The Cry Lounge

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

Howdy!

Here’s a new book review - I wanna keep doing this reviews in the future more regulary cause I am reading a lot and I have thoughts on what I read lol. Anyways, here I talk about Sally Rooney’s Mr Salary. I compare it to Rooney’s other works Normal People and Conversations with Friends, as well as talk about how Rooney was able to make this short story make you feel you’ve just finished reading a 200-page novel. How the advice to not overexplain in short stories might be not always necessary and how the underlining subplot of Sukie and her father Frank usually gets lost when reading this story.

book description:

“My love for him felt so total and so annihilating that it was often impossible for me to see him clearly at all.Years ago, Sukie moved in with Nathan because her mother was dead and her father was difficult, and she had nowhere else to go. Now they are on the brink of the inevitable.Sally Rooney is one of the most acclaimed young talents of recent years. With her minute attention to the power dynamics in everyday speech, she builds up sexual tension and throws a deceptively low-key glance at love and death.”

this was hosted, recorded and edited by Bonnie Orbison

for book reviews, prose & poetry + interviews → subscribe to our Substack

would love to receive a comment, a review or simply a DM from you about this podcast episode :)

subscribe to our writing membership to access sessions, prompts and exclusive access to our publishing house here

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

You’re invited to Writing Camp!

Date: November 1st-3rd, 2024

In this episode, I’m excited to announce that Writing Camp is happening virtually from November 1st to November 3rd (in 9 days!)! Writers of all levels, genres, and stages of their projects are welcome to join. Whether you’re just starting or deep into your book, this camp will give you the space and support you need to get those words flowing.

MORE DETAILS + FULL SCHEDULE HERE

Schedule:

Duration: 3 days, 3 sessions per day (each 3-hour long)

Session Times:

Eastern Time: 8 AM-11 AM, 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM

Pacific Time: 5 AM-8 AM, 10 AM-1 PM, 3 PM-6 PM

Central Europe: 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM, 11 PM-2 AM

UK/Ireland: 12 PM-3 PM, 5 PM-8 PM, 10 PM-1 AM

CALENDAR VIEW IN YOUR TIME HERE

What to Expect:

Friday: The first workshop will focus on starting or return to a writing project after a break. I’ll introduce our approach, share the Notion workbook with prompts and techniques (can be used with simple pen & paper too!), and help you gather and organize your ideas.

Saturday: Flexible writing day! We’ll focus on writing sessions + offering support and space to share challenges or get unstuck.

Sunday: Workshop 2 will help you sustain the momentum and explore how to continue writing even when inspiration fades away.

MORE ON THE WORKSHOPS HERE!

After the weekend, you’ll walk with:

- the beginning!! of your book (say good-bye to the scary first blank page!)

- a brain dump of all your book ideas + ways to make them come to life on the page

- different writing techniques & routines to try out and experiment with to find out what's best for you

- a hands-on companion familiar with your story + vision for your book

- accountability to show up and keep writing, especially when it doesn't feel good

- a road-map of the future for your book

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED!

Pricing Options:

Flexible Rate: 100 EUR (for budget-friendly access)

Standard Rate: 150 EUR (full camp cost)

Pay-It-Forward Rate: 200 EUR (supporting others’ access)

Payment Plans Available

CLAIM YOUR TICKET HERE!

Key Takeaways:

- Accountability and supportive space to focus on your writing

- 9 writing sessions across the weekend (6 available hours each day!)

- No need to attend all sessions – join as many as you like!

- 2 workshops (will be recorded, so don’t worry about missing out)

- Group and private chat access with me, Bonnie

- Notion Workbook with writing prompts, techniques, etc. (can be used by paper & pen!)

Sign Up Now and secure your spot for a weekend of creative inspiration, collaboration, and writing! Find all details and tickets on the website.

I'M IN!!

@thecrylounge for questions and more details + you can also comment underneath this post or reply to this email!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

You’re invited to Writing Camp!

Date: November 1st-3rd, 2024

In this episode, I’m excited to announce that Writing Camp is happening virtually from November 1st to November 3rd (in 9 days!)! Writers of all levels, genres, and stages of their projects are welcome to join. Whether you’re just starting or deep into your book, this camp will give you the space and support you need to get those words flowing.

MORE DETAILS + FULL SCHEDULE HERE

Schedule:

Duration: 3 days, 3 sessions per day (each 3-hour long)

Session Times:

Eastern Time: 8 AM-11 AM, 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM

Pacific Time: 5 AM-8 AM, 10 AM-1 PM, 3 PM-6 PM

Central Europe: 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM, 11 PM-2 AM

UK/Ireland: 12 PM-3 PM, 5 PM-8 PM, 10 PM-1 AM

CALENDAR VIEW IN YOUR TIME HERE

What to Expect:

Friday: The first workshop will focus on starting or return to a writing project after a break. I’ll introduce our approach, share the Notion workbook with prompts and techniques (can be used with simple pen & paper too!), and help you gather and organize your ideas.

