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I’m sharing quarterlyish peeks at my works in progress and readerly rambles about what I’m reading and loving.
Updates
Taylor Swift. You already know she’s person of the year. But she’s not just an artist, she’s this moment’s face of a bigger movement we’ve been seeing all year: Girl culture. This Atlantic article makes the same points all the other articles on this topic has (so why can’t I stop reading them all?) but this line at the end, referring to the writer’s uncle scoffing and demanding the NFL get back to the game when the camera showed Taylor once more, still hit:
“My family member’s Thanksgiving comment sounded strange because it was almost vintage. A tedious throwback to a time, albeit not that long ago, when it was socially acceptable to openly belittle the things that women like. Not anymore.”
Yes yes yes. I’d posit girl culture is showing up in publishing, too. The Britney memoir, of course, the overwhelming dominance of Colleen Hoover and novels like Lessons in Chemistry, but also in the way romantasy has taken over this year, and so many other things.
In conclusion, I’ve never been more fired up about the story I’m currently revising—it centers women and their ambition, their anger, their their right to make grave mistakes, and not. a. single. male. character.
(For paying subscribers, here’s a little sneak peek at a segment I had to cut.)
PS: To reactivate the paid subscriber option, I had to choose between reactivating all prior subscriptions and cancelling them all and starting fresh. Since it’s been a few years since I was doing this last, I cancelled them all.
This means if you had a paid subscription back in 2021 and still want it, you’ll need to opt back in. It also means that if you can’t remember or don’t want it now because this is different times, no worries, you will not be billed!
Bonus link: The Pantone Color of the Year has arrived.