What I Read & Wrote & Loved in March

Are you ready for our monthly link round up?

Hey everyone,

How is March basically over? This month—this quarter of the year, really—has flown by. I feel like I say this every month, but it feels especially true this month.

I’m in New York as I finish up this list. (Which of course means I’m listening to the Rent soundtrack on repeat.) I’ve never before had a good experience in New York, but I’m hoping that this fourth try will be the charm. And even if it’s not, I’m finally meeting my book editor in real life on this trip, so that’ll be worth it even if the rest isn’t.

Hope you’re all doing well. If you like these round-ups, I hope you’ll consider upgrading your subscription to help me keep Collected Rejections going!

New York City. Image credit.

Things I Read & Loved

• The posthumous reveal that H.G. Carillo—an Afro-Cuban novelist famous for his deft use of Spanglish in Loosing my Espanish—was not, in fact, Cuban shook me when I first found out. (That his writing often wrestles with identity formation both seems fitting and also adds depth to this novel, to me.)

• I will give anything

  Jessa Crispin
  writes a chance (honestly, she could write a grocery list and I’d click through). Naturally, I loved her look at a terrible restaurant in New York named “Beatnik” and how it’s a Sign of The Times.

• How are book covers designed, anyway?

• This advisory notice from the Federal Trade Commission—yes, really, them—about businesses keeping their claims of AI usability in check. The writer has a great sense of humor, proving that your technical work does not need to be dry!

• Fail Safe, by

  Ben Blacker
  - a reflection on rejection in entertainment.

• Your Brain on Art is a heady thing to witness

• “If Doctors Make the Worst Patients, Do Editors Make the Worst Authors?” by Jenny Jackson, editor-turned-author

• This look at Jane Austen and RomComs in

  Meet Cute Missives
  by
  Plain Jane
  —is Austen the originator?

• Is Wuthering Heights “demented”? I certainly thought so back in high school, and Louise Kennedy has given me all the vindication feels by saying it is out loud.

• Author Chelsea Banning was embarrassed when only 2 people showed up to her book signing. And then a bunch of authors chimed in with their own quiet signings.

• Wondering why Texas is always talking about secession? This conversation from

  Skipped History
  might help clarify some things.

• Are these 13 adaptations better than the books they’re based on? I have opinions and I want to hear your in the comments.

What I Published

• Mourning the Coffee Shops We Lost During the Pandemic, in Fresh Cup

• How to Pitch & How to Submit

• Lucy Schell - heiress, race car driver, hater of Nazis

It’s a short list this month, but it’s a longer list than last month, so I’ll take it. Coming up in April I have one more round of edits for my book (eek!) and a bunch of stories coming out in Fresh Cup.

Until next time!

xx