This Will Either Mentally Prepare You or Warn You Off + 4 June Reads
Hello again! I'm a week late, and I know you've been sitting there, salivating, dying for this next edition of Having Written; and so I apologize with great sincerity.
But, you see, I traveled for 10 nights straight to my second cool writing adventure of the season (shout out to to Aspen Summer Words and the 2025 Cohort—can I just say, WOW), but you see, this time, unlike when I went to Iowa Writers' Workshop's summer session, I took my kids. My little kids.
Guys. If you go to a hardcore writing conference on the other side of the country with a child under 4, I proffer this for your consideration: don't.
I mean, look, it was fun. My kids are adorable. I love them. But the switching from the mental space of the conference—a place of very intense daily workshops, panels, networking, and hopes to generate new words—directly to the hotel pool to comfort your littlest kid because you're biggest kid was splashing them in the face again, from which you then proceed to lug them around, feed them, get them into the bed (which, by the way, you are sharing with them both) so that they kick you all night and maybe end up peeing on you? Woof.
Take it from me. If you have kids, and you're going on a writing adventure, go alone. Call in the reinforcements to cover for you, burn every favor card you have. It'll be worth it, I swear.
Anywho, that aside—Aspen Summer Words in Snowmass, CO was out of this world, both because the location was breathtaking in its beauty, and more substantively, well, for all the reasons I'm about to tell you below.
I won't go on my whole "you should just do it—apply to the thing" spiel like I did last time, but the same sensibility applies here. While gaining admission to this conference is competitive, it doesn't mean you aren't meant to be there. I got off the waitlist for crying out loud; a happy accident. Not only did I learn much about my own work, but my cohort was incredible. Truly, I think I may have read the opening pages to a few novels that will be featured by Oprah or Jenna or Reese or GMA or The Today Show or whoever in a few years.
But wait, there's more! My instructor? International bestselling author Vanessa Chan, whose incredible debut novel, The Storm We Made, was released in 20+ countries and translated into about as many languages.
Those of us traversing life in the flyover states simply don't have regular access to the people who operate at this level in the publishing industry on the regular. So the time, money, trip was well worth it. Also, do yourself a favor and follow Vanessa on IG (@vanjchan) and you'll get an idea why I had so much fun during workshop week.
But wait, there's MORE! For additional cherries on top: the other faculty, many of whom sat on multiple panels, are doing the thing in the publishing world as well. Here are a few books written by authors I met in person and learned directly from:
Next level, I 👏🏻 know👏🏻. So do it. Apply. Aspen Summer Words comes around every year, and there are people who come out of that program who go on to write bestsellers and win big award books, and you can do it too.
I only read 4 books in June. I'm not surprised, given the insanity of the travel, and the three-people-to-a-not-really-Queen-sized-hotel-bed thing, and all of the small child-style flip outs caused by the loss of anything resembling a regular eating and sleeping schedule. While this is a low-read month compared to my normal pace, I'm giving myself a break on this one, and the good news all of these books were very good! Five out of five bangers.
Book Reviews
James by Percival Everett
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Historical Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: You probably have heard of this as "Huck Finn, from Jim's perspective." In the most technical sense, yes that is true, but it is so, so much more.
Review: What you may not remember from Huck Finn is that he and Jim are broken apart for a good chunk of pages. Didn't you ever wonder what Jim was up to? You're going to find out, and in the capable hands of master writer Percival Everett.
Probably my favorite part about this story is how Everett paints the slaves in these classic stories with so much dignity. Oh, terrible things happen to these people. Horrific things far worse than anything you could read in a Horror novel. But the characters are full of nobility, internal power, intelligence, cunning, kindness. But this is not achieved through didactic lectures. These qualities all shine through the masterful subtext that underlies each character, each section of dialogue.
