Radical possibility
On starting something new during the waiting game
Hello! This is exciting! Welcome to The Bowerbird. I’m taking my own advice (and that of many other writers) to throw myself into something new while I wait to hear from my publisher on my new novel manuscript. The waiting period. It’s excruciating. And thrilling. Filled with possibility and uncertainty and all the stuff that makes it a time totally ripe for investing all that nervous energy into something else. So, a newsletter, and a chance to share and build a little community.
I’m just back from a blissful and super productive residency in Aotearoa at the Michael King Writers Centre where I finished my overdue novel, walked up a volcano (see pic of my blissful Volcano face on the Tongariro Crossing) and had an absolute ball at the incredible Verb Wellington Literature Festival. You can find me waxing lyrical about such things over on Instagram, and I’m planning on sharing some of the serendipitous happenings from that time here over the next month.
I spend a lot of time recommending stuff - books, podcasts, adventures - over on The First Time Podcast where my co-host Katherine Collette and I chat to each other about navigating the writing life AND speak to amazing authors (like Helen Garner, Tony Birch, Maggie Shipstead, Holly Ringland) about their books and their own paths to publication. In these fortnightly posts I’ll let you know some of the best stuff from those convos plus other stuff I’m loving that we can never fit into the eps!
I’ve become a big fan of other writers and thinkers here on substack, some of my faves are The Sit Spot, Nervous Laughter and Story Club. Some of those I pay for and some I subscribe to for free.
You’ll hear from me every month if you’re a free subscriber, OR each fortnight on a Wednesday (cos hump day needs a lift, right?) if you’re in a position to become a paid subscriber.
I love being part of community of creatives, and I reckon this year I’m going to gift subscriptions when I can as Christmas presents. It’s a win/win, right?
If you want to find out what I’ve been reading and listening to lately, check out this week’s episode of the podcast (we put all the links in the show notes) and I look forward to sharing a new bunch of recommendations next month (or next fortnight if you subscribe!).
Until then, I’m waiting. Biting my nails, throwing myself into long overdue tasks and ploughing through loads of laps in the local pool to release all those nerves.
When did you play the waiting game? And did you start something new?