New York diary #2

The Moth, celeb spots, birthday cakes & lots of egg sandwiches

For those new to The Hyphen, I’m currently working on the edits of my new novel from New York (and writing this newsletter). A friend’s apartment was available for the month of June, and so I moved in. I’ve been keeping a diary, because I’ve never spent this much time alone before, and because it’s New York, there is never a dull day. Last week I was mainly working and dare I say ‘networking’, but this week my husband came out to visit me for my birthday, so that was really nice, and we did some touristy stuff and wandered around trying not to get heat stroke. Last week’s diary is here. Hope you enjoy this week’s instalment!

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Monday

I have been bitten by a mosquito and there’s a bump on my arm the size of a golf ball. It’s very hot here. I decide to venture into Manhattan and hit up Gooey on the Inside (New York’s ‘best cookies’!) a recommendation from fellow Substacker

Daisy Buchanan

. (They are really good.) I spend the afternoon working on edits of my new novel - the last big round of structural changes from my publisher. It’s scheduled to come out in April next year. This is the fun bit; adding a few more bits, tweaking tweaking tweaking, but knowing it’s pretty much DONE. The boulder has been successfully, painstakingly, pushed up the hill. Only took three years. (If you are currently in the really hard bit right now with a creative project; keep going!!)

In the evening, I go to Glynnis MacNicol’s book launch at Cafe Cluny, french-themed as per the book! I meet lots of incredible women, journalists, Broadway producers, investors, New York Times writers. Everyone keeps saying “New York is not how it is in the movies” and yet: I’ve had a few solid weeks now of it being exactly like in the movies! Maybe this is all luck; and it’s simply a lucky month.) It’s quite a busy party, lots of chatter, and being the true introvert I am, I slip out early, feeling very glad I went along but heading home for an early night. I’ve been FaceTiming more people while I’m here than I do when I’m at home in London. A long video call with a close friend, my sister, my parents. So nice to see their faces. I should probably FaceTime people more often back home in real life.

Tuesday