2019 writing roundup + my book tattoo!

At the end of every year I like to look back on the past 12 months of my writing life.

When I wrote this post for 2018, I felt like I had a dozen bylines to share. 2019 has been good and strange and challenging in its own way: namely in that while I’ve written more than in previous years, little of it has been traditionally published.

There are a couple of explanations for this. The primary one being that I’m working on two book manuscripts, so I’m not submitting as many individual pieces to magazines. Another reason is that I’ve done quintuple the amount of freelance copywriting and editing work for clients than I have in previous years. All those projects are rewarding in their own ways, though by nature of the jobs they don’t come with bylines and in some cases can’t be shared for months while the project is still in development.

All that to say, when I tallied up what I’d published this year, I could only think of three pieces. In past years, I might have beaten myself up over this, but the older and wiser me knows that there’s validity in working on things in the background and that art sometimes takes awhile to bring to fruition. And that’s okay!

If you feel like you’ve been hustling your buns off and don’t have much to publicly show for it, don’t give up. Don’t allow yourself to become discouraged. Your work still matters and it’s okay if it’s not ready to share yet.

My biggest byline of 2019 (and ever) was “Worshipping at Jerry Springer’s Daytime Altar,” published in Electric Literature. I nearly fainted when I got the acceptance because I’ve been sending them essays for years and had previously been rejected each time. It goes to show that persistence and perseverance really do pay off.

It was a quiet summer, where I was focused on my freelance clients, then this bomb dropped in November: “No One is Pure Enough for Purity Culture,” published in al.com/The Birmingham News and their other affiliate papers. I knew it’d make waves because I called out evangelical patriarchy, but I didn’t expect it to go semi-viral. I’m still getting comments (both good and bad) from it.

Then, in perfect timing, I closed out the year with “Ink Love,” published in Talking Writing. It’s perfect timing because this essay is about my first tattoo and I’m currently healing from my second.

[image description: Me, Mandy, a white female with short brown hair, showing the new tattoo on my upper arm. It’s a stack of closed hardcover books with the spines and pages facing the viewer. No titles are on the books. I’m smiling a huge smile at the camera.]

Look at how happy I am!! Here’s a closer look at the tattoo:

[image description: A zoomed in view of my shoulder with the tattoo. It’s a stack of five books with four variations on the spine design.]

These pics were taken right after the tattoo was done, so it’s still healing. At present, it’s leaking excess ink, but otherwise isn’t hurting at all. My upper arm is pretty fleshy, so I didn’t find getting it that painful. The part that hurt the most (which, again, wasn’t that bad) was when the artist used a teeny tiny needle to do the book pages. Did I mention he FREEHANDED the book pages?! I couldn’t draw lines that straight if my life depended on it.

My main priority for 2020 is going to be finishing both my book manuscripts. I’ve been working on them for years and I’m ready for them to be out in the world. I can’t wait to show you and, as always, I’m immensely grateful to you for supporting my work.

Got bylines you’re proud of? Link them in the comments below! I’d love to read them.

Got bookish tats? I want to see!