#77 A Slow Sunday Scroll ☕️
creative grief & a dreamy day out in london
I. My new novel comes out in four days—and underneath all the excitement of publication day, organising my book tour and the sold-out Substack dinner!!—another feeling has been bubbling way quietly.
I feel a weird sadness that my book is not going to be mine anymore. Creative grief. Saying goodbye to a project that has kept me company over the past few years. It was my constant thing, keeping me busy, allowing me to escape. I wrote the first paragraph of the book in 2021, and now it’s 2025, and now it’s ready to be released with its gorgeous cover and beautiful packaging. It will sit on shelves and be bought and sold. My thing—that was just mine for ages—will now be consumed by strangers. Time to hand it over.
(Thank you BBC Woman’s Hour for interviewing me on Friday about the book—a fifteen minute segment all about the JOY of spending chosen time alone as a woman).
II. As I gear up for a book tour soon that requires me doing 3 x events a week for at least a month (my choice lol), I need to accept that I am also a major introvert with energy issues post-burnout. So here are some of the ways I will be staying well amongst it all:
—maintaining my daily journalling, so I am still writing everyday
—checking in with friends & my writing group if I’m feeling wobbly
—eating healthily where possible. ideally not too many packets of crisps on trains!
—daily tarot card pull
—moving my body even just a bit in my hotel room
—if I feel overstimulated after an event: taking a bath with epsom salts, no matter how late, to rinse off the day / external energies
—pre-signing books where I can instead of a signing queue (I don’t like talking to people from behind a little table, feels weird! you’re weirdly low down! prefer to talk normally)
—pre-booking my travel so I can leave when I’ve said I’m going to leave
III. Last weekend I didn’t think about any book stuff at all, and it was really nice. I had a wonderful day out with Paul to celebrate his birthday, I planned an epic London weekend for us. First, we had brunch at Mount St Restaurant and it was delicious. Afterwards, we had a nosey around Farm Shop, and then on to Hyde Park where the flowers were fully in bloom.
Then, we went to The Harold Pinter theatre to see The Years. I had seen some of the press surrounding this play mainly to do with a certain scene that caused people to feel light-headed and even faint in the audience. When *the* scene happened—I did start to feel light-headed. Very much so. Many audience members were leaving, you could hear the creaking floorboards. Then the play had to stop for 10 minutes while they helped one poor audience member who had properly fainted. I stayed put, but I felt hot and sweated through my clothes (and we had to go to Uniqlo afterwards so I could buy a new t-shirt. Lol!) Quite the experience…
After that, we headed to Rosewood London—one of the nicest hotels in the city in my opinion. (I took part on a panel there the previous week all about creative writing.) We really enjoyed the special treat of spending a night away from home in the world’s softest bed, luxurious bath tub and even hand-stitched initials on the pillows! In the evening, we went to the Pie Room next door at The Holborn Dining Room, delicious. Then over to Scarfes Bar, ordered drinks and listened to some live jazz. The perfect London weekend.
For anyone new to The Hyphen newsletter: this is my ~Slow Sunday Scroll round-up~. This is a twice-monthly list of my favourite books, links, podcasts, things I’ve bought, all handpicked by me — which thousands of paid subscribers enjoy reading every other week ✨ It’s one of my most popular features and I’ve been doing a version of these lists since 2015!
Here are lots of juicy links to read..