January 2025
An interview with Cameron Walker, how I really feel about Justin Baldoni, and an excellent Barbie short story
What’s new
I don’t know, man. Los Angeles burned down since you last heard from me. I, personally, was among the lucky ones to be less-impacted by the fires, but I know many people who have lost their homes and everything they owned. If finding ways to help during disasters makes you feel a little less helpless, here are a few good places to expend some effort:
On a more personal note, my friend Emily—who is a terrific writer—lost everything in the Eaton fire, too. Here’s a GoFundMe to help her and her family.
There’s other bummer news in America (more and more everyday), but I’m not going to dwell on that except to offer some thoughts on how to take action on inauguration day and beyond.
Stay safe out there.
Cameron Walker’s journalism, essays, and fiction have appeared in publications including the New York Times, Orion, and Terrain.org. She is the author of National Monuments of the U.S.A., a book for kids beautifully illustrated by Chris Turnham and one of School Library Journal’s Best Books of 2023. She is also the author of a book of essays about science and nature, Points of Light. Her debut short story collection, How to Capture Carbon, was published by What Books Press in October 2024.
Editor’s note: Cameron has also been my accountability buddy in a program run through Edan Lepucki’s “Fuck You, Write Your Pages” accountability group so we’ve gotten to know each other and write together over Zoom. She’s an absolutely lovely human and I’m so excited to bring this interview to you today!
What tabs do you currently have open on your computer?
I am really going to tell you all of my tabs because . . . well, I’m interested to see what it might say about the state of my brain. I am going from oldest to newest, and I just started scrolling back. . . uh oh, it’s worse than I thought. Ok, here goes:
Earth Science for Kids: Soil
Science News Explores: Tectonic Plates
Off Assignment Submission Guidelines
Francis “Reet” Greeby bio
Mindful Strength Slow Flow
Kora Chill Spotify
LinkedIn Homepage
Research paper on SN433
Stone Yoga Morning Form
Alison Marie PhD Foot Fix
Etsy “The Productive Plan” and “The Sheet Code” Excel Business Templates (unpurchased)
NEA Grants site
Nancy Reddy substack: Register for 2025 vision board session (I registered, but did not go)
National LTER Network: Arctic LTER
The Year Compass (I did do this)
Strength Workout spreadsheet
Weather.gov prevailing winds
Hawai’I Volcanoes National Park
Clarity Financial Aid App
Alison Fromme, writer
Robert Hazen mineral paper
University of Chicago eye movements press release
The Lynx Bookstore
City Lights Bookstore
SciTrek: earthquakes!
California Department of Tax & Fee Administration
Actually, I think this is a pretty good overview of the things I’m doing/working on/thinking about. Although I didn’t include things like expired login pages, that seemed boring. (And I closed them—thanks for helping me clean up my tabs!) Do you want an explanation or is it more fun to make some guesses on what I’m working on? Maybe I will put a description below in case anyone who’s reading wants to puzzle this all out first.1
Where do you go to refill your creative well?
I do something in nature—usually either surfing or hiking (especially a hike with a stop to jump in a creek or lake). I always feel better after being in the water! I also forget this all the time and have to remind myself that I will feel so much better if I get outside!
What was the last piece of art—book, show, movie, whatever—that made you want to create something?
I came across the artist Dorothea Tanning somewhere (probably in one of my recently closed tabs—a Substack newsletter? A museum gallery?). [Editor’s note: I LOVE Dorothea Tanning!!] The first painting I saw of hers was “Birthday” – it’s an image of the artist shirtless, in a fabulous purple jacket and a kelp-like skirt, with a furry, winged creature on the floor before her. She’s stepping through a door, and in the background, there are many open doors. I read that was a statement from Tanning about her really stepping into her role as an artist. I loved that. (I have since read that if you look closely at the skirt, it’s not kelp but made of “writhing human bodies”.) It felt like an encouragement to keep going, that there might be paths ahead that I might not see now but could reveal themselves if I keep going. I will stick with the kelp skirt, though.
And I have a second answer, too! Over the weekend, I found the book Constellation Route by Matthew Olzmann in a little free library (which has fabulous poetry books, because it’s right by the home of a former poet laureate of Santa Barbara). I love it. Many of the poems are letters to and from real and imagined recipients (“Letter to the Horse You Rode in on,” “Letter to Matthew Olzmann from a Flying Saucer,” etc.) They’re so delightful and fun and also meaningful.
Here's the beginning of “Letter to Steve Orlen”:
Orlen!! Just now I was remembering
several winters back, when you were alive,
you were telling me that if you got stuck
while writing a poem, you’d try to make
a random-seeming, radical move toward
a different subject, something to jar the work into newer terrain, and be sorted out in later drafts.
Olzmann goes on to imagine his friend in the newer terrain where he might be now, and it’s beautiful. I love how it’s writing advice, missingness, memory. It’s personal, it’s funny. And I love how this poem features “regular” language, conversational language, not fancy poetry language. How many times have I yelled a friend’s name like that, or typed it with lots of exclamations in an email? (Sutton!!) [Editor’s note: As a chronic user of exclamation points in emails, I feel seen…] It reminds me that what anyone says, however they say it, is poetry if you listen carefully.
Tell me about the last internet rabbit hole you went down.
