I like to open the newsletter with an anecdote, but I can’t seem to think of one this time. So instead, I’ll open with a recommendation: the How I Write podcast hosted by David Perell. He’s interviewed a whole host of great writers over the years, and I really enjoy his conversational style.

October is a huge release month for New York publishing. In fact, it was supposed to be the month that The Second Greatest Thief came out. But then my editor looked at the long list of established authors releasing new books this month and decided to bump my release date to February. Such is life; but hopefully for all of you in states where February is drab, getting a new book in the mail will lift your spirits.

I also had the opportunity to be interviewed by a group of highschoolers for their marketing class, and one of their assignments is to help a client (me) create several social media posts for book promotion. So, if you see something particularly impressive on my Instagram, just know that it was done by someone younger and more tech-savvy.  

September is a delightful month. With the children back at school, I get back into my routine of housework, MFA work, curriculum writing, and novel writing. My second-year thesis student sent me her finished and edited manuscript to read. My first-year thesis students sent me their first 20,000 words to read and give feedback on. I’m prepping for the upcoming residency and haunting the local coffeeshops. The holidays have not yet turned around to glare accusingly at me, and I’m blissfully pretending that I’m not hosting Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

We filmed another installment of Read Good with Joe and Christine this month, which meant I got to brush up on Sense and Sensibility. I’m not going to tell you what I thought about it, though (spoilers). You’ll have to watch the show.

I’m still working on a secret project, and I turned in my portion of the endeavor to my partner in crime. I also tried very hard to get this new novel idea to behave, but it simply won’t. So, I told it that I needed some space, and pulled out my Welsh fairytale instead. I spent some time hacking off the dead branches and leggy undergrowth. I think it will work better as a shorter middle-grade story. It’s been fun to work on again, and I like to think that this new novel idea will soon appear to me in a nighttime vision, contrite and ready to be written.

(with affiliate links and the reminder that some of these will have content warnings!)

I picked up Dungeon Crawler Carl because I like staying up on the current hype books, but after hopping and skipping my way through, I came to the conclusion that I was not the target audience.

I reread Sense and Sensibility (or possibly read for the first time). Did you know this was her debut novel? After reading it, I could see why. On a prose level alone, she really improved by the time Pride and Prejudice and Emma were published.

I read The Cross and the Switchblade for book group, which was a fascinating look at one pastor’s experience ministering to New York gangs in the 1950s.

After that, I read The Tiger Rising by DiCamillo, only to discover that apparently I’d already read it. Her books are bite-sized, and I found myself wishing for one more bite when I finished.

Lastly, I read Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory by Burroughs (for another book group) and that was fantastic. The Puritans really knew how to encourage and admonish at the same time.

Recently, someone told me this was their biggest writing woe:

As always, there are several ways to approach this. The first way would be not to worry too much and get that first draft out. Sometimes, it’s helpful to include all the things that you’re excited to write about in a story. Then you don’t risk losing the energy or enthusiasm. Once you have a first draft, you can sit back with a more clinical eye and decide which themes/characters/plot points you really want to focus on, and then start cutting. I know several writers who work this way; they don’t want to limit themselves from the get-go, so they explode that first draft out onto the page and spend more time trimming and organizing in revisions.

If, however, you think you might not be able to kill your darlings once you’ve herded them gently onto the page, then try this approach. Make sure that you can write a one-sentence pitch for your novel idea, as well as a three-paragraph pitch. Obviously, the three-paragraph pitch will have more information. If you want an example, you can check out my very first newsletter (January 2023!) where I talk about the pitch and the query letter.

I think you’ll find that as you work on those two pitches, your brain will automatically start sorting through the different directions the story could go and picking the best one (hopefully).  Plus, once you’ve written them, you can share them with a friend and get their feedback (in which they might say, “well why doesn’t she just go to the castle in the first place?” and then you can decide whether you want your protagonist going to the castle in the first place).

As you’re researching and writing, always refer back to that one-sentence pitch and ask yourself if the new idea you’ve just had fits within this story. If not, write it down and vow to return to it in another book.  

That’s all for September, see you in October!