1979 is calling
(with a subscription discount and a haunted toddler)
I’ve been in the book bunker* for the past few weeks, finishing an absolutely abysmal first draft. So it’s been a minute…
*not an actual bunker
Here’s how this post came together:
My birthday was more than two weeks ago, and ON my birthday a Facebook* memory popped up with photos my sister posted in some previous year. So I was like, Ooh, TODAY, I will make a Substack post and share these and do a subscription discount because that seems vaguely festive.
*yeah, I know
It cracks me up that in none of my baby or toddler pictures do I look like an actual baby or toddler. Maybe it’s because I was scrawny and the color of meringue, but I always either look deeply haunted or like a baby from one of those medieval paintings where babies uncannily have the proportions of adults.
Anyway, here I am on my first birthday, in 1979. You know, your first birthday, the day when you’re supposed to be chubby and jolly and covered in cake. I look like I have full memories of my past life and have been talking on my new phone to spirits of the dead.
So, my birthday slipped by and then I was thinking I’d still do this post, but it would be kind of weird to be like “It’s not my birthday anymore, it’s just a random day in late April, but here’s a discount code.”
Then I decided it didn’t matter and I hadn’t posted in a while and should put SOMETHING up, but
despite my very healthy habit of keeping about 80 browser tabs open at once, I lost the one that was open to those photos, and
since it was no longer the right day, they weren’t there in my FB Memories anymore.
Meanwhile, here’s another photo, and again I want to emphasize that I was one year old. It’s maybe a couple months later. (See bang length.) Most likely the summer, when other people are not the same ghostly color as their ecru t-shirts. I feel like this one would be a decent pensive/ironic Author Photo Face if I were not a literal toddler.
Then I was going to wait till the math made some kind of sense. Originally my plan was to do a 20% discount because my birthday was on the 20th. This did not make as much sense when it was the 29th and I just turned 47. Too many prime numbers, not much to work with.
Now that math was involved, it became an Impossible Task.
Until!
Having completed my abysmal novel draft, I set about today to start my retroactive outline. It is deeply frustrating. You know what’s more fun than that?
Substack!
So, here you go: If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, you can use this for 20% off for the year. Link is good through May 13. https://rebeccamakkai.substack.com/d9b83f30
Also, send me your questions!
It’s been a long time since I did a Writing Advice AMA, so I’m going to do one soon. Comment below if you’re a paid subscriber and you have a burning (or just itchy) writing/publishing question. I’m also good at romantic advice. And book recs. That’s about it.
Also up soon: More posts about point of view, diving into 2nd person (which you probably use more often than you think) and 3rd person (lord help us all).
I will leave you with this photo, which proves that by age 7 I had learned how to smile, albeit in a distant, eerie way, as if I’m remembering what my village looked like before it was destroyed in the floods.
Actually I think those toddler pictures are pretty cute. And I just realized when you mentioned having 80 different browser windows open, that for those of us with ADHD, the browser windows are the cabinet doors of the computer.
You're killing me with these photographs and commentary, Rebecca! Absolutely amazing. Congratulations on your new draft! and I'm always here for your writing advice!!