Week of Jan 11 - 17
Hiya Book Buddies:
I’m writing to you from the IRL retreat, where it’s very cozy and folks are getting after it. It’s inspiring! I hope those of you that went to gen writing with Garth this morning has a great time!
January 29 Boston George Saunders Field Trip: ARE YOU COMING? It will be a blast.
This is coming up, and I’m eager to get plans started! If you would like to come, you can buy a ticket here! If you have purchased a ticket, can you send me an email to let me know you plan to come? I want to start a list of Boston folks who plan to meet us there and also plan a carpool from western MA. Thanks so much!
Book Club :
Finally, I’ve finished the Book Club schedule through to September. I’ll fill out the end of the year as it gets closer, this way if something comes out between now and then we’ll have a slot to slip it into. I loved having the suggestion document to do this, so keep populating it as you think of things you want us to read together.
I’m also hoping to get Kelly Link to come to book club this year, so basically will move scheduling mountains to accommodate her if she agrees to come talk to us, so stay tuned on that!
Also a reminder that Book Club is open to ALL BOOK BUDDIES, and takes place during a Tuesday Gen Writing window. Here’s the schedule:
Tuesday February 17 from 6:30 - 8:30pm EST: Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act: A Way of Being.” This one is a craft/process book that’s a nice, grounding reflection on what it means to be an artist, how important creativity is to the human spirit, and what it feels like to make stuff.
Tuesday April 14 from 6:30 - 8:30pm EST: Liz Moore’s “God of the Woods” This one is a two timeline mystery with multiple perspectives.
Publisher’s synopsis: When a teenager vanishes from her Adirondack summer camp, two worlds collide. Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances.
Tuesday June 16 from 6:30-8:30pm EST: Ryka Aoki’s “Light from Uncommon Stars.” A quirky, whimsical fantasy novel. This one got many votes on the rec list!
Publisher’s description: Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet in Ryka Aoki's Light From Uncommon Stars, a defiantly joyful adventure set in California's San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains, and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.
Shizuka Satomi made a deal with the devil: to escape damnation, she must entice seven other violin prodigies to trade their souls for success. She has already delivered six.When Katrina Nguyen, a young transgender runaway, catches Shizuka's ear with her wild talent, Shizuka can almost feel the curse lifting. She's found her final candidate.But in a donut shop off a bustling highway in the San Gabriel Valley, Shizuka meets Lan Tran, retired starship captain, interstellar refugee, and mother of four. Shizuka doesn't have time for crushes or coffee dates, what with her very soul on the line, but Lan's kind smile and eyes like stars might just redefine a soul's worth. And maybe something as small as a warm donut is powerful enough to break a curse as vast as the California coastline.As the lives of these three women become entangled by chance and fate, a story of magic, identity, curses, and hope begins, and a family worth crossing the universe for is found.
BONUS Extra Summer Book Club Tuesday July 14 from 6:30-830pm EST: Lily King’s “Heart the Lover.” I snuck this one in because a lot of you asked for it. I just started it yesterday and it’s only a 5 hour audiobook, and has summer romp vibes for days. Love triangles, writer main character/narrator, coming of age etc. I thought it would be fun to have an extra, light hearted one for peak summer. Bonus if you read the first book, “Writers and Lovers,” but not necessary. They are in the same world, but not dependent on each other.
Tuesday August 18 from 6:30 - 8:30pm EST: Charlotte Wood’s “Stone Yard Devotional.” This is a good one for folks interested in slower plot, richer interiority, exploration of place and thematic intentions. Shortlisted for the 2024 Booker Prize.
Booker Prize website description: 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 New South Wales. She doesn’t believe in God, or know what prayer is, and finds herself living a strange, reclusive existence almost by accident. But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling 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…
September to December books coming in a few months!
Feedback Group Submission Schedules!
IRL Group Wednesdays @ beautyland 6:30-8:30: Next meeting is January 21. Johanna and Genna have floor time, we’re having a birthday party! Pages are due January 14!
Noon Crew Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: Our next meeting is January 22. Sara will have floor time with pages due on January 15.
Weirdlings Thursdays 12pm - 1:30: The meeting after that is on January 15 and Elizabeth will have the floor. Pages are due January 8. The following meeting is January 29. Ed is technically on the schedule, but Erika couldn’t submit last time so let’s touch base on the sub schedule again when we’re together on the 8th.
Kool Kids Thursdays at 7pm - 8:30: We meet again on January 15 when Kristin will have floor time. I forgot that I need to move our January 29 meeting because that is the night of the George Saunders field trip, so let’s make sure the schedule is all set next time we see each other.
OG Crew Thursdays at 7:30pm - 9: The next meeting is January 22. Malavika and Kristina have the floor. Pages are due January 15.
Saturday besties 12:30pm - 2: The next meeting is January 17 and Helen and Ali have pages due 1/10.
Gen Writing Prompts for January 13 and 17 2026
January 13 and 17, 2026
Emerson is on a business trip this week, so it’s just me and Bell. So briefly I’m pretending I live alone.
This has got me thinking about what we do when writing memoir or a fictional scene in which a character is completely alone, has no other character to play off of. And I also think loneliness is a nice emotional palette to play with on the page. So here are some ways we might work with alone-ness this week.
Start a new piece in the genre of your choice that features:
A person in some sort of solitary confinement for a few days
A person who is the last human alive post-apocalypse
A person who is the only one to speak their language who knows no other language
A person who has a super power no one else has
A person who lives and works alone but is trying to solve a mystery
A person who just summited a huge mountain alone
A person who is lost
A person on an international trip alone
Success Stories!
Maia Baker HAS GOT A BOOK DEAL! To Keep a Theif will be out via Berkley Romance (Penguin Random House affiliate) summer 2027, so get ready to stalk Maia on book tour!
Rebecca Tiger has got a new piece in TRASH CAT LIT: “Shitty Kitty.” Read it here.
Happy writing this week. I’m rooting for you!
