Ring in 2020 with a giveaway, a reading challenge, and writing advice!
Hey there! How have your holidays been? I hope you got to rest and relax with family and friends, and got the chance to actively reflect.
That's my phrase for 2020, btw: Active reflection. I'm not one to look to the past... hardly ever. But that has kept me from processing all that I've achieved, have gratitude for the efforts Past Sarah put in to make the present moment possible -- even experiencing constructive regret.
Things that are helping me work active reflection into daily life are: this Best Self goal-setting planner and six-month life planner. Something else that is so stupidly simple but which has changed my attitude? Filling in those notebooks in pencil. Plans change, and being able to erase the things that didn't work out has been oddly satisfying. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Whatever works, right?
Okay. On to the here and now, which includes some super fun stuff going on in the world of First Draft!
The wonderful Tahereh Mafi joined me to answer listener questions in the most recent First Draft -- hear it as a podcast episode and watch it on the First Draft IGTV channel!
To go along with that, I'm hosting a 🚨GIVEAWAY🚨 of signed copies of SHATTER ME, A VERY LARGE EXPANSE OF SEA, and TELL ME EVERYTHING! Scroll down for more info!
Read on for...
🚨 More info for the GIVEAWAY!
📚 Introducing: the 2020 First Draft Reading Challenge
📣 Fun clips & interviews!
🎧 Recent can't-miss First Draft episodes
✔️ Recs for ALL the media I consumed in December!
💎 Plenty of links for you to buy TELL ME EVERYTHING!
🚨 Giveaway 🚨
Here's your chance to win signed copies of Shatter Me, A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and a signed copy of Tell Me Everything -- over at the First Draft Instagram! Follow the account, tag a friend, and be automatically entered to win 💗
And don't miss Tahereh and I answering your questions in the most recent episode -- you can also WATCH our conversation on First Draft's IGTV channel!
FYI: I am currently drafting a new novel, and am posting daily progress updates on First Draft Instagram stories. Follow along if you're interested!
📚 2020 First Draft Reading Challenge 📚
Introducing the 2020 First Draft Reading Challenge!
This list of 20 reading goals for 2020 reflects how I want to read over the next year, and I hope you’ll join me. Check out my blog post for recommendations for each category, with handy links! Download a PDF of the challenge here (for Instagram, Instagram stories, or Twitter), and update your progress on social media — be sure to tag @FirstDraftPod and use #FirstDraftReadingChallenge !
📣 Clips & Interviews 📣
EpicReads named First Draft one of the 12 Best Book Podcasts!! Make sure you check out this list, it's full of other incredible pods to enjoy!
The Brooklyn Public Library interviewed me about the origins of First Draft, which it calls one of the "best bookish podcasts"!
Jungle Red Writers also came up with an amazing list of bookish podcasts, with a shoutout to First Draft as well!
🎧 Recent First Draft Episodes 🎧
Mailbag: How to be a Time Realist with Tahereh Mafi and Sarah Enni
Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling and National Book Award nominated author of the Shatter Me series, as well as A Very Large Expanse of Sea. The final book in her Shatter Me series, IMAGINE ME, hits shelves March 31, 2020.
Watch this episode as a video on the First Draft podcast IGTV channel on Instagram!
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Integrating All Your Selves with Libba Bray
Libba Bray, author of New York Times best-selling series A Great and Terrible Beauty, Printz award-winner Going Bovine, and genuinely terrifying historical paranormal The Diviners, and more. The episode originally released on Nov 3, 2014, and Nov 6, 2014.
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Tim Baltz
Tim Baltz, comedian and actor, co-created, co-wrote, and starred in Shrink, and can now be seen on HBO’s The Righteous Gemstones. He has also appeared in Bajillion Dollar Propertie$, The Opposition with Jordan Klepper, and Drunk History.
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Amanda Montell
Amanda Montell, debut author of Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language, joins Sarah to talk about socio-linguistics, and her upcoming book Mindfuck: The Secret Language of Cults (Spoiler: You’re Already Using It).
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
Ryan La Sala
Ryan La Sala, debut author of fantasy YA novel Reverie. We talk about transformative works (including Sailor Moon), living and writing with a chronic illness, and of course, drag queens!
Listen to our interview here, on iTunes, or on Spotify!
📌 Recommendations 📌
🔊 Audiobooks 🔊
The Night of the Gun by David Carr, read by Charles Leggett. This was recommended to me by upcoming guest, Courtenay Hameister. Carr, a prominent journalist and a recovering alcoholic and cocaine addict, reconstructs his twenty-year bender by using his reporting skills, interviewing the people who were in his life then and reframing his entire lived experience. I'm a sucker for any books that meditate on the slipperiness of memory, and this is definitely in that wheelhouse. Poetic, unflinching, shocking, beautiful.
📽️ Film & TV 📽️
No-review list of television, movies & documentaries I've watched recently!
7Y'all are not even ready. I have been binging movies lately, trying to fill the cultural gaps I have between 1975 and 1995. I am calling this era the "Rotary Phones and Chain Smoking" era. Here are the movies I've watched that I can heartily recommend.
Heaven Can Wait (for Charles Grodin's expressions alone)
* Side note recommendation: after watching each of these films (and the ones I watched that I haven't listed here, the ones I did not enjoy), I looked up the Roger Ebert review. It's a reminder of the power of great cultural criticism. I feel a pang when I think of what we lost when Roger Ebert passed away -- watch the doc of his life, Life Itself, if you remember him fondly.
💅 ICYMI 💅
