48: Housebound Work

May 20, 2020

In the past few weeks, I've really gotten into baking.There's an internal struggle within me every time I start enjoying what are known as traditional women's chores. This time last year I got really into cleaning, and while I do still enjoy a good washing machine deep clean even now that particular fever is over, the guilt remains. Am I wasting my time with these tasks? Who am I doing them for? Am I enjoying the process of cleaning, or am I procrastinating, or having an obsessive episode, or feeling duty-bound? Shouldn't I be doing something more worthwhile?There is guilt for baking and cooking and cleaning, and there is guilt when I do none of these things. I see dust on the TV and feel guilty for reading and writing all afternoon. I see an unread book, and feel guilty for spending the morning making buns and mopping the floors.I bake biscuits mostly, and sometimes bread or cakes. Things we generally eat. Filling the biscuit tin with coffee and chocolate cookies (Ruby Tandoh's recipe from Flavour is brilliant, please give it a go) makes me feel prepared and settled. Like I've done something that wasn't work, and created something delicious that I can enjoy. Right now I'm thinking about how good I'll feel once the lemon drizzle cake I plan to make this afternoon is cooling on the wire rack. Once I've written 1000 more words, obviously.HELP ME!Soon it'll be a whole year since The Gulp began. I was thinking about putting something together using my favourite editions, but to be honest, they were never meant to be anything but quick, disposable blog posts.I'd like to share things you like in the 1st Birthday edition in a month's time to celebrate the milestone. Show me stuff you've found online that you love and that you think others will love too.Send links to [email protected]!Other Stuff

Learning that Ruby Tandoh wrote recipes for The View magazine, I had a look. I'd never heard of them before. It's a magazine that supports women in the prison system, giving them a space to publish their art, photography, poetry and writing. Obviously, I am now a subscriber. Find out more about the magazine here.
A great interview with skater Andrew Reynolds in Jenkem Mag, with particular focus on getting sober, and how he's downsized his life. Trust a skater to remind me what the important things are.
How weird to finish Wolf Hall this week and think "I wonder what the sweating sickness is", only for The New Yorker to publish a fascinating essay on the illness and its presence in the Wolf Hall trilogy by Jia Tolentino. Coincidence? Or since we're trapped indoors are we all just doing and thinking exactly the same things now?
Before Normal People, there was Sally Rooney's short story At The Clinic, in which she used Marianne and Connell first.
Pork pies! The best pork pies!
Cillian Murphy's Top 10 favourite books.
A "found poem" about beer, by Boak and Bailey.
I've really enjoyed reading my Weird Walk zines this week. I've also loved getting to know Hellebore. Zines are great.
I like the ideas and painstaking effort behind Jean-Luc Mylene's free, striking bird photography than the photographs themselves, but maybe that's the point. A moment can't ever live up to months of patient expectation.

My Stuff

I've got a fair few pieces in this month's Ferment magazine. Something on mild which I'm really pleased with, something about travelling around the world using the internet (something I do a lot, particularly when I'm anxious and distracted) and an interview with Jaega Wise. None are up on the site yet but you'll find them in the print mag which has been going out already.
I'm working on a lot of short stories. If you or someone you know runs a mag or zine and is accepting short story submissions, please let me know! I might not have them on my list!
I'm running a Zoom coffee morning via my bookstagram account next Wednesday at 10am to talk about books and writing and lockdown. If you'd like to join in, find out how here.