Coffee Grinds 08: round trip to NYC to meet a stranger + the Olympic sport you missed (but really need to be watching)

plus, books I can't put down, my impulsive Amazon purchase, Pride & Prejudice, what to do if your WIP is having an identity crisis, and a $17 martini

Things I’m obsessed with this week: Polaroids, spontaneous train rides, independent bookstores, new friends, good champagne, and reaching 100 subscribers!!!

📚 Reading:

• Dear Emmie Blue by Lia Louise, has been back on rotation for my audiobook of choice. I know last week I said it wasn’t capturing me enough for my runs, but somehow I’m back on it. It really is such a sweet story.

• Last Sunday, I got to meet with my beta-reading group, which meant lots of reading of their stories, which I’m so enjoying. It’s so special to be part of that process.

• I’m about halfway through Bunny by Mona Awad and it really is the wild ride everyone promised. I never read in this genre so the whole thing is a new experience for me. The way I’d summarize my feelings so far: I’m not necessarily excited to pick it up, but when I do, I can’t stop thinking about it for days and days.

Substacks I loved this week:

i get older, college kids stay the same age by

lindsey peters berg

hopes for my best friend's baby girl by

Madeline Paige

What we can all learn as creatives from Taylor Swift by

Sophie Hale

literary fiction book recommendations for beginners by

Madeline Mills

Is it okay for women to love true crime? by

Alanna Duffield

🫶Love

• I reached 100 subscribers this week!! Overjoyed doesn’t begin to describe how I feel. I’m so grateful for each and every person that reads this. If you’ve invited me into your inbox, left a comment, liked, or shared, you have made my day each and every time. Thank you, thank you, thank you. 🖤🖤🖤

• This FUJIFILM Instax 12 Polaroid + polaroids hanging on colorful twine around our house. This one sat in my cart for a week before I finally pulled the trigger and I’m so glad I did. I am OBSESSED.

• Long train rides and uninterrupted time to write. On Saturday I took the train from Boston to NYC (four hours!! Each way!!) to meet with, basically a stranger, who I’d met only a few times through my writing group on Zoom. Which…is a little crazy, but I just had a really good feeling about it. So I did something 25-year old me would have done, and I booked the ticket and didn’t look back.

  

  Book Club, train ride (hey that's this post!), $17 Martini

  We had a fantastic time roaming NYC, getting vegan nachos, $17 martinis at Book Club and I even hailed my first cab! How has this city girl gone her whole life not doing that? Good question. But there’s a first for everything. I also got to write on the train, which was the kind of thing the romantic in me just adores.

🎧Listened:

• This Something Corporate radio playlist. I’m a sucker for pop-punk.

• This podcast that’s perfect if your WIP is, like mine, having an identity criss between being a Rom-Com or Women’s Fiction.

✍️Wrote:

• down here, we’re only dreaming —a nostalgic coming of age about first loves, when that love is your very first apartment <3

• A pivotal scene in my WIP + edits that I’m hoping to finish next week. I’ve cut down my word count even more and figure I’ll probably end this draft around 72k. End goal is between 72k-84k so I’m in good shape! Though I do keep coming up with new little plot points so my one more final draft may be two or three 😆

🍿Watched:

• Unsolved Mysteries (Netflix) episode on Mothman. I love this stuff. Please discuss your theories in the comments. 👀

• Pride and Prejudice (1995) 3/6 episodes. I’m remembering as a kid I had a bigger crush on Bingley than Darcey but I think that’s just because he looked like the Greatest American Hero actor.

I mean, kind of?

• Identity (2003). You know what, this was kind of garbage but John Cusack was hot in a trench coat and sometimes, that’s really enough, you know?

• Rhythmic Gymnastics during the Olympics. Did anyone else watch this?! Why isn’t anyone talking about it? It’s incredible! I LOVED the group ones

  especially. I couldn’t find any videos from the Olympics but I did find this mash up and this one from 2016 Olympics.

🔭 Looking ahead:

Writing: This week I’m hoping to finish up this round of edits on my WIP.

I KNOW!!! It’s a lot to say out loud. I’m in the last 1/4 or so of edits and I know it’s going to go by quickly —IF I can find the time to just sit down and hammer through. The way I write goes something like this:

• Take 2 hours to get back in the zone

• Get interrupted

• Spend another hour getting back into it

• Have to break for the night

• Finally start making progress next day

Maybe I’ll work from a cafe this week. Or sit outside. I don’t know. We’ll see. I also thought this round would take a month and that was back in April so, what do I know 🤷‍♀️🫠

Substack: I have a new To All The Friends I’ve Loved Before in the wings for next week and then contemplating an article discussing Rom Coms and Women’s Fiction and the struggle to define the two, especially when you’re writing (unintentionally) between the genres. It’s not a full idea yet but, maybe?

I hope you have a good Sunday! <3