Oh, wow, I DO still want to do that...

What I've learned from my sabbatical, the joy of reader events, and a TV show that is pure delight

Jul 26, 2022

Before we get started, I’d like to welcome all the new subscribers who signed up for this newsletter at my table at Book Bonanza. Welcome!

It was so nice to chat face-to-face with actual readers after three years of not going to conferences. Even though I’m an introvert, I’d forgotten how much I need those in-person experiences with the bookish community. Conferences remind me why I do this job. I was exhausted afterward (because so much people-ing!) but also spiritually re-energized. So thank you, readers (and fellow writers) for giving me a much-needed boost!

Sabbatical update

And that boost was well-timed because I’m coming up on the end of my 6-month sabbatical. (If you’re new here, I talked about why I was taking a sabbatical in this post: Sometimes you need your own grand gesture.)

Back in February, I remember thinking that 6 months sounded like such a long time. Like, wow, I won’t be going back to work until the kiddo starts school again. I also remember thinking that I probably wouldn’t last the 6 months, that my high-strung personality wouldn’t allow me to take that long of a break.

However, here we are, only 2 weeks from the end of it, and I’ve managed to mostly do it. (Yes, I did write a 10k word story for the Nightingale anthology, but it was for charity and it only took a week to write.) I think the key for me was that I didn’t just sit on the couch and watch TV—well, I gave myself about two weeks of that before I got antsy. I stayed busy but with low-pressure things like the RAD Reading podcast and this newsletter. I read a lot of books. I also put a focus on my health, doing Weight Watchers and walking (losing 20lbs), which made me feel physically better. But most importantly, I stopped putting writing on my To Do list.

I gave myself mental space to really evaluate which parts of my job I wanted to keep (if any) and which parts I wanted to change or get rid of. It was a journey, honestly. It’s not unlike the stories I write, there was an arc to the sabbatical—and some black moments! :) But looking back on these last five and a half months, I can see that I needed this amount of time (and was very lucky to be able to take it) in order to get to the spot I am today.

I was burnt out, and that doesn’t magically disappear over a two-week vacation. By month four, I was still in the mental weeds, not sure what my path forward would look like. However, I’m happy to report that at month 5, it’s finally happening. In my writing classes, I teach that this is the part of the story when the sun breaks through the clouds for the characters and they can move into Act 3.

I’m not going to pretend that everything will now be roses and butterflies or that writing will be “easy”, but I do feel like I’ve had some epiphanies. Journaling really helped with this. I used the Day One app and only journaled when I had something I wanted to work through on the page, but being able to look back on the entries from throughout the sabbatical lets me see the journey. It gives me a chance to get perspective. Like two weeks ago, I looked back on an earlier post and saw that my pain points with writing were 100% about outcome/business stuff, not the actual writing process. So now I have this posted on my bulletin board.

It took this sabbatical for me to see that—oh yeah, I still really love to tell stories. That’s still fun and rewarding. That may sound silly and simple, but for me, that was something that had gotten so deeply buried under other stuff over a decade-long career that it felt like a revelation—a joyful one.

So that’s where I’m at right now—two weeks from the official end of the six months but feeling freshly motivated to return to my desk. I’m going to make some changes and adjustments to incorporate what I’ve learned over this sabbatical. I’ll talk more about that at another time. But for now, I’m just happy to be spending time with imaginary people again. :)

Thanks for sticking with me during this journey!

Bookish Reminder

In case you missed it last newsletter, For You & No One Else is now available!

She has the perfect life…and it’s a perfect lie.

Behind the careful façade, she’s struggling:

To feel like she fits in. To find her true voice.

Now, finally, she’s ready to start living her own story.

Eliza Catalano has the perfect life. So what if it actually looks nothing like the story she tells online? As a therapist, it’s part of her job to look like she has all the answers, right? But when Eliza ends up as a viral “Worst Date Ever” meme, everything in her Instagram-filtered world begins to crumble.

Enter the most obnoxiously attractive man she's ever met, and a bet she can't resist: if she swears off social media for six months, Beck Carter’ll teach her the wonders of surviving the "real world." No technology, no dating apps, no pretty filters, no BS.

It seems like the perfect deal—she can lay low until her sudden infamy passes, meet some interesting new people, and maybe even curate this experience into a how I quit the online dating racket book along the way. But something about Beck’s raw honesty speaks to Eliza in ways she never expected. She knows he’s supposed to be completely hands-off…but as complex feelings grow and walls come tumbling down, rough-around-the-edges Beck may be exactly what Eliza needs to finally, truly face herself—and decide who she really wants to be.

Add to Goodreads

Reader Seeks Romance Interview

If you’d like to hear me chat about the book, I did a YouTube interview with the fabulous Liz Donatelli of Reader Seeks Romance. I really enjoyed this conversations and I hope you do too! (click below to watch)

On the podcast

In the latest episode of RAD Reading, we’re celebrating Dawn’s birthday! She’s talking about the books that shaped her as a reader and I’m gifting her with three custom-tailored book recommendations. Plus, we’re telling all of our stories from Book Bonanza—like that moment when I realized (um, panicked?) that I was going to have to play Never Have I Ever on stage in front of a ballroom of people with some mega-star authors.

Listen in your favorite podcast app:

Apple podcasts
Audible
Spotify
Or add to your favorite podcast app with their “Add by URL” feature and paste this link there: https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/rad-reading

A show that is just freaking delightful

I know I’m behind the curve on this one, but I’m sure I’m not alone. If you haven’t already watched Ted Lasso, consider this your new assignment. If you want something that will just make you feel good about being human and put a smile on your face, do yourself a favor and binge Ted Lasso.

You don’t have to like soccer/football. They hardly show any. You don’t have to like sports shows at all. This is a show about characters and relationships and kindness. Plus, it’s really funny. The world can be dark; this show is pure light. Give yourself the gift of Ted.

Anyone else a fan of this show?