big book news and fun little links
out and about and online recently, sagittarius edition
it feels both insane to say this and insane i’ve waited this long to say it - You Have a New Memory is available for pre-order!!! honestly the links have been live for like 10 days; i had all these grandiose delusions of the humble-yet-staggering, gracious-yet-electrifying way i would share this information, and then i spiraled with self-promotion anxiety, and i didn’t write anything, even though i also wanted to share some tiktoks i liked.
the book is out 07/22/25! the cover is beautiful! it’s funny, a few essays from this newsletter worked their way into the proposal, but by the time we reached the manuscript phase they’d been entirely decimated, reconstructed, augmented; while there are echoes of my longer-form substack writing, this book could only ever be a book. the material is long and deep and different, and i am really, really excited to share it.
pre-orders really help authors out, and you also get the book hand-delivered to your door right on the release date, which is fun. so despite feeling like this when i suggest you pre-order
here are some links, should you want to do so: bookshop and barnes and noble
thank you for your support! i am excited to have a little more time to write newsletters :) also - would you like to know more about the writing process/publishing process/anything like that? if that feels exciting i can definitely talk about it, but i don’t want to overwhelm or pretend i’m an expert.
okay yes onto the links! here are some things from the internet:
maybe it’s because i’m coming off a linear, goal-oriented project, but i’ve kind of enjoyed just wandering aimlessly but pleasantly around the internet—becoming a digital flaneuse, which requires a little more effort than doomscrolling but more purpose, too. are.na is especially good for this. here’s a collection you could start with, and then you just click around, as you would on wikipedia, from object to object and collection to collection with no end goal. i feel less nonspecific dread when i do this than when i go on instagram
i’m savoring the experience of occasionally returning to the open tab of this 1997 amy hempel interview in BOMB - hempel’s reasons to live is a sparse, exquisite little short story collection, and hempel is so matter-of-fact and chill about writing—not in a blasé way, but in a like craft way. her voice is very grounding to me
thanks to helen rosner’s food-themed gift guide, i have this perverse idea that i’m going to gift everyone i know homemade vanilla sugar in vintage glass jars. we’ll see how that goes!
in my jar hunt i found this vick’s container and i’m loling at the thought of gifting someone food in it… it’s so sinister? but alsoooo kind of cute?
okay but i did indulge in marissa zappas’ perfume advent calendar, it hasn’t arrived yet (and also bad luck to open before december, like opening an umbrella indoors, i assume)—but her perfumes are otherworldly, delicate and animal all at once. can’t wait
here’s a tiktok about how to spot real antique art at goodwill
it is time to dissociate with the falconcam
until next time xoxox
aiden