Badreads

Share this post

Year in review part 2

laurenhough.substack.com

Year in review part 2

Lauren Hough
Mar 9
82
14
Share this post

Year in review part 2

laurenhough.substack.com

Maybe this substack was what I needed to move forward, to stop trying to rewrite the last one, to put it in a box and say, okay. I’m done.

Badreads
How to write the next one
Maybe you can’t start a new book until you kill the last, or at least break up with it. But it can’t be one of those—things just didn’t work out; let’s be friends—sort of breakups. Or maybe I’m not good at those either. I have to mute everything or I’ll keep looking. Send a bunch of random messages so they don’t pop up …
Read more
7 months ago · 55 likes · 10 comments · Lauren Hough

There wasn’t any point to worrying about a next book. I am, you might’ve heard, problematic. I was convinced I’d never sell another book. No point in trying. The problem is, I have opinions about that too. And I’m just going to keep on talking.

Badreads
Problematic
"You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." - Ray Bradbury, a problematic author Today on twitter… Dear god. I’m sorry. I have no intention of covering twitter like a crime reporter detailing last night’s arrests. I promise I have a point. I’m not sure what it is yet but I’m sure I’ll get there. So I’ll get …
Read more
7 months ago · 119 likes · 18 comments · Lauren Hough

I used to talk on twitter. It’s how I found an audience. But anyone who finds an audience also finds those who just need to tear someone down. I’m a butch lesbian who swears a lot. I’ve never been able to play the game they want me to play. It’s not my nature. So I’m always going to catch some rocks. I know that. I kept talking because I cannot stay silent and this first post might tell you why. But on twitter, anyone could take my words and twist them. God knows. And I really fucking hate my words being twisted. You can’t wrestle the narrative back from those who have no interest in intent or meaning, or truth. But it’s a little harder to take me out of context off of twitter. Turns out I started this substack just in time. I was able to use it to say what I needed to say.

Badreads
A question for Lambda Literary
Last year, I published an essay collection called Leaving Isn’t the Hardest Thing. The book began with a story about serving in the Air Force in the 90s. Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was still the law then, but somebody went ahead and assumed anyway, and they torched my car. It’s never a bad idea to open with an explosion…
Read more
a year ago · 251 likes · 19 comments · Lauren Hough

Because the one thing I do have, that I kind of forgot, is motherfucker I really can fucking write. Thanks for helping me remember that.

Badreads
Who is Ana Mardoll
Every so often, I’ll get a message from someone saying they once knew a girl who grew up in the Family, the cult I was raised in. This started before I wrote the book and has only picked up since. They’ll call her different names, but we’ll call her Ellen, because that wasn’t her name. They’ll say Ellen told them everything. My god how it haunted her—th…
Read more
8 months ago · 170 likes · 20 comments · Lauren Hough

I don’t actually like fighting or maybe I’m just tired. So it was nice to have a place where I could ignore the battle of the day. These days, I don’t even know what that is. I’ll log in to scroll sometimes and I’ve got no idea what anyone’s talking about. I’m working on a van or playing with my dog or writing about whatever pops into my head. I even got the chance to post a little fiction. I like this one a lot.

Badreads
Ripe peaches
In those days, seemed like there was a storm every week. When there wasn’t, the dust blew around so much anyhow, they started thinking the sky would never be blue again. That Sunday morning, they woke to a sky as blue as anyone remembered. The girls played with the dog, chasing the chickens around the dirt lawn. The ga…
Read more
a year ago · 145 likes · 33 comments · Lauren Hough

Maybe what I really needed was a goddamn hobby, a project. Something to focus on. I just felt fucking trapped. Road trips helped. And I realized I drive different when I have a dog with me. I have to.

Badreads
Pigeon Forge
In another life I think I’d have been a good truck driver. It seemed like a pretty cool job when I was a kid. Trucks had a sweet little cabin behind the seats. I’d been in one. This was at a truckstop somewhere in New Mexico when whomever was watching me was god knows where, probably the bathroom. I asked a trucker to show me his little house. And he, b…
Read more
9 months ago · 117 likes · 9 comments · Lauren Hough

I had something like an idea. And I started thinking it could work. But I’m not the type of person who can test the water. I have to just fucking jump and hope I remember how to swim. So I bought a van.

Badreads
This could be a metaphor for something
A while back, I bought a van. This is true and also could be metaphor for something. I’d been looking for a van for months—scouring facebook and craigslist, sending messages that were never returned and blocking the numbers of guys who took my not buying their rustbucket as a personal affront. But I found a van and gave it a test drive, and handed the g…
Read more
7 months ago · 110 likes · 11 comments · Lauren Hough

And suddenly, it seemed, I kept talking about the van. I realize this confused the shit out of a lot of y’all. But I couldn’t explain at the time.

Badreads
a long post that doesn't explain much
I’m getting a lot of questions about the van, which isn’t surprising because from outside my brain, it looks like I just suddenly bought a van and started talking about a van all the damn time. People who’ve known me for a while are used to shit like this from me. One day everything seems settled and the next I’m moving to cape cod or austin or selling …
Read more
5 months ago · 68 likes · 13 comments · Lauren Hough

Some of y’all had advice like maybe you should write a book about a van—have you read Travels with Charley? I couldn’t respond because there are things you don’t talk about. You don’t talk about hashing out the idea with your agents and friends, fucking around with a proposal you cannot seem to write, or finally sitting down at a bar with Elizabeth McCracken (THANK YOU) who somehow pulls it out of you, then going back and forth for another few months with your agents until it’s right. You don’t talk about waiting to hear back from your publisher. You can barely think about it much less say it aloud, god forbid write something down. You don’t talk about when you do hear back and holy fuck they want it and your editor loves the idea and wants to work with you. You don’t talk about any of that. Because none of it’s real until you get to post one of these little screenshots from Publisher’s Marketplace. Then it’s real. And since y’all were here while I figured this crap out, it was fun as shit to post it here.

Badreads
BOOK NEWS
A funny thing that happens when you’re a writer is you find yourself in text and dm threads with other writers, the subject of which is mostly all the shit you can’t talk about. Some of it, you just don’t want to jinx it before the check clears. Some of it, it’s not real until it is. You’ve got a writer friend who’s sold UK rights but it hasn’t been ann…
Read more
3 months ago · 224 likes · 79 comments · Lauren Hough

So thank you, for subscribing, for reading, for putting up with my weird shit and my grumpy shit, for sticking around, for celebrating with me. I hope you’re around for the rest of it, whatever the hell that turns out to be.

14
Share this post

Year in review part 2

laurenhough.substack.com
14 Comments
steph k
Mar 9

You're right: you really CAN fucking write.

I love your writing. Thanks for sharing it.

Expand full comment
Reply
Annelieke Schauer
Mar 9

So happy you share in this place. I really do look forward to seeing you in my inbox.

Expand full comment
Reply
12 more comments…
TopNewCommunity

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Lauren Hough
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing