Ruth Ozeki at Southbank

London’s Southbank on a summer night is magical. Food stalls, lights, music, dancing - it's such a great scene. And not just for young people! People my age were leaving the BFI and the Literary Festival and getting caught up in the energy. I didn't dance exactly, but I wiggled my hips.

I was there to see Ruth Ozeki speak about her new book, The Typing Lady. She is hands down one of my favourite authors. Never mind the fact that no one I know has ever heard of her, and that I had four tickets to the event and could find NO one to go with me except my daughter, who went primarily because she felt sorry for me.

I would've been fine going alone, but in the end I'm glad she came, because we had a brilliant night at Southbank. And because she convinced me to get my book signed.

Ruth Ozeki! I just love her. So when it was my turn, I totally froze and Sophia had to jump in and say "This is my mom, she's a writer and she loves you so much."

And Ruth was so so gracious and sweet and said nice things. At which point, encouraged, I said something like "I became a yoga teacher because you're a Zen Buddhist priest." (what?!) And she responded as if ours was the most natural conversation in the world. Bless her.

Some craft tidbits from her talk:

• Her Zen practice helps her write from the brain and the body of her characters — she can drop into a meditative state and experience the scene from her character's perspective.

• Her eye as a filmmaker helps her figure out from which perspective to tell the story.

• Her experience as a film editor taught her how to move a story along quickly.

• Assume you and your reader are on the same wavelength. You don't need to over-explain.

Thanks for visiting London, Ruth. xoxo

Thoughts on Thoreau’s cabin in the woods.

Chiswick House and Gardens

Dearest writing friend, 

I learned something new today, do you have a minute? 

It’s about this (romanticized) notion of a cabin in the woods (i.e. Henry David Thoreau). An isolated, quiet place where one can do creative work, uninterrupted. A place to simplify, to strip back and, above all else, be alone long enough to hear ourselves think and write.

Thoreau’s cabin in the woods was indeed a rich source of inspiration for him. He spent many hours contemplating nature and enjoying his solitude. And.

He walked into town nearly every day, often to have dinner at his mother's house and to pick up his laundry (which she did for him, so he could simplify, simplify).

He entertained frequently at the cabin — friends, neighbors, and admirers dropped by regularly. At one point he mentions having 25 or 30 visitors at once. But more often, his mother and sisters would stop by to bring him pies, doughnuts and meals.

He was never truly alone in the woods. The railroad ran nearby, he could hear the sounds of Concord, and the pond itself was a popular swimming spot. 

Hilariously, Thoreau’s opus, Walden is, at its core, a manifesto about stripping life down to essentials and depending on no one but yourself. But it’s worth noting that the man urging you to simplify, simplify had women preparing his meals and doing his laundry. 

I say all this, not to remind you of the unpaid work of women, but to remind myself that I only need a few hours every day to come back to creative work. 

And that it’s perfectly wonderful if my cabin is in fact, only a tiny desk in the corner and a pair of noise cancelling headphones. In fact, that’s more than enough. Who can write more than two hours a day anyway? 

xo, L

Books of March

Hello friend,

I only managed to finish one book this month. For some reason I’ve had a hard time concentrating lately. I wasn’t even particularly busy, just restless.

That said, I finished one book and I loved it. It’s called I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. Here’s the Amazon blurb because I’m too lazy to say anything different: 

Deep underground, thirty-nine women are kept in isolation in a cage. Above ground, a world awaits. Has it been abandoned? Devastated by a virus?

Watched over by guards, the women have no memory of how they got there, no notion of time, and only vague recollection of their lives before. But, as the burn of electric light merges day into night and numberless years pass, a young girl - the fortieth prisoner - sits alone an outcast in the corner.

Soon she will show herself to be the key to the others' escape and survival in the strange world that awaits them above ground. The woman who will never know men.

It sounds bleak, I know! But it’s a super fast, interesting read.

Here are the books that I started but did not finish: 

• Theo of Golden by Allen Levi - too sweet

• Moderation by Elaine Castillo - too grim

• The Brain at Rest: How the Art and Science of Doing Nothing Can Improve Your Life by Joseph Jebelli - message received by chapter three. I decided to rest instead of finishing the book.

• Bhagavad Gita - I was supposed to read this for Yoga Teacher Training - I found it insufferable and could not finish. I watched some youtube videos on the topic instead.

The Indiana girl in me wants the above authors to know that my inability to get through your books says nothing about their worthiness. I was just in a mood. 

