Just a quick note to say that all my updates have moved to a substack mailing list, if you’d like to subscribe! I’ll only send out my newsletter about once per quarter, and plan to have updates with my own writing, but also with what I’m reading and cooking and laughing about.
In other news, my book published!! More info about it here: The Butterfly Effect and Media Kit. I hope you’ll consider buying it or asking your local library to purchase a copy.
I set my original reading goal at the number of books I ended up reading last year, and the comparative of how much I read now that I’m not in the midst of PPD is pretty unreal. I had a lot of favorites this year, but above the joy of finding a good book was the joy of wanting to read at all and I’m grateful for that return.
Best Nonfic read this year: How to Sit by Tyrese Coleman (a genrebuster of a memoir and incredible), In the Country of Women by Susan Straight, All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung, and Godland by Lyz Lenz
Best Poetry read this year: Citizen Illegal by Jose Olivarez, Our Debatable Bodies by Marisa Crane, and The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (get the audiobook!)
Books Recommended to Me that I Loved: My Sister, The Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite, All of Tana French (literally read it all this year), and The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
Books that I Could Not Put Down: Trust Exercise by Susan Choi, Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera
Audiobooks that I Could Not Stop Listening To: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett, SLAY by Brittany Morris, Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, and Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Books that actually made me laugh out loud: Several Terry Pratchetts (including Going Postal), Bunny by Mona Awad, and French Exit by Patrick DeWitt:
Reading Resolutions for the new year: Read at least 110 books, read more short story collections, continue reviewing ARCs
Writing Wrap-Up
Besides finding a great agent and partner, I’ve polished up some manuscripts, and gotten some publications in The New York Times, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and others. I’m looking forward to forthcoming accepted pieces, including a piece of fiction I can announce will come out in X RAY on January 11.
Writing resolutions for the new year: Finish a new manuscript, continue to write and sub humor, and work toward at least five hours of “deep focus” a week.
Life etc
This New Year’s Eve I spent doing laundry, scrubbing rugs, and bleaching the kitchen floor after my toddler projective vomited everywhere, so this is adulthood I guess. Wrapped in a blanket, watching Star Trek and blogging, and feeling thankful for a good washer/dryer, good health (most of the time), and good friends who commiserate via Snap when I bitch about said vomit.
Happy New Year, folks. May it be the best one yet. Stay brave. Eyes up. We got this.
Been too busy to write monthly wrap-ups, but thought I would update on the last few months!
Writing Life
Since my last post, I signed with Veronica Park at Fuse Literary, and I’m so pleased to have her as the advocate for my novels. She is a taskmaster when it comes to polishing, and I appreciate her vision for my career.
Image from the New York Times by Molly Snee
This summer, I took a humor course at Catapult under the esteemed Elissa Bassist, which basically changed my life and gave me the confidence to take humor writing seriously (ha), something I’ve always wanted to do. Since then, I’ve placed pieces in McSweeney’s, The Belladonna, and other outlets that I’ve always enjoyed reading. (If you’re interested, see link to clips here.)
I also published my most personal essay to date in The New York Times, and have been so grateful for the outpouring of support from other women (religious or not) discussing their own experiences with family planning and postpartum depression.
As for new things, I’m 30k into a new project and have logged off social media, deleted my phone games, and set some daily writing goals to finish a first draft before the end of the year. I think I’ll NaNo in my own way next month, but probably not to the full level of 50k. Those of you currently outlining in preparation, know that I’m rooting for you!
Reading Life
I’ve been busy reading, so busy that I didn’t realize how close I’ve gotten to my target already! Over the past six months, I’ve discovered and chewed through multiple Tana French novels, adored the new Jacqueline Woodson, Margaret Atwood, and Ta-Nehsi Coates, and dug deep into some fantastic contemporary romance by Jasmine Guillory and Helen Hoang. I’ve tried to diversify my reading diet in genre, especially since I’m working on a project and don’t want to read too close to comps as I’m preparing something new.
I’ve had the chance to talk to a few authors about books I’ve enjoyed, too. For Electric Lit, I was able to talk to Lyz Lenz about her nonfiction debut, GOD LAND, centering around the culture of Christianity in the Midwest (and we talked about casserole recipes, too). For this blog, I interviewed Sonya Heaney about her debut historical romance set in Australia.
