I've been secretly going "offline." Here's why.

Some extra exciting updates this week!

Writing Prompt:

In my craft workshops, I always address the concept of writing “voice,” which is harder to define than you might think. I’ve heard it described as a sense of “intimacy” with the reader; I’ve also heard it characterized as the thing that helps you “pick a writer out in a crowd.” It’s a combination of natural instinct, learned skill, word choice, imagery, grammar choices, plot choices, weight vs. levity, so many things. Write a journal entry about the writer whose voice, to you, sticks out most in a crowd and why?

Come meet me at Speakeasy Books in Idyllwild on Saturday, February 24th!

I’m doing a little Cultish reading/signing at this ADORABLE indie bookshop in Idyllwild, CA at 3pm on Saturday 2/24. There will be snacks! And I just might do a reading from my new book :) Come through!!

I completed Embedded’s “My Internet” questionnaire… and the takeaways were eye-opening…

It really just showed me how offline I’ve gone 😳 Internet culture reporter Kate Lindsay, whom you may recognize from my “cult of AI” episode of Sounds Like A Cult writes one of my favorite newsletters, Embedded, so I was giddy when she and her editor Nick Catucci asked me to complete their “My Internet” survey, where they “quiz a ‘very online’ person for their essential guide to what’s good on the internet.” I guess I’ve always considered myself a fairly online person, but looking at all the questions on this survey, I was like, wait a second… have I actually become a decidedly offline person who doesn’t scroll or recognize trends or know what half these apps even are?? I think writing the new book has had something to do with my retreat away from online discourse. Click the link below to read about my weirdly specific social media vibe (and hopes for a “de-globalized internet”).

The Bad on Paper podcast included me in their 2024 reading preview!

What fun. Listen to this delightful episode of one of the best bookish podcasts out there to learn about the books that I (and four other wonderful guests) can’t wait to slurp up in 2024.

The Next Big Idea Club selected The Age of Magical Overthinking as an April “must read!”

Two of the 24 nonfiction books from this list will be chosen as official book club selects by the Next Big Idea Club’s curators (Susan Cain, Malcolm Gladwell, Adam Grant, and Daniel Pink). Cross your fingers for me ;) Check out the other nominees here!

This week on Sounds Like A Cult, some fun pop culture goss…

Would you sacrifice your phone, passport, dignity, and freedom to move into an isolated pod for 10 days and compete against a sorority of strangers in search of True Love, all for the world of fiendish reality TV consumers to see??? Sounds like cult behavior to me!!! This week, just in time for the Season 6 premiere, we’re FINALLY covering the cult of Love Is Blind, one of the most ~radical~ reality dating shows to have graced the airwaves. We’re joined by former cult member… ahem, I mean, contestant… Stacy Snyder to discuss the pros and cons of this objectively cultlike approach to marriage. The episode drops tomorrow morning at 2am PST!

I’m giving away stickers to the first 10 Sounds Like A Cult listeners who preorder my book…

I’ll be honest, I am SO anxious about hitting my preorder goal that I’d give away vials of my blood at this point. But I think these little stickers are probably more appealing. Listen to this week’s episode of SLAC to find out how to win one of these fun logo stickers in exchange for a preorder <3 Every single one counts!!

A weekly roundup of books, podcasts, TV shows, tchotchkes, and anything else I’m currently “cult following.” 

BOOK: EVERYTHING NOTHING SOMEONE

Author Dani Shapiro called this book “a master class in memoir,” and I wholeheartedly concur. It was written by Alice Carrière, the daughter of an illustrious but aloof New York painter and a European movie star with such boundary issues that it begged the question, “Is this child abuse, or is he just French?” The story begins with Alice’s romantic but isolated childhood in the West Village, where she was constantly surrounded by New York’s greatest luminaries but also totally alone. This culminated in her diagnosis with a dissociative disorder as an adolescent, setting off a 15-year roller coaster of psychiatric hospitalization, over-prescription, drug abuse, and other self-destructive behaviors. I won’t spoil the ending. The prose is gorgeous, and though the story takes place in the 1990s, something about the writing feels like it could’ve been from 100 years ago. Fans of Girl, Interrupted will go gaga for this one.

MUSEUM: PLANET WORD IN D.C.

I was just remembering the other day how much I love this museum, which I visited for the first time in D.C. a couple years ago and to which I am suddenly longing to return. It’s a linguistics museum! It’s small, interactive, and such nerdy fun—if anyone here has to plans to swing into D.C. anytime soon, I highly recommend it!

UNNECESSARY PURCHASE: THE CLOCK LIBRARY

As a holiday present, Casey got me a hard copy of Romeo & Juliet that had been turned into a wall clock, and it brings me such joy every time I look up at the wall in my little office and see it! He picked it up at the Melrose Trading Post in L.A., but apparently the guy who makes them also sells online. Such a special gift idea for someone else or even yourself :)

HABIT: PAUSE CONTRAST THERAPY

Not to be that cringey wellness bro, but I am now evangelizing infrared sauna-cold plunge sessions. Fifteen minutes sweating my ass off in the sauna, two minutes freezing my tits off in the ice bath. The intense temperature contrast shocks me out of my evil brain. I just love it and had to tell you about it. Unsubscribe if you must!!!