For writers (and the friends who keep them sane)

Need a little company?

A few weeks ago I went on a walk with an acquaintance I was hoping to turn into a friend, and it came up that I’m working on a novel. I don’t remember how it came up, because I try very hard not to bring it up in real life. Bringing up a novel in real life, when it is not actually a novel yet, is like telling someone about your dream: there is very little chance they care unless it’s about them.

But this friend was gracious; she asked what the novel was about. Normally, unsure of where I’m going with my work, I’ll shy away from reality and share only the genre and that I’m nervous (terrified) to share what it’s about. This time though, I was in the forest, walking on a beaten snow path that is only a path in the winter. This part of the forest is a marsh in the summer. It was forbidden in that way, protected by the waters the rest of the year, and it was spectacular in its beauty. Hoarfrost covered every limb in the forest and little ice bridges connected the not yet frozen ponds. We padfooted and ducked under branches as everything glistened around us. This was a land of badgers and bobcats, one where dogs looked over their shoulders, certain something was there.

We had crossed through a portal.

And maybe it was that. Maybe there was something harkening or summoning, maybe some elixir evaporated into the crisp air. Or maybe it was that she’d nearly died in the year between my initial thought of “I like that girl” and my afternoon text “do you want to go for a walk?”. I’ve been that close to death before. I know how soft a soul can get, how welcoming to life.

So I told her.

Telling people about the premise of your in-progress novel feels a little like introducing a new partner to your parents. It is one thing to say you are dating, you are seeing someone, there’s someone with potential. It is another to present that someone on a platter for dissection, for opinions. I have mentioned many times that I am writing a novel, but for all you know this novel could be a figment of my imagination (I mean, it is), or it could be nearly finished, ready for query. Ready to meet the parents and the siblings and the aunts and the best friend and your dog.

It could be The One.

And I do feel like this novel is The One. The one I finish. The one I love. The one that will always be a bit of a darling to me, regardless of whether it gets picked up or published. I love the story. I love the characters. I love the mistakes they’re making as we bob and weave toward an ending.

But that doesn’t mean it’s going smoothly. The suspension is questionable and the road is a washboard and I am trying to get up to the critical speed where you’re at least going fast enough to cruise on top of the dirt corrugation. I recognized early I needed some help staying at this speed. I needed a Keanu to my Sandra. I needed a friend. And that friend said:

“We should start a podcast.”

Pen Pals. It’s a podcast.

Pen Pals is co-hosted by me and Krisserin Canary. Krisserin and I met ten years ago while working at Headspace in Santa Monica, and we hit it off because we were both writers with big goals.

We’re still writers. We’re still friends! And we still have those big goals because we spent the last decade at the corporate grind while our callings sat in unopened files.

Pen Pals is a process show. Every week we’ll share what’s working, what isn’t, and everything getting in the way as we try to publish our first novels.

Like most good stories, I recommend starting at the beginning:

Pen Pals: Be My Disappointed Dad (or, on Apple)

Krisserin and I have very different approaches to writing, and we have followed very different paths. Where she is thorough and thoughtful, I am fast and loose. Her discipline is three novels deep. Mine is hundreds of essays. While she was attending Tin House and winning awards, I was describing in salacious detail every single makeout I ever had under a pseudonym in New York.

We’re both writers.

And with any luck, we’ll both be novelists.

I hope you’ll follow us along for the ride. Maybe I’ll even tell everyone the premise of the novel. Though, might need another portal for that.

Subscribe to Pen Pals wherever you listen.

Spotify - Apple - Pocket Casts

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Shout out to Sean Horton who created the music. He was fast, efficient, and affordable. If you’re in need of his skills, kindly tell him we sent you: nordic.soul@gmail.com.