Life, etc
Lots of travel this summer and the family and I are settled into the routine of the school year. Kids are busy with their schedules and activities, and we’re finally at a point where we can say, “go out and play” and the kids can entertain themselves (at least for twenty minutes).
Too much rain, too many bug bites, but beyond that, life is sweet. Garden is still blooming with broccoli, squash, and tomatoes, and I’ve got the mums about to open.
Best books of the month: Daisy Jones & the Six was incredible and I finally got to read All You Can Ever Know, both highly recommended. If you want something surreal and yet too real, Severance by Ling Ma was an interesting take on the outbreak/end of humanity narrative
Best bookstore of the universe: Powell’s. Got a chance to finally make a pilgrimage and bought wayyyy too many books (on top of the books I bought at the AWP book fair. Whoops).
Powell’s Bookstore ❤
Writing Wrap
Feeling fancy in my first gif ever
Got a chance to attend, volunteer, and read at AWP19 this past weekend. Highlights of the trip included some amazing panels about revision and the novel, amazing readings (biased about the Cotton Xenomorph one, but also highly enjoyed the Split Lip/Indiana Review combo reading), and karaoke with new friends (Alanis forever). I also had some dedicated writing time that helped inform a new project and a requested revision. AWP gets slack from some, but it fed my soul in many ways. I needed time away from normalcy and duty to help refuel and I’m so glad I got the chance.
Amazing to see my name in the new print edition of Split Lip’s mag (vol 2). Even saw it on the shelves at Powell’s! Grab a copy if you have the chance. It’s an amazing issue.
Feeling good about the month ahead!
Life, Etc
Baby got ear tubes this month and that was a game-changer. He’s finally started to sleep through the night and I am, too. I cannot tell you how much more human this makes me feel. Big kids are enjoying the warmer weather and I am, too. Can’t wait to get back into the garden. The earliest shoots of tulips and daffs are popping up– now to rabbit-proof them.
I’ve been walking outside more with the nicer weather– and I’ve downloaded Pokemon Go to make that even more fun. It’s been a fun bonding activity with the big kids to go looking for “animals” to catch.
The header pic was from Portland, with cherry blossoms in bloom. We’re not there yet, but I can see the buds forming on our pear tree and it makes me feel like good things are coming soon for all of us.
Total books toward reading goal so far: 18/105 (2 ahead of schedule!)
Total books read this month: 10
Poetry book read for Poetry Challenge:Season of the Second Thought by Lynn Powell. Lovely nature-based poetry with a wry pushback-against-religious undertone. Lots of fine poems in the collection, picked up randomly off the shelf and glad I did. A taste of all the seasons during a month that has been too wintery.
Best audiobooks of the month: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, read by Bahni Turpin (I adore Bahni Turpin and loved Thomas’s first novel, so I’m not surprised) and The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. Both were so immersive I had trouble unplugging from them.
Other bests of the month: I had a really good reading month, which I desperately needed. The Friend by Sigrid Nunez was exactly the genre-breaking, heart-breaking novel I needed, and I chewed through The Nix in less than a month, which had been on my TBR forever. If you want a David Foster Wallace-esque book, but with more heart and firmer narrative structure: you’ve found it in The Nix by Nathan Hill. Finally, I loved Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith. It was a multiple POV love story–really, love in every formulation.
Writing Wrap:
This was kind of a fallow month for me, which I think I needed. I wrote a few shorter pieces, essays and humor mostly, and did a bit of editing, but I think I needed a creative recharge. I’m considering myself fallow, but receptive, and I’ll hit the longer works again soon.
Life Wrap:
This month I quit Facebook, had too many snow days, got very little sleep due to a sick baby, went to lots of meetings, counted piles of box tops for my kids’ school, made lots of phone calls for volunteer work, and generally felt a little burned out. These long, cold days need to brighten soon, and I think they will. The seed catalogs have started arriving and mentally mapping my garden brings a smile to my face. Other bright spots of the month include watching Jeopardy! with my husband, starting Harry Potter with my oldest kid, and watching my baby learn to pull himself up and navigate around the furniture.
Best Books of the Month: Can I say all of them? Becoming by Michelle Obama was a balm that I chewed through in two days, I adored Premee Mohamed’s ghost-ish novella The Apple-Tree Throne (check that out here). Also The Secret History ruined me for all other books in so many ways. I reread The Sympathizer because I needed to, and got angry when I had to put down the most recent Comoran Strike. Lots of genres, lots of good reads.
