And here I am, doing my morning Jazzercise routine, and BLAMMO! Welcome to the world, little...uh...what *was* your name going to be?..."
Of course, I enjoyed this entire post (except I want that Rooster book, like, yesterday! It sounds hilarious! Hope it comes out soon, for everyone's sakes!)
Yes on writing with honey on the side of a tree (#beenthere), double-yay on your impending Real Book and Ira Glass Gap notes and how your taste only gets (somehow) better the smarter you get so the cycle never ends, and yay on a fattening Drawer of, well, if not Doom, maybe...the Napping Drawer? Like, you are just putting your babies down for a little nap, so when you go to play with them later, they don't shriek at you (as much)?
As someone who gardens at night sometimes (wearing a headlamp), I have to say I had never really considered what the neighbors might think, but the Oleg post definitely opened my eyes. LOL! Too funny! I'm glad I have a fence to help obscure my late evening (occ. very early morning) nighttime pruning and raking.
And how excited am I about an imprint devoted to adult picture books?!!
So much to ponder. Thank you for all you share, Julie!
Also I use a headlamp sometimes when I'm writing my morning pages, and there's something lovely about that little beam of light showing you exactly what you're supposed to be focusing on.
Yes! Yes, that's exactly it! LOL! I love that, too! I should try it when writing!
Now I have Gardening at Night going through my head, which is (truly) fun. I love that song.
Ohmygoodness, how did I never connect those two things! Next time I do it, I'll have a theme song by R.E.M.! Nice!
Not surprisingly, I did instantly adore The Fan Brothers' The Night Gardener. (Side note: there's *also* a MG called The Night Gardener by Jonathan Auxier that one of my critique partners read and loved).
I guess it's more of a thing than I knew! LOL.
I have read both the Fan Brothers book and the Jonathan Auxier book (it's spooooky!) and I love that you kept typing the words "gardening at night" without having that song insta-cued into your brainpan.
It must have just been a while since I've heard it! It's weird the connections my brain makes and the ones where it just goes, "eh, well, let's call it a day." 😂
Lovely roundup, Julie, very happy that I discovered your newsletter this year. I also wanted to note your point about the ability to leave comments on Substack posts: it's really a blogging platform with better ability to manage a mailing list than, say, WordPress. But to me the commenting feature is a huge part of Substack's appeal, at least to me as a writer and publisher.
I agree, Mark, about the commenting (and also I'm glad I discovered YOUR newsletter this year!). Sometimes when I was on Mailchimp, people would respond to the emails, and that was nice (and still is, when people do that), but there's something really lovely about having a more public comment forum, especially in a nice place like this.
You know, we should do a Substack Letters collab or something. I think it might be fun.
Yes! Let's do it!