WITCHES, ART, AND LETTERWRITING

LIFE OF A BOOKMAN

Bookman: 1. a person who has a love of books and especially of reading. 2. a person who is involved in the writing, publishing, or selling of books. Oh, hi that’s me!!

Summer Camp gone wrong: I asked who had read what I’m read, and so many of you have read The God of the Woods! I’m feeling late to the game. Funnily, my gal pal even reminded me that we actually met author Liz Moore at Savannah Book Festival, so egg on my face! It’s a real testament to the fact that when a book is not on my radar, it is so not on my radar. LOL. I’m through the exposition of the book, which felt slow to me, but now I’ve met a few characters that have locked me in to the plot, and to their backstory. We have a girl missing, and no answers. Let’s go!

What I’ve been writing: I wrote you a letter! By hand! Over the weekend. It’s three pages long, and I’d love to send it to you. I’ve asked for ten of you to sign up to test this mail concept out with me here (please join! I’d love to have ten of you to trial this with me). The long and short of this idea, is that I know from so many of you that you’re over the social media slop, and ai-written everything, and the doom-and-gloom news. It’s too much. So what if you got to slow down long enough to read my handwriting, and explore something interesting with me, via an actual letter in the actual mail? Maybe this is a terrible idea, or maybe it’s fun? But let’s try and see. What I do know is that one of the most enjoyable few hours I’ve had in a while was writing this letter to you. So if nothing else, there’s that!

WOMEN’S STUDIES

What gets passed down becomes our history.

Women don’t quit. We should. Lindsay Crouse wrote a book called The Case for Quitting, which I first heard about on The Culture Study podcast about why people should quit far earlier than they think. I’m still a little iffy on the topic, because I often think that major breakthrough have happened in my life after I wanted to quit, and then didn’t. But I also came across this topic at a time that I did need to consider taking a different approach, and quitting some of my original way of doing things, because what I was doing wasn’t working. I’d say both this article and the podcast episode are good thought starters if you’re figuring things out in life (aren’t we all?)

Artists Turned Content Creators are Miserable. The dream is to have your art adored by the masses…or is it? This psychologist interviewed a bunch of creators, artists, and makers who became “internet famous” and looked at the impact it was having on them, on their way of seeing themselves, and on their art. It was pretty fascinating, especially as someone (me) who is pushed over the years to believe that said masses are the way your art can get made, because there’s enough of an audience to, say, give you a book deal. This piece definitely caused me to pause and reconsider what that would actually mean, and if it’s worth it, and what needs to be in place for your art to have that much visibility.

Practical Magic 2 and all it’s Sandy coverage. I could watch Sandra Bullock walk a red carpet for the rest of my life. It’s so exciting seeing her back, working, and looking like nine million bucks. I cannot wait to see this movie. I remembering seeing the first with my mom (mom, want to fly here and see #2 with me!?) and I’ve seen it probably 20 times in the 28 years since. But did you know, when it first came out it was a huge flop? Apparently too many women in one cast. ha.

PASS IT ON

Stories are heirlooms. Here’s one of mine:

I’ll never understand the person who says, “I hate surprises.”

But I do, fully understand, the person who says “I hate keeping surprises.”

Because I am that person. The secret of the surprise makes me so nervous that I’m about to ruin it! That I’ll spoil everything! That I’m one verbal slip away from an avalanche of ruined surprise!

This summer, I had to keep a surprise for three months from San Francisco’s national treasure, Judy Walsh. Four of my and Judy’s friends were coming into town from Houston and Savannah, and those friends decided it would be “really cool to surprise Judy.”

Yes, it WOULD be really cool if I wasn’t the one who had to actively lie to my Patron Saint of wisdom and grace for three months!! But alas, I gave myself over to the plan, and willed myself not to spoil it.

Over the course of three months, Judy asked me several times when I’d see our crew again, and when they’d come to visit. Each time I gave her my very best fib.

Then, as the visit approached, the surprise crew and I conspired a surprise plan: Invite Judy to a morning walk at Tunnel Tops in the Presidio, with treats! Then, they would show up unannounced and crash our coffee date!

The plan was set with Judy. She “penciled me in” for Saturday morning. All was going to plan. We were nearing the hours of the surprise, which I’d successfully kept from her despite our many convos. Never in my wildest dreams did I think Judy would be the one to side-track the surprise. Well, I got a text questioning if she could in fact make our meeting. Her great-niece was in town with friends from Paris, and her schedule was getting tricky.

Oh, hell no!

No, Judy, no!

I panicked. I told her to bring all the guests! But she was still unsure about the timing.

I needed to make her sure of the timing. Otherwise, spoil the surprise. Or pack her surprise crew in the car and show up at her door and hope she’s decent. All of these seemed like viable options. Instead, I went with the nuclear option – DM her niece on instagram (THANKS MOLLY!!) so Molly could call her daughter (Judy’s great niece, the one with the Paris friends), and help me get Judy there as planned.

Luckily, they were happy to help, instead of the totally reasonable reaction available to them: tell maxie to chill out.

The surprise was back on track. So Saturday morning, I bought bags full of Tartine treats and fresh fruit from Luke’s market, and zipped over to meet her. The rest of the crew would appear at some undetermined time, which meant that I needed to explain why I had so much food for the two of us?

I rambled some incoherentness. < Did I mention that I’m terrible at this?>

Then, as we bundled ourselves from the wind with Golden Gate bridge opening up from the fog, Judy pointed to the rays of sunshine glowing over the bridge and said, “It looks like someone left the living room lights on.”

As she said that, one by one, the Surprise crew revealed themselves. First James, then Brian, then Tim, then Kate. And with each reveal, Judy moved from sheer confusion at the serendipity, to more and more tickled.

It was so full of fun and thrill. More friends of ours joined us, and with kids wheeling around and dogs flopping and friends hugging, we pulled off one hell of a morning, which turned into a lovely summer evening with dinner and drinks at her house. Or, as Judy put it after, “It was the grand opening to one of the most wonderful surprises ever manufactured by the best band of five family members anyone could ever hope for.”

So ya, I don’t love keeping a surprise. Especially when it’s from the woman who turns the living room lights on in all of our hearts.

But I love a good surprise, and will never understand why one wouldn’t.

Keep ‘em coming,

Woman on xx