Best Books Read this Year:Educated, An American Marriage, The Heart’s Invisible Furies, The Belles, Circe, Less
Total pages read: 36,742 (give or take)
Unplanned themes for reading this year: Lots of mystery novels, lots of empowered women in my fic and nonfic, some fantastic fantasy YA, and
Goals for next year: Meet or beat my 105 books from this year, read more non-fic and romance
Writing Wrap-Up
For shorter works, I’ve had some awesome stuff published this year that I’m proud of. Just this month, I had a short story published in Literary Mama about the first weeks of parenthood. I’ve published about breastfeeding horror stories in Scary Mommy and posted a ridiculous list about politics in the humor site Little Old Lady Comedy. I wrote a few things for the fantastic journal, Cotton Xenomorph, including this little piece of flash fiction about fruit and relationships. Helpful as we jump into 2019, I also got to write about setting bookish new years resolutions in Women Writers, Women’s Books, a site I adore. I ended the year publishing for Data-Driven Investor, talking about the twentieth anniversary of the Furby. The most fun I’ve had this year was also in writing and performing a true story live, without notes, for the podcast Story Collider. Audio of that is available here.
For longer works, I’ve polished a novel and finished another, which I’m still in the process of beautifying. I’m looking forward to diving into another project soon.
Life Etc
The Year In Numbers
Classes taught: 5
Babies born: 1
Family trips: 4
Homegrown strawberries eaten: 60+
Real push-ups that I can do (for the first time in my life): 10
Hours I usually sleep at night now: 5
Hours I wish I could sleep at night: 8+
Hilarious stories written with my kindergartner: 12+
Number of those stories that are about pac-man: too many
Looking forward to the New Year, in all of its glories and challenges. 2018 was not the best in so many ways, but I’ve got hope for the year to come. Wishing the best to you and your crew.
Books still behind in my GoodReads Challenge: 9! I was aiming for 115 this year, and I’m almost at 100. I need to roll up my sleeves and do some serious reading in the next 31 days…
Best Books of the Month: So many great ones this month that it was hard to pick. Kiss Quotient made me weak at the knees, I chewed through The Consuming Fire in three days flat, and Liane Moriarty’s newest was a little bit of a departure, in the best ways, from her standard. It was one of those months that I couldn’t wait to read after the kids went to bed, and I haven’t felt that way in a while.
ARCs read this Month: I just finished Dhonielle Clayton’s sequel to The Belles, called The Everlasting Rose. It was great, and it is out next year! Details in my review.
Books looking forward to this month: I just started The Thirteenth Tale last night and I’m hooked already. I plan to start either The Secret History on audiobook soon.
Writing Wrap-Up
Wasn’t aiming to do NaNo this year (too much work to do), but bravo to those who took it on, whether you “won” or not! I finished a few short non-fic pieces this month and have been deep into editing a new novel project, a rom-com, which is a nice balm to the stressful world we live in.
Life Wrap-Up
We had approximately 2.5 beautiful fall days before the weather changed, but me and the clan tried to take advantage of it. Not looking forward to a long winter inside, so might just have to invest in good snow gloves so I can join the kids in making snowmen this winter.
Started weight training at the gym, and I am already super sore, but proud of my progress. My goal in the new year is do to “real push ups,” something I’ve never been able to do.
Busy and happy at work and pulling together year end projects. Just a few weeks left of the semester, then a long break when I plan to finish editing and start work on a new writing project!
Hung holiday lights while listening to audiobooks, and it is my new annual tradition. Out on a ladder, good books in my ear, neighbors honking as they go by.
Best Books Read This Month:Less was incredible, and just finished and enjoyed The Gilded Wolves (due to be released next year)
Creepiest Book This Month: Affinity by Sarah Waters creeped me out, and then just like a typical Waters, flipped a switch in the last act. I had sipped the book a bit at a time, but she made me finish the last fifty pages in one sitting.
Big Reading Mood This Month:
I've been practicing more book-related self-care lately, and noticed a few things that have lowered my blood pressure:
1. Not finishing books that don't click. 2. Rereading books I just want to crawl into again. 3. Ending the day with a book that makes me laugh.
Looking Forward to: Finishing Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator with the kindergartner. We’ve been reading a chapter most nights. It’s not by any stretch my favorite Roald Dahl, but I don’t remember having ever read it before, so that’s kind of fun. I’m also excited to finally read How to Stop Time and Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture, both of which I’ve had on my end table for a few weeks.
