Book Buddy Weekend is Here! 8/3-8/9
Book Buddies! Book Buddy weekend week is upon us! I am so looking forward to seeing some of you at Saturday’s retreat and/or Sunday’s party at Darlings. Party invitations have gone out. Please RSVP when you can if you haven’t already! https://book-buddies-2026-summer-party-41828.minted.us/
Party starts at 2 and goes til 6. Come for part, come for the whole time! Whatever you want. I’ll have cake for us, and otherwise you’re free to order drinks, mocktails, coffee, savory snacks, and/or desert with the bartender/owner, my buddy Amanda! The plan is to mingle and hang for the few hours then do a little open mic at the end. You can bring a pal, your spouse, your child if you think they’d have a good time!
You can register for the August 8 retreat using this link. BOOKBUDDY10 is the code that gets you 10% off! We roll from 10-5 with the retreat, but if you’d like to come for a partial day, just let me know! That’s doable.
AND: The next book club is August 17 (Monday) at 7pm. We’re reading Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood. Here’s the publisher’s blurb about it:
“Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize, a novel about forgiveness, grief, and what it means to be good, from the award-winning author of The Weekend and The Natural Way of Things. Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of rural Australia. She doesn’t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living this strange, reclusive existence almost by accident.
But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signaling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past.
Meditative, moving, and finely observed, Stone Yard Devotional is a seminal novel from a writer of rare power, exploring what it means to retreat from the world, the true nature of forgiveness, and the sustained effect of grief on the human soul.”
I really hope to see you there!
Feedback Group Submission Schedules!
IRL Group Wednesdays @ beautyland 6:30-8:30: The next meeting is August 5. Chris and Paul have floor time with pages due asap. Chris’s are in our inboxes! Paul is due ASAP. Next meeting after that is August 19 and Audrey will be coming aboard then! Let’s plan the sub schedule when we’re together.
Noon Crew Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: The next meeting is August 6, and the floor time is up in the air. Ezra’s pages are in. The following meeting is August 20 and Sara has the floor then!
Weirdlings Wednesdays 12pm - 1:30: We’ll meet again on August 5. Elizabeth has the floor, pages are in! Dana is next up for August 19.
Kool Kids Thursdays at 7pm - 8:30: Our next meeting is August 13 and Hilary has the floor.
OG Crew Thursdays at 7:30pm - 9: The next meeting is August 6 and Kristina has the floor with pages already in. The following meeting is August 20 and Danae and Maia are up.
Saturday besties 12:30pm - 2: The next meeting is August 15! Helen and Georgia have floor time, pages due roughly August 10.
Gen Writing Prompt for this Week
August 4 and 8, 2026
Waiting Game
I had to get a cavity filled today (Monday, day of writing this prompt). It was both brutal and not a big deal. I get a little nervy about teeth stuff - even getting a cleaning gives me the heeby-jeebies every time I have to go. The dentist spent almost a full hour doing the thing with the drill, and while I was properly numb so wasn’t managing any pain, I was spending a lot of energy managing my desire to throw off the weird paper bib and sunglasses they give you and bolt out of the room. And that’s how it occurred to me that there is a lot of tension to be mined from the experience of waiting. When you’re waiting for something to be over, waiting for something to begin, waiting for something to arrive, the anticipation can be all consuming. What good stuff to include in our writing!
So for this week’s prompt, let’s launch a new piece in the genre of your choice by beginning with a form of waiting. Here are some ways that might work. Begin a new piece with a scene/poem verse/essay intro:
That involves someone waiting for dental work or some other medical procedure you are awake for to be over
About someone waiting for someone else’s arrival or departure
In a waiting room or in a long line of people waiting for something (to buy tickets, to get into Black Friday sales before the internet happened, to see a speaker, to order food, to get on an amusement park ride)
With someone who is sitting waiting for news: a job offer, an acceptance or rejection from something, information about a loved one’s health, the answer to a written request
With someone waiting for their life to change in some way
With someone waiting for a phone call
Cannot wait for this week!
Your bestie for life -
Kate
