The Waited is my new Substack about all the waiting that goes into the making.
For a few years there, when my kids were really little, I wasn’t thinking about writing fiction at all. But I would listen to podcasts and audiobooks about creative practices—by Brené Brown, Liz Gilbert and Cheryl Strayed. I was biding my time, I see now that I look back. Hibernating. Absorbing. And you guessed it: waiting.
Because after I lost my phone and spent three weeks in Europe off the grid(ish–I still had my laptop with me), I realized I wanted to write a book. So when I got home (and over the jet lag) I started John Grisham-ing things: I woke up earlier than I ever had in my life so I could get my 1000 words in before my kids got up and I had to start my day.
I wrote and wrote and wrote, then started working with the brilliant editor Carrie Frye, who had me rewrite and rewrite and rewrite until my thriller was solid enough to start pitching agents, a wild experience that ultimately landed me with my agent Lauren Spieller at Folio Literary Management in New York.
I’m fascinated by the way artists, writers and creative types do their work while also parenting or holding down a day job or juggling any of the other things that makes them postpone whatever project they have percolating.
The Waited, my new Substack, is about all the waiting that goes into the making. It will also be where I’ll share things that are…
Worth the Wait
- Design. All the vintage things I love but shouldn’t buy because we have limited storage in our 115-year-old home.
- Culture. Though let’s be realistic: probably more low-brow than high-.
- Style. Especially vintage clothes that border on costume.
- Writing. What I’m working on. How I’m working on it. And who I’m working with.
- Reading. I’ve been running a book club for so long it’s become my entire personality.
Subscribe? Share with your friends? And let me know what you’d like to see?