OH! I forgot to mention. I’m also about halfway through 11.22.63 by Stephen King. It’s roughly five million pages long so if I manage to finish it, I’ll let you know.

xo, L

Indie Author Lab, London

Jo Penn at the Indie Author Lab, London

I have no good reason to go to literary events, except that I just love them!

I love meeting other writers and buying their books. I love learning about emerging technologies and literary trends… And I love listening to how the most profitable writers run their business. 

Joanna Penn is one of my favourites. I’ve never read her fiction books, but her podcast is super interesting. Here are some key takeaways from her talk this week:

1. What do you really, actually want [from your writing]? 

2. What do you need to do to get that? 

3. What are you doing instead? 

4. Stop doing that! 

In other words, (talking to myself here), are you SURE you want to run an author business? Because if so, you’ll need to do a million things you don’t really want to do. Namely, build an email list, grow social media, implement a marketing and promotions strategy and on and on and on until the end of time.

Or, you could just write books for the love of it. Because it’s fun.

xo, L

Keats House, London.

just a little journaling

A Yoga and Writing Workshop

-

Books Read in February

Books I read in February 2026

The Names by Florence Knapp

The book opens in 1987 as a woman is choosing a name for her newborn son. She wants to call him Julian. Her daughter wants to call him Bear. Her abusive husband insists on Gordon — after himself. From the day the name is chosen, the novel revisits the boy every seven years to trace how a single word shapes an entire life. I'm not quite finished yet but I'm absolutely riveted. If you like quietly devastating literary fiction that plays with fate and identity, this one will get under your skin. Loving it!

Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage by Belle Burden

A memoir about a woman's marriage — what she thought it was, what it actually was — told in the aftermath of having the rug pulled out from under her. It reads like a juicy Vanity Fair article, and it sparked some controversy because of exactly how much she was willing to say.

Well, you know what Anne Lamott would say, right? "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better."

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

Arthur Less is a mid-list novelist who, to avoid his ex's wedding, books himself a round-the-world tour of literary events that any author of repute would turn down. I’m a total sucker for a novel about a novelist, and this one is great. The globetrotting adventures make for a story that’s fun, fast, and surprisingly tender. Read it if you like novels about writers - but I have a feeling I might forget I read this book by the end of the year.

How Yoga Works by Geshe Michael Roach

A parable about the living the philosophy of yoga, so that you don’t actually have to read The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. This was required reading for my yoga teacher training and… well, it does what it says on the tin. If you're a yoga practitioner who wants to understand the deeper philosophy without your eyes glazing over, this is your book.

Still Writing by Dani Shapiro

Part memoir, part craft guide, this is Dani Shapiro's love letter to the writing life. I have a stack of creativity books that I look at whenever I’m in need of inspiration or understanding - this will go on the shelf (see my Creativity Bookshelf on Goodreads). And as it turns out, Shapiro has a serious yoga and meditation practice which she weaves through the book in the most wonderful way. It’s a must read if you are a writer. But if you aren’t, then it’s probably not your thing.

Gertrude Stein, Salons, and the Women in the Kitchen

Art/Lit Salon at The London Library

I went to a wonderful event at the London Library the other night — an Art/Lit salon devoted to the life and work of Gertrude Stein. 

As you probably know, Stein was an American woman who went to Paris, declared herself an eccentric genius and then proceeded to act like one. Her salons were notoriously not for everyone.  Even her closest friends (Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse) found her exceedingly difficult. 

Salon de Fleurus is an artwork, a contemporary reconstruction of Gertrude Stein’s Parisian salon that existed at 27 rue de Fleurus from 1904-34.

Here’s the part of the story that always rubs me the wrong way. While Stein held court in the salon, her partner, Alice B Toklas entertained the wives in the kitchen. 

Which is strange because Toklas was Stein’s editor, manager and literary advocate. She was absolutely essential to Stein’s intellectual life and social network. 

So why did Toklas so readily “keep the wives occupied” while Stein conversed with the writers and artists in the other room? 

I’d love to go back in time and pull those women out of the kitchen and sit them down. What did they think about all this? 

The woman behind the woman. Cecil Beaton Archive / Condé Nast

Meanwhile, in New York City….

A different movement was afoot. Female artists, writers and patrons were founding what would become some of the world’s most celebrated institutions. MoMA was founded by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the Whitney by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, and the Guggenheim by Hilla von Rebay. 

And then there was Florine Stettheimer: An artist who hosted salons in her apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan - and encouraged creative exchange between artists of all genders. 

Florine Stettheimer - Studio Party (Soirée)

Some women waited to be invited into the room. Others built the room.

P.S. For when I have time for a deep dive…

"Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife" by Francesca Wade, and "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas" by Gertrude Stein and illustrated by Maira Kalman.