Saturday: Flexible writing day! We’ll focus on writing sessions + offering support and space to share challenges or get unstuck.

Sunday: Workshop 2 will help you sustain the momentum and explore how to continue writing even when inspiration fades away.

MORE ON THE WORKSHOPS HERE!

After the weekend, you’ll walk with:

- the beginning!! of your book (say good-bye to the scary first blank page!)

- a brain dump of all your book ideas + ways to make them come to life on the page

- different writing techniques & routines to try out and experiment with to find out what's best for you

- a hands-on companion familiar with your story + vision for your book

- accountability to show up and keep writing, especially when it doesn't feel good

- a road-map of the future for your book

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED!

Pricing Options:

Flexible Rate: 100 EUR (for budget-friendly access)

Standard Rate: 150 EUR (full camp cost)

Pay-It-Forward Rate: 200 EUR (supporting others’ access)

Payment Plans Available

CLAIM YOUR TICKET HERE!

Key Takeaways:

- Accountability and supportive space to focus on your writing

- 9 writing sessions across the weekend (6 available hours each day!)

- No need to attend all sessions – join as many as you like!

- 2 workshops (will be recorded, so don’t worry about missing out)

- Group and private chat access with me, Bonnie

- Notion Workbook with writing prompts, techniques, etc. (can be used by paper & pen!)

Sign Up Now and secure your spot for a weekend of creative inspiration, collaboration, and writing! Find all details and tickets on the website.

I'M IN!!

@thecrylounge for questions and more details + you can also comment underneath this post or reply to this email!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

You’re invited to Writing Camp!

Date: November 1st-3rd, 2024

In this episode, I’m excited to announce that Writing Camp is happening virtually from November 1st to November 3rd (in 9 days!)! Writers of all levels, genres, and stages of their projects are welcome to join. Whether you’re just starting or deep into your book, this camp will give you the space and support you need to get those words flowing.

MORE DETAILS + FULL SCHEDULE HERE

Schedule:

Duration: 3 days, 3 sessions per day (each 3-hour long)

Session Times:

Eastern Time: 8 AM-11 AM, 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM

Pacific Time: 5 AM-8 AM, 10 AM-1 PM, 3 PM-6 PM

Central Europe: 1 PM-4 PM, 6 PM-9 PM, 11 PM-2 AM

UK/Ireland: 12 PM-3 PM, 5 PM-8 PM, 10 PM-1 AM

CALENDAR VIEW IN YOUR TIME HERE

What to Expect:

Friday: The first workshop will focus on starting or return to a writing project after a break. I’ll introduce our approach, share the Notion workbook with prompts and techniques (can be used with simple pen & paper too!), and help you gather and organize your ideas.

Saturday: Flexible writing day! We’ll focus on writing sessions + offering support and space to share challenges or get unstuck.

Sunday: Workshop 2 will help you sustain the momentum and explore how to continue writing even when inspiration fades away.

MORE ON THE WORKSHOPS HERE!

After the weekend, you’ll walk with:

- the beginning!! of your book (say good-bye to the scary first blank page!)

- a brain dump of all your book ideas + ways to make them come to life on the page

- different writing techniques & routines to try out and experiment with to find out what's best for you

- a hands-on companion familiar with your story + vision for your book

- accountability to show up and keep writing, especially when it doesn't feel good

- a road-map of the future for your book

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED!

Pricing Options:

Flexible Rate: 100 EUR (for budget-friendly access)

Standard Rate: 150 EUR (full camp cost)

Pay-It-Forward Rate: 200 EUR (supporting others’ access)

Payment Plans Available

CLAIM YOUR TICKET HERE!

Key Takeaways:

- Accountability and supportive space to focus on your writing

- 9 writing sessions across the weekend (6 available hours each day!)

- No need to attend all sessions – join as many as you like!

- 2 workshops (will be recorded, so don’t worry about missing out)

- Group and private chat access with me, Bonnie

- Notion Workbook with writing prompts, techniques, etc. (can be used by paper & pen!)

Sign Up Now and secure your spot for a weekend of creative inspiration, collaboration, and writing! Find all details and tickets on the website.

I'M IN!!

@thecrylounge for questions and more details + you can also comment underneath this post or reply to this email!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

get the book here: https://www.harpercollinsfocus.com/harpermuse/9781400243105/the-other-year/

for a book that only gripped me from the second half on, this put me out of my reading slump!

review from my goodreads

book description:

Can the entire course of a life be traced back to a single moment?

On a coveted two-week beach vacation, working mom Kate Baker’s nine-year-old daughter, Olivia, vanishes suddenly among the waves—a heart-dropping incident that threatens to uproot her entire reality. But in the next moment, Olivia resurfaces, joyously splashing.

What would I do if she didn’t come up? Kate wonders. How would I live without her?

In another set of circumstances that hold a different fate, Kate doesn’t have to wonder. Because in that “other” world, in the pulse-pounding seconds after Olivia goes under, she doesn’t come back up.

