Cruel Compendium #81 🏋🏻‍♀️

Lifting weights, letting go, and celebrating sobriety

Last week, I wrote about the life-changing power of creative mornings and carving out a sacred space to meet with your creativity.

The life-changing power of creative mornings

Thank you to Mary for leaving this wonderful comment about my tech stack for writers:

"This is the most helpful - and comprehensive list - I've seen for freelancers. It covers EVERYTHING from pitching to banking to story inspiration. And it's free? Thank you so so much. Can't wait to check out your podcast.” —Mary

Be sure to click “View entire message” at the end of this email so you can read the whole post in your browser. On to the links!

In the shack with Robert Caro as The Power Broker turns 50 by Christopher Bonanos

PS: The Power Broker is now available on Kindle.

Does he write out here every day? “Pretty much every day.” Weekends too? “Yeah.” Does he go out much while he’s on the East End? “We have two friends who live south of the highway, and I said to Ina, aside from them, I’m not going this year.” There are other writer friends nearby in Sag Harbor, and they get together, but at this age, Caro admits a little sadly, they’re thinning out. He’ll be 89 this fall.

That Caro’s work is still done on paper, with no digital backup to speak of, marks him as one of the last of his kind. (He had never seen a Google doc until I offered to show him one. He was mildly startled to discover that, in a shared document, the person on the other end can be seen typing in real time: “That’s amazing. What’s it called? A doc?”)

How far have we come? by

Caroline Donahue

On the centuries women weren’t permitted to make art.

Why I’m so glad I’ve been lifting weights in my 30s by Casey Johnston, CSBC podcast guest

Catherine Andrews

celebrating one year sober and

Cody Cook-Parrott

celebrating 13 years sobers

Letting go is sacred by

Alex Elle

Lessons from autumn.

Books lately (23-30 in 2024):

• Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros

  • Summer of smut continues!

• Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar

  • A recovering, 20-something alcoholic leans on poetry as he tries to leave behind a legacy of his own after the deaths of both of his Iranian immigrant parents.

• All of This by Rebecca Woolf

  • A shockingly honest memoir of Woolf’s hatred of her husband, her devotion to him after he’s diagnosed with cancer, and her reclamation of her sexual desire after his death.

• These Precious Days by Ann Patchett

  • Delightful essays on life, love, and writing. I especially enjoyed her writing on being a childfree woman by choice.

• Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell

  • Such a delight to read the book that inspired one of the most beloved shows of all time — especially since certain plotlines, scenes, and characters are lifted directly from the original pages. But also a sad read because its cynical take on successful, powerful women dating in New York City is oh so realistic.

• The Husbands by Holly Gramazio

  • A novel about a magic attic that perpetually spawns husbands.

• All Fours by Miranda July

  • One of my favorite reads of the year, and my first Miranda July novel. It’s a strange, sexy, and surprising telling of a woman whose queer desire is newly awoken after years married to the same man, while experiencing perimenopause.

• North Woods by Daniel Mason

  • A story told over hundreds of years through one house in New England, with some supernatural elements.

Bits and bobs about freelance writing.

• My recent clips:

  • Tribeza: Tómalo Grill Brings Modern Mexican Cuisine and Extensive Mezcal Selection to Austin’s Rainey Street

  • Austin Monthly: The best Halloween events in Austin 2024

• Business Insider is hiring a yearlong Displaced Journalists Fellow

• Obsessed with this rejection goals template from writing coach Jaime deBlanc

• On cultivating enoughness when it comes to finances as a freelancer by

  Jenni Gritters

• Freelancers Union’s contract creator

• I enjoyed this ep of

  The Writers’ Co-op
  with Kat Boogaard, author of one of my favorite newsletters for freelancers, on crashing through your own price ceilings and hiring a freelance support team. She sorts all of her work into these buckets to get a better idea of clients she wants to keep and lose:

  —Pays well, enjoy the work

  —Pays well, don’t enjoy the work

  —Doesn’t pay well, enjoy the work

  —Doesn’t pay well, don’t enjoy the work

• Kat also sells amazing freelancer merch!