Writing Life:
Lots of thinking about writing and not much action this month. I’ve been doing more volunteer work and my job has been challenging. I’ve got a few ideas percolating for the next big project, including one that came to me yesterday morning after the baby decided to stay up for an hour after his 4AM feeding. Need to outline something and jump in. Won’t do NaNo officially like I did last year, but I’d like to write a little each day this month. I missed it this month– and my family knows when I haven’t been writing because I get crabby with them. Best for all of us if I get back to the routine!
Good news about a short story I have played around with for a few years, that will finally find a good home with Literary Mama. More news on that as it gets polished up. Also, published my first piece with Little Old Lady Comedy.
Finally, this month brought an opportunity to speak at a Story Collider Show. The producers and editors were fabulous to work with in the weeks leading up to the event. It made me realize how much I love live storytelling. It mixes my favorite things about theater with my favorite things about writing. I’ll share this one if it makes it “on the pod,” as they say.
Photo from the Story Collider event (courtesy of Mark Looney)
Life, Etc:
Halloween was a blast tonight. Kids got a huge haul (most of the plunder will come with me to work). My littlest got to stay up the whole time and enjoyed seeing all of the activity.
Election next week, though it seems like this season has been going on approximately a decade. If you’re a legal voter in the US, please vote.
Books read this month: Only 3! I have two very close to finished, but it’s been a self-care via comic books kind of month this month, meaning not a lot of “trackable” reading
Books so far this year: 79
As far as writing, been polishing up a novel and have sent it to agent for a look! It’s been my passion project for two years– two years of researching bugs and space and brains and writing the relationships of the people inside. I’ve finished book projects before, but none of them have felt this real to me, so hoping for the best!
My other biggest writing project this month has been practicing to perform at a live story telling event in mid-October. If you know me in IRL, let me know if you want details to come see! It’s 8-10 minutes, no notes, and I’m getting extremely excited to get back on a stage of any kind (something I haven’t done since college).
Life, Etc
This month was a news-filled kick-in-the-pants that dredged up too many memories for me and other people. I don’t think I’ve felt so purpose-filled, helpless, and rage-y at the same time in at least, well, a few years.
Personal life? Going great! Youngest started rolling, big kids are terrible at soccer (but the season is almost over), and we have the house decorated for Halloween already, as of today.
This month in numbers:
Number of teeth that baby now has: 1
Number of apple pies made by the hubs this month: 2 (I’m lucky!)
Number of assignments I have to grade this week: ∞
5ks ran: 1
Seasons of Orange is the New Black streamed: 3
Trips planned: 3 (even if just in my head and will never happen, still nice stress relief)
Most swoony book of the month: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
Books that kept me up at night: Forest of a Thousand Lanterns by Julie Dao and Give Me Your Hand by Megan Abbott
Best audiobook of the month: Circe by Madeline Miller
Best print book: There There by Tommy Orange
Books so far this year: 76
Writing Wrap-Up
Working on final edits for a big thing right now. Got some good news today (to be announced soon) that’s not exactly book-adjacent, but will be a fun opportunity and another chance to write. Have a very— very— Midwestern piece coming out tomorrow that I’ll post to the pub’s page as soon as it’s out. Making it made me hungry and homesick at the same time.
I’m making it a goal to write 30k on a new thing before November so that I can at least try NaNo again this year (won it last year!) and finish a new draft before the end of the year. That would be two completed book projects for the year, which would be a-maz-ing, but not going to count my chickens before they are even in eggs, let alone hatch.
Life Wrap-Up
I have not been sleeping enough lately to do a “by the numbers” this month, but hopefully that’ll change soon as the baby gets older. Right? (looks around desperately. ) Right?
(narrator voice: “she would not get more sleep soon.”)
Soccer season has started, and my middle kiddo starts dance on Monday. My big kids stopped sucking their thumbs this month, too, so lots of changes around here that make me feel like time’s passing too fast.
The garden is full of strawberries still, and the raspberries are all turning bright red. It’s a beautiful time to be growing things and I’m so grateful for those last few green tomatoes that promise to ripen soon and taste a bit like summer in these early fall days.
Sending you good wishes in the form of digitized fruit and veggies.
Writing Wrap-Up
Rachel Mans McKenny 