Shut Up
Not yet.
100 New Books About Books
Everyday I try to find at least one book related thing to celebrate. It’s either that or suffer interminably wondering if anyone is reading the damn thing. What a lesson in letting go this has all been. You can’t control the direction of the wind. 💨
Love Notes
Once I was feeling really down about a lover and one of my mentors said, “It’s ok, you will fall in love with your readers soon and they will fall in love with you and there you will find the love you’ve been searching for.”
I did not understand. I thought maybe this was a ploy to get me writing again.
“One lover could never provide it,” she laughed.
Whoa?! Right?
Well fast forward to the love letter I got this morning on Good Reads. They tell me not to read the reviews but it’s like telling a child not to eat the candy.
This morning I got my sugar rush. Especially that he wanted to dig deeper into the text and that he found it cozy. Cozy!!! That’s beautiful.
Ryan Small, I love you, too.
Jeannine
Spoiler alert
I think she’s right, it’s designed to be discussed. I hope more people do that eventually. I met a baby and realized she’ll be 18 in the year 2042. It made me tell myself to be patient.
I am not writing a book at the moment after having powered through two. But I am thinking about a part two to both books. We’ll see how we do. It would make more sense to readers if they knew I was thinking of it as if I were writing a series of novels and a series memoirs and not just one.
Ms. Marie said I gotta see it like I am in it for the long haul. And I am. That’s the spoiler alert.
“Ms. Marie said I gotta see it like I am in it for the long haul. And I am. That’s the spoiler alert. ”
Reviews
I attended a book talk and told the audience I’m a genre-fluid writer. I don’t think my stuff fits nearly anywhere. The novel for sure but the memoir even more. If anything it’s surrealist. The whole experience feels real and not real to me. Like I wish there was a group I could talk to just about book talks.
Here’s a reader from that event and her thoughts. 👇🏾
Chai and reading and libraries
Today one of my customers bought her daughter by. Her daughter is 25. She lives in NYC but was in Philly for the holiday. The mother had to bring her daughter to the shop because she’s like I was talking to my daughter and she’s telling me I need to read this book that she checked out from The New York Public Library. She said she’d gotten two books but only really enjoyed this one called It’s Me They Follow. So her mom flips her wig. Because first off I met her mom almost a year ago when she first moved to Philly and walked into Harriett’s. I invited her back for the Deeply Rooted Dinner Party where she got to see the space when I was hosting a small dinner dedicated to my parents roots and culture. Anyway they came in because we all agreed it was an uncanny experience. Them both reading the same book at the same time and the mother having met me already. The daughter is fine and the mom is on pg 163. Her daughter wants to open a chai shop on the side. Turns out the mom teaches literacy to preschoolers. I tell her to bring the children by and also have some stuff for free. Small world. Yet big. Thankful.
Below is not the image from the mom or the daughter but instead the photo I was sent today by a different reader on Instagram. To those on the journey with ME —I know this all thread of webs feels awesome to experience.
Thanksgiving
I only wish I’d started sooner. Spent so long hiding. I was using my gift to help others, but forgetting about myself. In that time I wasted, I missed the opportunity to share this moment with folks who are no longer here on this side of life, but I know they are enjoying it from some place else on the other side. 🙏🏾
It’s Me They Follow
A novel out there doing her own thing in this world. Super surreal the photos sent to me this weekend.
Nana said, “This book will take you places, your feet will never go.”
“If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” Toni Morrison
Pop Up @ Princeton
I prefer the term installation. But same difference. It was still fun.
All the world’s a stage… ing
48 hours and all reused. I like staging because it feels more like my own art to me. It’s like world building in a story. There’s more freedom than interior designing for a client. Staging is like creating a temporary installation. Of course I don’t get exactly what I want because I’m working with select few pieces and they want something general and neutral for open houses. The furniture was not inventoried properly which I knew would affect us in the long run. But I’m learning still, right? Shouts to my neighbor Kat who literally let me pick through her things. Like how kind is that?! And come to find out she used to do staging. There’s so much more I wish could do—bigger rug in the dining area, my built in bench, real fireplaces, more flowers, a children’s room, curtains, a jute rug under the small nook by the stair. That powder room is not mine at all—yet. A more robust master bed, I don’t like the mixed brass in the kitchen. But all in all I think for a first try it was pretty good. I will ask Kat to mentor me.
Eat the Cake, Jeannine Cook. Eat the cake.
So much sweetness, but life is screaming “Eat the cake.”