I’m re-watching Downton Abbey with two of my kids—one is thinking about butlering as a future career—and I went through some synopses to remember what happened, but then I got into where the actors are now, and how World War I started, and bayonet charges, and also the play that my mom is going to see Hugh Bonneville in at Berkeley Rep (it’s Uncle Vanya). Then I realized that Hugh Bonneville is not actually all that much older than I am, even though he is a respectable grown-up Englishman, and I am, well, me. That is a different mental rabbit hole.
What's a book or movie or piece of art you wish you'd created?
Oh! So many. I have to say I LOVE Curtis Sittenfeld’s writing, and I remember really wishing that I had written her first book, Prep. I re-read two of her other ones, Eligible and Romantic Comedy, if I’m sick or in a bad mood. I think she’s so good at describing people, personalities, awkward interactions, things I’ve seen or felt but never been able to put words to. (Like this, from Prep: “I always worried someone would notice me, and then when no one did, I felt lonely.” Are you in my teenage brain, Sittenfeld?!)
Also, do you have strong thoughts on re-reading? I was at an event and the person I was talking with said she NEVER re-reads, because there’s so much to read out there she doesn’t want to miss it. We did a survey of the room and most of the people said they never re-read either! I felt simultaneously very weird and boring about my re-reading. [Editor’s note: I’m definitely a rereader! Not all the time and I don’t have a book I reread yearly, but I think it’s crazy to take that option off the table entirely. Readers, what do you think? Do you reread ever?]
What do you think people would be most surprised to discover you're obsessed with?
I’m not sure how surprising this is—I always think I’m very mysterious, and then when I say this out loud people laugh (nicely) at me. But anyway, I’m obsessed with the Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series by Deborah Crombie, which I am listening to through my library on Hoopla. I’m on number 16, and I’ve only been listening to them since October. But while I’m into re-reading and re-watching, I’m not into re-listening. Surprise?
What would you like to shamelessly plug?
Wait, is this self-plugging or plugging friends? Can I do both? My friend Rebecca Boyle wrote this INCREDIBLE book about the Moon, called Our Moon, that was nominated for all sorts of awards. Like almost all of us on Earth, I’ve only known the Moon from afar, and this book made the Moon feel much closer, like a friend, as well as being our companion in the solar system.
Another of my favorites: Wolfish. I did an event with Erica Berry in November, and she’s lovely and so is her book. It’s this terrific combination of personal narrative, wolf research, social commentary on fear and women, with folklore and fairytale mixed in. Actually, Halley, you might be really into it, I think there are a lot of parallels with some of themes in The Hurricane Blonde and The Lady Upstairs. [Editor’s note: And onto the Goodreads they go!] And I stayed up way too late finishing Wolfish, just like I did with your books!
And if I can self-plug, I will plug my new short story collection, How to Capture Carbon. It came out in October from What Books Press, which is based in Los Angeles. If there were tabs open about , they would be about parenting, endangered Tahitian flowers, surrealism, a Craigslist ad/Nextdoor post about lost shoes, climate change, what happens when you swim right after eating, the four stages of grief, the Radium Girls, and a Spotify mandolin playlist.
I’ve got some events coming up around the book—March 2 in Seattle, April 24 in Minneapolis, and April 26 in Philadelphia. You can find more details on my website or Instagram, (although I’m trying to slowly back away from Instagram, source of even more tabs and mental rabbit holes!) Please come if you’re around! And/or go to a book event at your local bookstore. It is always so nice to have people come when I’m reading, and as someone who goes to readings, book events are really fun and welcoming—a low-stress way to be part of a book-loving community. Shameless book event plug!
Thank you, Cameron, for such a great interview! How to Capture Carbon was one of my favorite reads of the last year, truly—beautiful, effervescent, lightly speculative but timely stories that cracked my heart wide open.2 Go grab it now!!
My open tabs
This month, I am:
Outlaw billionaires but also, sure, build yourself a cryogenic castle and fling yourself into space. That works, too.
Trying to remind myself creative ebbs and flows are all part of the process.
Fuck Justin Baldoni. I don’t even think you have to be pro-Blake Lively to say this—never not thinking about her getting MARRIED on a PLANTATION3—but truly, get the word “feminist” out of your mouth, creepy dudes, until you actually treat women with respect and integrity in PRACTICE and not just on motherf*cking podcasts and TedTalks and other monetizable content. Gross gross grossgrossgross.
A few days later than MLK Day to share this, but this Substack really resonated with me, in particular this line: “America will never be a true, strong, enduring, and healthy democracy until we show the courage needed to confront and address our most painful truths.”
From Cameron: Here are some answers to my brain sneak peek through my open tabs. I’m working on another kids’ book with the same publisher as National Monuments of the U.S.A., This one about the natural world, so that’s where the various earthquake/volcano/rocks/minerals pages come in. I’m also working on a novel that has an astronomer as one of the main characters. I try to have a regular yoga/strength training practice, and I’m getting back into trail running after a foot injury. In the back of my mind, I usually have an essay or non-fiction story idea rumbling around, so there’s a few more tabs. I have a wonderful community of writer friends and I love seeing what they’re up to. I’m a freelancer, so job-searching, finance-organizing, grant-applying, asking bookstores to carry my books, etc. are always on my mind! (As is finding calming music to listen to while doing all this.) And I had great new year’s hopes to tackle all of this. . . but at least I found my word for the year.
I was reading it while babysitting my parents’ dog and I cried so hard at one story that she left the room because it was Very Embarrassing for her.
Ryan Reynolds, too, for that matter. He does not get a pass just because he is a dude!