• Please submit your questions on life, love, and creativity for the next installment of Dear Jilla! Read my advice on embracing your cringe.

Causes I care about and actions for change.

• A list of links and resources for those affected by Hurricane Helene, and how you can help, plus more mutual aid links.

• I learned about the excellent This is Uncomfortable podcast, stories about the unanticipated ways money affects our lives, through

  Nic Antoinette
  . This episode is about a Palestinian woman who evacuated to Egypt with her husband, leaving her family behind. She speaks about what it's like to live in a city bustling with life just miles from where her family still faces death every day, and how unfair it is to be deemed "worthy" to live and escape based on whether or not you have $5,000.

• This Palestinian family is coming from Gaza via Egypt to settle in Austin. Donate to help them get settled in their new home.

• Sera Bonds
  wants us to do something by fundraising for the In Our Name campaign. In her words: “I am part of a Jewish philanthropic community that is raising $10 million for Palestinian-led organizations through our Jewish High Holidays season that begins next week. We’ve raised $1.5 million already towards our goal. Feel free to give if you can + to share news of the campaign if you feel inspired to do so.”

• See where candidates stand on the issues you care about at IssueVoter.org.

• Texas voters: 1 in 10 TX voters recently got put on the “suspense” list. The deadline to register is October 7!

  • Please check your voter registration at bit.ly/checktexas! 

  • If your status shows “suspense” or you have moved or changed your name since the last election, you can make updates online at bit.ly/texasaddress.

  • Note that you can’t register online in Texas — you have to do it in person, or mail in your registration.

• Tell VP Kamala Harris: Not another bomb! Sign the petition.

• Visit ceasefiretoday.com for helpful links to email/call your Congress members, sign petitions, find a protest near you, and more.

@xancollective#fyp

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• 🔴 I watched the Kusama: Infinity documentary on Yayoi Kusama’s life and art and learned that she faced tons of copycats (including Andy Warhol), sexism, racism, and suicide attempts; had very little success or acclaim till her 50s; and was living in a psychiatric hospital in Japan when she was "rediscovered." She never stopped making her art, and she lived to see her hometown museum in Matsumoto, Japan, honoring her work.

• 📖 I’m not a big poetry reader, but I read all of Mary Oliver’s Devotions. I liked

  Maggie Smith
  on how Oliver made poetry accessible.

• 📘 I recently subscribed (for free!) to a bunch of magazines on my library card through Libby. Now I can read the newest issues of New York, Vanity Fair, Vogue, and The Paris Review in beautiful color on my iPad. (Actually making time to sit down and leaf through a whole magazine is another thing.)

• 😷 Get more free Covid tests mailed to you by the government

• 🍃 An autumnal plant magic class that seems so delightful

• 💌

  Meg Jones Wall // 3am.tarot
  has an amazing list of Tarot resources on Bookshop

• 😃 How to make a dopamine menu

• 👾 Play DOS games online

• ☝🏼 The U.S. fertility rate reached a historic low in 2023, and the share of U.S. adults younger than 50 without children who say they are unlikely to ever have kids rose 10 percentage points between 2018 and 2023 (from 37% to 47%), according to a Pew Research Center survey.

• 💰 Retirement planning without children

• 🟢 A green funeral home that does human composting

• ✈️ I find it comforting that

  Kelcey Ervick
  finds it almost impossible to make art while traveling. I have not at all cracked the code on keeping up with my best habits when I’m away from home.

• 🐄 My last swim of summer on the first day of fall, with some special cow friends.

• 🐍 A snake being charmed by a snake charmer

• 👩🏻‍🤝‍👩🏽 Love this idea of friends throwing $10/month into a joint account, then using the money on group activities once a year

• 👹 Going out in your 30s

• 👁️ What you clicked on most in the last Compendium:

  Maggie Smith
  on self-trust

Support for the week ahead from your higher self.

How can I take a meaningful pause this week?

The Chariot
Leadership, success, willpower