It's Go Time [#118]

Karaoke, picket lines, and Brian McKnight succession drama? Plus, you have about 48 hours left to order a signed copy of Flawless before I leave for book tour!

Hiiiii I’m back in your inbox, writing from Los Angeles, where for the next few days I will try and slowly adjust my bedtime earlier so I won’t be up at 3am when I’m in New York and DC next week. Say what you want about trans-Atlantic or trans-Pacific jet lag, but to me the US West Coast to US East Coast shift is the hardest of them all. This past week my diplomat friends came to visit and I took them to karaoke, of course, where my 6’7” giant white man bear of a friend Garrett belted out an A+ performance of a Korean power ballad and wowed us all. I also joined my WGA writer man Rob on the picket line and made some new friends and logged a lot of steps. Solidarity!

Reading

All the Asian gals named Connie reflect on being named after Connie Chung. Books by AAPI authors for AAPI heritage month. A thoughtful memorial for Dooce, the original influencer, who is dead at 47. I know we’re all marking Mother’s Day, but here’s a great piece on the joys of eating alone. The idea that sperm races to the egg is just another macho myth. And speaking of sperm, today I learned Brian McKnight of “Back at One” fame has two children named Brian McKnight Jr. Two! Different moms and different generations, but still it seems like one Brian McKnight Jr. too much.

Werk Werk Werk

It’s a big week here over at Hu’s Letter headquarters because the book I’ve been fretting over, incrementally, for the past three years is finally hitting bookshelves on May 23. I got my author copies in the mail and snuck a few into little libraries in my neighborhood, tee hee.

Oh the chaos! Sandwiched between a precalculus textbook and a children’s Bible.

Flawless is available in hardcover, e-book and audiobook (narrated by me) and you’ve probably heard it before but I’ll say it again — pre-orders matter in whether the algorithm (at places like Amazon, etc) shows the book to potential readers when it launches. So if you have the budget, please consider a pre-order, though there are many ways to help for free, like talking to your friends about it, amplifying the book on your socials (#flawlessthebook is the hash), requesting it at your local library, or coming to any of the free events around the country. The signed copy deal ends in a few days, so if you want one that’s signed and personalized for you (you can specify what you want it to say), smash the button below.

Watching and Listening

• I’m keeping up on what’s happening with the strike by listening to The Town, hosted by Puck’s Matt Belloni, who, as former exec editor of The Hollywood Reporter and generally a man about town, really has a pulse on the ups and downs of the situation in the entertainment industry.

• Jury Duty, because y’all cannot stop talking about it. Is that guy for real?!! Yes, it turns out he is the only one who is for real on that whole absurd Truman Show-esque ride.

That’s it for this one. I’ll be back sooner than you might wish, however, to mark publication day! Thanks for the friendship and correspondence for all these years.

Hugs,

E