You Have This Word?

Sunday Missives

Jul 27

Written By Katie McGuire

Currently reading:

American Scary by Jeremy Dauber
Coolest American Stories 2025, edited by Mark Wish and Elizabeth Coffey
The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas

Books finished this week: 0

Womp womp.

Library updates:

But I have a good excuse for not finishing any books: I’ve been super busy. And why?

Reader, I got a job.

This week, I started my new role as editor at Alcove Press/Crooked Lane Books. I’ll be focusing on acquiring and editing in some new-to-me (in the professional sense, at least) genres, but I’m just so damn excited and optimistic. I’ve mostly been sending and receiving emails the last few days, reminding publishing people that I exist and scheduling meetings with agents to hear about what they have and tell them what I’m looking for, but I’m just very happy to be back in this world.

After I got the official offer and told my parents the good news, my mom and I started riffing on the title of the company with a random dialogue exchange from the movie In Bruges: “You have this word, alcoves?” So that’s where my brain’s been at these last couple weeks, leading up to day one of the new job.

For a year or so, I was saying——to myself and to others——that I wasn’t sure I even wanted to be in publishing anymore. I still loved editing and wanted to keep working with authors, but I was kind of over having a full-time office job, and I was hoping I might be able to eventually build enough of a reputation for myself that I’d be able to go fully freelance. But being unemployed from last December until literally Tuesday of this past week, I have to say that I do actually enjoy the structure provided by a nine-to-five. Probably I’ve been brainwashed by corporate American culture, but I like having something to fill my time every day. I like being back on the acquisitions side of publishing. I like feeling like I’m part of a world I know well. I like being good at my job. I like liking my job.

And, yes, I’m fully aware I’ll likely be singing a different tune in a few weeks, once the sheen of newness wears off and the “real” work kicks in. But right now, I’m just feeling like I’m up for the challenge. I’ve never had a job before where I got to focus exclusively on genre fiction, so I’m incredibly excited to dive into all the awesome submissions I know I’m going to get (and that I’ve already received this week)! I’ve also never had a job while holding an MFA, and that’s a real confidence-booster! I can say without hesitation that this is the most confident I’ve felt in my career to date.

I still self-identify as an introvert, but I’m glad to have a reason to talk to a bunch of people every week, both in-house and outside. My work schedule is hybrid and I really liked getting to be in a shared office space again for a few days this week. I liked feeling like Mark S. at the start of season two of Severance, running through the maze of hallways after I got lost trying to find the bathroom on my first day. My new coworkers are great and I’m looking forward to getting to know them! The security people in my new building are so nice, especially the one guy I’ve seen a few times now, starting back when I went for my in-person interview, who asked me how my second day in-office was going when I came back in with my lunch and seemed genuinely thrilled when I told him it was great. I even liked the commute. (Well, maybe that part’s a stretch.)

Anyway, I’m just incredibly giddy about this new chapter. I have a lot less time to read and write, of course, and this week was a little tough on those things, because, dang, was I exhausted getting up around six-fifteen four days in a row, especially after seven-ish months of lounging whenever I felt like it and for however long I felt I deserved to. But I do feel like having less time will, weirdly, make me more consistently productive, because it will force me to make time for the things I care about. I consider myself a very disciplined and driven person, but I found myself floundering a lot these last few months, faced with so much empty time and, for some reason, a lack of motivation a lot of the time to do anything with it.

In just the last few days, I’ve made a concerted effort to read over breakfast before I have to head to work, instead of staring at YouTube or Reddit in bed. I’ve written a bit after work, but I’ve also known when to let myself see a friend and when to just let myself say fuck it and rest. Again, I know all these actions and ideas are likely side effects of the high of a new and exciting change. It’s easy to hit goals and make endless plans for continued success when you’re only seeing the positive in every moment. I know things will get tougher as work gets busier, as I get more tired, when bumps pop up in the road, as they always do. I also know I’ve done a lot of work over the first half of 2025 to figure out what I care about, what I want, and what I need, and that I’ve put some good thought patterns and habits and coping mechanisms in place. I have confidence in my abilities, and I also have faith in myself that I’ll uphold these loves, wants, and needs as best I can.

Closing thoughts:

Have a job, don’t have a job. Do what you gotta do to survive, and then do whatever makes you feel like you’re on the right track.

Total books read from the Moratorium Library: 168

(Total books added to the Moratorium Library: 329)

<Photo of We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen will appear here soon——I forgot to take one lol>

Ordered a bunch of superhero books from ThriftBooks as comps/inspo reading for Amp and this was the first to show up. (Are the other books literally just waiting down in my mailbox, and am I ignoring them? Yes.)

(Did I impulse order even more books from ThriftBooks while under the influence of an aperol spritz in Cold Spring? Also yes.)

And no trip to Cold Spring is complete without a stop at Split Rock Books.