Told in parallel timelines, Kate begins to live two lives—one in which Olivia resurfaces and one in which she doesn’t. In the reality that follows her daughter’s death, she maneuvers through every mother’s worst nightmare, facing grief, rage, and the ques­tion of purpose in the aftermath of such profound loss. She endures, day by day, in a world without her daughter.

In her alternate timeline, while she explores a tremulous romance with her best friend, Jason, she finds herself grappling with the ex-husband who abandoned Kate and Olivia years prior. Even as Kate scrambles to hold her daughter close, Olivia pulls further away. The line between joy and loss seems to get thinner with each passing day.

Woven into a single story, both Kates discover a breathtaking fragility and resilience in their respective journeys. Bringing to light the drastic polarities dire circumstances often create, The Other Year explores truths about love, loss, and the sharp turns any life can take in the blink of an eye.

Thank you to #NetGalley and Harper Muse for sending through the digital advanced copy to this book!

this was hosted, recorded and edited by Bonnie Orbison

for book reviews, prose & poetry + interviews → subscribe to our Substack

would love to receive a comment, a review or simply a DM from you about this podcast episode :)

get tickets to our Writing Camp (two weekends in September) now

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

get the book here: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300265927/the-house-of-being/

wow this was emotional and clear on the magic of writing and how empty pages make it unknown and also easy to face one’s grief and trauma.

review from my goodreads

book description:

“An exquisite meditation on the geographies we inherit and the metaphors we inhabit, from Pulitzer Prize winner and nineteenth U.S. poet laureate Natasha Trethewey “Searching and intimate, this impresses.”—Publishers Weekly In a shotgun house in Gulfport, Mississippi, at the crossroads of Highway 49, the legendary highway of the Blues, and Jefferson Street, Natasha Trethewey learned to read and write. Before the land was a crossroads, however, it was a pasture: a farming settlement where, after the Civil War, a group of formerly enslaved women, men, and children made a new home. In this intimate and searching meditation, Trethewey revisits the geography of her childhood to trace the origins of her writing life, born of the need to create new metaphors to inhabit “so that my story would not be determined for me.” She recalls the markers of history and culture that dotted the horizons of her youth: the Confederate flags proudly flown throughout Mississippi; her gradual understanding of her own identity as the child of a Black mother and a white father; and her grandmother’s collages lining the hallway, offering glimpses of the world as it could be. With the clarity of a prophet and the grace of a poet, Trethewey offers up a vision of writing as reclamation: of our own lives and the stories of the vanished, forgotten, and erased.”

Thank you to #NetGalley and Yale Press University for sending through the digital advanced copy to this book!

this was hosted, recorded and edited by Bonnie Orbison

for book reviews, prose & poetry + interviews → subscribe to our Substack

would love to receive a comment, a review or simply a DM from you about this podcast episode :)

get tickets to our Writing Camp (two weekends in September) now

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

Join Bonnie Orbison, founder and editor of THE CRY LOUNGE, as she dives into the highs and lows of launching the first issue of her online magazine. Learn about the inspiration, the hurdles, and the unique approaches she took in this behind-the-scenes look. Tune in for valuable insights on starting your own publication!

This episode is a treasure trove of tips and personal anecdotes for anyone looking to start their own magazine. Listen now!

read the entire issue here: thecrylounge.com/issue01-love

want guidance on how to start & launch your own online magazine: https://tidycal.com/bonnieorbison/creative-brainstorm-session

for writing-related consulting, book via this link: https://tidycal.com/bonnieorbison/writing-brainstorm

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

This episode is a follow-up to last Friday’s conversation on the creative act of writing a novel. In this add-on, Bonnie discusses how important it is to not get caught up in all the things and rules people try to teach writers when it comes to fictional writing. She emphasises how a writer, in the early stage of having an idea, shouldn’t let limits and the “required” steps of starting a novel hold them back from actually writing the book, including a side-segment on going through multiple drafts of a novel and seeing the magic in always being able to change anything and everything.

Let’s brainstorm together how your dream writing routine looks like: https://calendly.com/bonnieorbison/writing-brainstorm

Come to our weekly co-writing sessions: https://lu.ma/thecrylounge

our online magazine + newsletter: https://thecrylounge.substack.com

website + our books: https://thecrylounge.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com

In this episode, Bonnie talks to you about what it takes to come up with ideas for fictional novels. She dives into the method of taking two unrelated things and trying to give them a sense through a storyline. This episode gets cut off at the end, so the second part is coming out next week. Subscribe to get notified about it✨🔗💙

Let’s brainstorm together how your dream writing routine looks like: https://calendly.com/bonnieorbison/writing-brainstorm

Come to our weekly co-writing sessions: https://lu.ma/thecrylounge

our online magazine + newsletter: https://thecrylounge.substack.com

website + our books: https://thecrylounge.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thecrylounge.substack.com