Hi Stackers!
One thing I’ve learned after almost 10 years working at a library and almost 20 years in New Orleans is to plan ahead as much as possible when it comes to summer.
I moved to New Orleans in August, near the “end” of summer, but as I’ve learned all these years later, August and September can be some of the most brutal days - and it’s gotten worse with POTS systems, since temperature fluctuations tend to be one of my big triggers. This is the time of the year when I always re-evaluate whether I still want to live in New Orleans.
June and July are the busy months at work since that’s when we run our Summer Reading Program. PLUS… I feel crazy announcing this, but the tentative plan at the moment is to shoot a short film version of Emergency Contact over the July 4th weekend.
So knowing how busy I’m likely to be June-September, I’m starting to plan now and I thought I’d give you a little preview.
May
Since May is Asian American/Pacific Islander Heritage month, I thought I’d read this year’s One Book One New Orleans selection, Daughters of the New Year, by E.M. Tran, a Vietnamese American from New Orleans. It’s set in New Orleans, too!
One thing that surprised me when I first moved to New Orleans in 2007 is how much Vietnamese Americans have influenced and continue to influence New Orleans culture (this year is the 50th anniversary of the arrival of many Vietnamese immigrants in Louisiana after the Vietnam war).
I learned quickly, though - on my first film production soon after moving here, I filled out timecards for the construction department crew, which was staffed with dozens of Vietnamese Americans. Filling out 50+ timecards every week was my introduction to pronunciation and spelling for many common Vietnamese names.
Food is often an entry point into different cultures and we are so lucky in New Orleans to have so many amazing and different Vietnamese restaurants all over the city. I knew I liked Vietnamese food, but I don’t think I realized how much until the 2 months I was in lockdown in 2020 when I found myself missing pho so much that I found recipes online and practiced making it until I could re-create my favorite flavors (finding star anise was the real clutch moment). My pho is good, but learning how to make it has made me so appreciative when I get it from some of my favorite places, like Le’s Baguette.
All of this to say: I’ve never known a New Orleans without the influence of Vietnamese culture and I’m very excited to read Daughters of the New Year. I hope you’ll join me in reading it!
June and July
I’m recording myself reading George MacDonald’s The Princess and the Goblin for the first time and I thought I’d share them with y’all as a grown up story time (or “sleep stories” as Calm and other apps call them). The chapters are short, less than 10 minutes in most cases.
And most exciting of all: I’ve invited some of my friends, mostly other writers, to write “takeover” posts for me to share here on my Substack. I’ll also share some interviews I’ve been planning for a while.
And if YOU, dear Stacker, would like to write a takeover post for me to share here, please let me know in this reader survey. It’s only 10 questions and I’d like to get to know y’all better, so I hope you’ll all fill it out, whether or not you want to participate in the summer Substack takeover. The answers will only be seen by me and I’ll even share my answers on Thursday, to make this more of a conversation. :)
The photo for today’s post is a magnolia blossom I saw on my walk Sunday.