My favorite untranslatable word

And a preview of tomorrow's juicy Sounds Like A Cult episode...

Writing Prompt

A Valentine’s themed prompt for February!

In English, we have just one way to say “I love you.” We say the same exact words to everyone, from our life partner to our favorite singer to some drunk girl in the bathroom for giving us a tampon. I love you!!!

But in Italian, there are two distinct phrases: “Ti voglio bene” (this technically means “I want you to be well”), which you’d say to your close friends or parents or kids, and “ti amo,” which is reserved exclusively for serious romantic partners. 

Write a poem, journal entry, or short fiction piece about a time when this linguistic distinction between fierce romantic love and other kinds of love would’ve been rather useful, either for you, someone else, or a made-up character.

I’m doing a signed preorder campaign with Skylight Books!

This is my local bookstore, and I love them dearly. They ship all over the country! If you preorder using the below link, your copy of The Age of Magical Overthinking will show up signed and personalized (feel free to request that I write something truly deranged in it for you).

I’m quaking in my boots for tomorrow’s Sounds Like A Cult episode…

It’s about the cult of K-Pop! Genuinely, I am even more terrified of the cult of K-Pop fans than Swifties… thank goodness I have an extremely special expert guest host joining me for protection lol. Her name is Lai Frances, she’s a K-Pop journalist, and she bravely agreed to have this conversation with me about the dogmatism, rituals, high highs, and low lows of this extravagant musical genre, which is of course so much more than a musical genre. It’s a cult! The episode drops tomorrow on all major pod platforms at 2am PST / 5am EST.

I’m finally making real merch! Suggestions?

Years ago, I DIY’d a tiny little Wordslut/Cultish merch operation through an Etsy vendor (shoutout to anyone who owns a Wordslut sweatshirt—you’re an O.G.). But I’m finally trying to make more official merch to bring on book tour with me, and I’d love your feedback. Would you be interested in sweatshirts? T-shirts? Stickers? Tote bags? I had a vision for a t-shirt that says “weirdly obsessed with cults” on it and a tote bag that says “overthinker.” Let me know if you have any opinions or ideas!!

A weekly roundup of books, podcasts, TV shows, tchotchkes, and anything else I’m currently “cult following.” This week, I don’t know what got into me, I guess I just really wanted to talk about shoes.

SLIPPER: DEARFOAMS FIRESIDE SLIPPER IN DUSTY PINK

Hello hi, I am officially in my recluse era, and these pillow-y soft pink shearling slippers are my uniform. Apparently they’re on sale right now for $49.95??? Brb, gonna go buy a spare while they’re this cheap.

LOAFER: STUART WEITZMAN ADRINA LOAFER

For weeks, I had been trolling Poshmark for a secondhand pair of elegant, professorial little loafers. Finally, I found the perfect ones by Stuart Weitzman in a delectable cognac color. Here they are full price, and honestly $239 isn’t even that bad for loafers this nice, but if you can find this style for less on a resale website, I highly recommend!!! I’ve been wearing them with ribbed white socks, brown wide-leg cropped chinos, a white button-down, and a sweater vest. Living my best librarian life.

SNEAKER: WOMEN'S TIME OFF LACE UP SNEAKER

My friend, writer Jill Gutowitz, turned me onto these outrageously cozy sneaks. What a great time to be alive that orthopedic shoes are cool. Now THAT is something to live for.

BOOT: FIORENTINI + BAKER CLAREY CRA

I snagged a similar pair of booties from this stunning Italian brand while in Bologna last year, and hot damn, do they deliver on both beauty and comfort. I kind of can’t believe the American markup (they were $180 in-store), so I guess that means you’ll just have to come meet me in Italy later this year to go shoe shopping!!!