September’s words

A recent visit to Hort & Pott – a botanical destination in Freehold, NY. (I believe I have convinced the owners that their shop should be featured in an issue of Fieldfare)

Hello Friends,

Today was a double-page (owing to overly exuberant handwriting) to-do list. The starred and underlined scrawl at the bottom reminds me that my newsletter is shortly due. Here is the deal with me: I think about writing all of the time. I jot down thoughts (and sometimes sentences I think would work in something) in the notes section of my phone, where I have an entire section devoted to “FF Newsletter ideas.” I even read books about the writing process. I play word games every day. The NYT Spelling Bee cannot be set aside until I’ve reached “amazing” and the daily Wordle must be done in one go. I love words. 

But here’s my BIG BUT, I am a terrible writer. I’m slow and obsessive and my rambling often leans tangential – my process is no process. I kept a daily blog (in The Tens – do people say that?) for four years and I’ve submitted to many magazines and been rejected many times. Is it a surprise to any of us that I had to create my own publication in order to get anything in print? No. During our Fieldfare road trip earlier this year, I showed Skye one of my writing prompts and she swiftly designated me “a tortured writer.” Which is annoying because I’ve seen her sit down and pound out what needs to be written in clear concise language, relaying all pertinent information in a manner of minutes (and really when I say pound, I mean it – she really should be called @theangrytypist), but I secretly enjoyed that she considers me any sort of writer.

I’m obviously using this as procrastination for what I need to be doing for the next issue. We’ve had our weekly meeting and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed with the scope of what needs to be done by just two people in a very short amount of time. Oh, the irony of the hectic pace of production of what is meant to be a slow living aide! (I feel like I should ™ that term) Whenever I’m frantically trying to create peaceful and thoughtful content while the chaos of real life shouts at me, I just laugh at the absolute absurdity of the situation. And then I remind myself that this journal has been the most satisfying work I’ve done in a very long time and I get on with it, because the question of how long we can keep it afloat always lingers. 

We have decided on all submissions and notified those that will be included in Issue 3. As we’ve mentioned, it was difficult given the quantity of quality work. Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to submit. It’s a hard thing to do, and you’ll note from above this is my voice-of-experience I’m using. We will start focusing on pre-orders at the end of this month and really hope to get you all energized and excited about the features and lovely stuff that’s coming – we’ve got to rally for Issue 3 people!

That’s it then. Back to school, back to work, back to reality. 

Mendy xx

Bonus Links

I’m in the middle of this Ezra Klein Show podcast about Chloé Cooper Jones’ book “Easy Beauty” and transfixed by the discussion between the author and Tressie McMillan Cottom about the distinction between “easy beauty” and “difficult beauty.”

A lovely photo series posted by the NYT that captures the remarkable life of Queen Elizabeth ⅠⅠ (1926 - 2022)