I read the audiobook [note: audiobooks count as reading, and FYI this is a hill I will die on], and the world owes a huge debt of gratitude to the vocal artist performing James--Dominic Hoffman. If you're someone always casting about for audiobooks with excellent performers, look no further. He's really that good. James is now up high on the list with other of my favorite audiobook performances like Michael Sheen reading the The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, #2); the actress who reads Mona Awad's novels (Bunny, Rouge, All's Well), Sophie Amoss; and Mae Whitman, Ann Dowd, and Bryce Dallas Harper reading Margaret Atwood's The Testaments.
AND THE ENDING OF JAMES?!?! WHAT?
Refuse To Be Done by Matt Bell
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Writing Craft Nonfiction
Super Short Synopsis: If you're writing a novel and taking writing classes you've probably heard of this book. You may also know it contains the controversial "retype your entire novel for each new draft" method. But there is a whole lot more (seems to be the theme of the day?)
Review: Both the story and the method proposed are worthwhile. And the book is just well-written and chock-full of great writing points that go beyond the whole retyping, not C&Ping your previous words or line-editing bit. Refuse to Be Done is short, reads very fast, and packs a lot of punch. I'm using this method on Draft 2 of What The Body Wants, and I can already feel the power from taking this approach. I also buy his argument that retyping takes less time than fussing around trying to drop in new words, delete only parts of sentences, mess with punctuation changes, etc.
If you're writer, highly, highly recommend, and definitely before you even start your novel.
The Lottery and Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Short Story Collection, Horror
Squick Factor: 1/5 for "The Witch" and "The Lottery"; 0/5 for the rest
Super Short Synopsis: Shirley Jackson is the master of building dread in otherwise commonplaces situations. Make no mistake--this is a collection of short Horror stories, but you won't even recognize this is in the contemporary sense of the genre. The Lottery itself is one of the most terrifying stories I've ever read; there isn't an ounce of blood.
Review: RUN, do not walk, get this collection, get it NOW. Don't read it all at once (I don't know if anybody could even do this in one sitting...), but take it all in nice and slow. My favorites stories are:
- Section I – Trial By Combat
- Section II - Charles, Flower Garden
- Section III - Elizabeth, The Dummy
- Section IV - The Tooth, The Lottery (obvs)
I also took a generative craft course on Shirley Jackson and her work (where I admit I was assigned this collection) and I'm still surprised at the sheer volume of words, story ideas, and poems I generated from the class. If you can take a course with Lauren Davis, do it, and FYI you'll find me there too.
The Antidote by Karen Russell
Rating: 5/5
Genre: Historical Fiction
Super Short Synopsis: An orphaned girl moves in with her uncle. A witch finds herself empty. A stranger comes to town, and she finds a weird camera. The Dust Bowl's Black Sunday attacks the town of Uz in the good ol' U.S. of A. If your'e ears are pricked, there is also a scarecrow and a tornado. Someone is arrested for the killings of women. Shenanigans ensue.
Review: Do you ever read a book and think, "how in the world did this person come up with this storyline in the first place?
But that's Karen Russell for you. It's set in Nebraska during the Dust Bowl [quick aside: if you just thought 'that doesn't sound interesting' please please please believe me that it will be], but that's about as like 'commercially comparable' the story gets in terms of what it's about. Like Swamplandia! I sometimes found myself with a dropped jaw, just so very surprised about the odd (in a good way) turns the plot took. The magical realism is executed with perfection, which is one of Russell's known strong suits. Each main character became a friend (the good guys anyway) and I had zero idea about how it would end. And then I loved how it ended.
The Antidote also contains some seriously beautiful writing. If you want to write realistic speculative fiction/magical realism, look no further for an exemplar.
Thank you, thank you, even if you just opened your email, skimmed it, saw a book you like, but rolled your eyes at my machinations. It means a lot to me.
Next week—I'm going to try to convince you to read Horror fiction again, but specifically, my favorite kind, which is oft-described as "Good For Her" Horror 😈. Get ready to let out your most primal screams, ladies and germs.
Have a great week and read banned books.
ILYSM,
Charlotte
@having.written (📸)
@having-written.bsky.social (🦋)
www.charlottechamberswriter.com
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