Happy Friday, friends. We made it.
First, a request! The paperback of my book Touched Out is officially circulating in the world. If you purchased the hardcover, paperback, audiobook, or any version of my book (hopefully not a weird AI summary though), will you leave a review at the bad place or at Goodreads? I would be oh so grateful— even just a star rating helps people find the book.
Little bit of press for the paperback launch: icymi, I spoke with
for her must-read newsletter about the question of who and what the “work” of marriage is for.
I also spoke with
of about the strange but persistent idea that nonfiction shouldn’t be a genre, especially when women do it, and about where we are in the state of maternal and marital discourse.
Don’t forget, too, that paid subscribers of Mad Woman get a discount on my new limited-run podcast
. You will want to cash that in by next week— our second episode drops on Tuesday and in it, we wade into the comments section of a viral TikTok on marital sex. It’s… a doozy.As a thank you to paid subscribers, below you will also find your weekly writing prompt. This week I’m sharing a prompt that dialogues with the interview conversations above—and it’s actually one of my all-time favorite writing prompts, because whenever I share it in a class, we have the most incredible conversations about love and labor.
I hope you’ll use the prompt this weekend and post a paragraph of what you come up with and/or just share a bit about how the writing went.
These weekly(ish) prompts are accessible to all paid subscribers as a little treat for what they/you make possible. If you’ve taken a class with me before, you know the drill: take what feels generative for you, toss out the rest. These prompts are just to get you going, whether you feel stuck on a current project, want to explore writing in new directions, or just want to write something this weekend and don’t know how to begin. There is no right or wrong way to do this.
Please keep these prompts within our community. They have been acquired over many years of teaching, and I use them in my classes. I offer them as a thank you to paid subscribers for the ongoing support.
