We Were On A Break!

I took a little breather, I won at vacation, and it feels right.

I’m just back from a too-short vacation. I went to Monterey for a few days. I did nearly all the things I wanted to do while I was there. But I also did something I rarely do—I allowed myself to play things by ear. Here at home, I have a to-do list that never seems to get any shorter—not because I don’t cross things off the list but because, for every one thing I cross off, I seem to add two or three more. I’m tough on myself when it comes to getting things done, and generally speaking, vacation is no exception.¹ There are things I want to do and to see when I go away for a few days, and if I don’t do them all and see them all, I tend to feel like I failed … at vacation. I love to write while I’m on vacation, but if I don’t write every day of vacation, I tend to beat myself up over it. Not this time.

This time, I did what I felt like doing when I felt like doing it. This meant that I wrote two mornings while I was in Monterey—I woke up early and was alone in the breakfast room of the hotel, nabbed my favorite little table by the hotel window, and journaled over coffee. I even started writing a new short story. I enjoyed it immensely. Over the years, I’ve had some of my best story breakthroughs sitting at that very table.

But two of the mornings I was in Monterey, I slept in. I didn’t go down to the breakfast room to write on those mornings because, by the time I woke up, I knew it would be crowded. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it.

The first morning after I slept in, I went shopping. Shopping wasn’t on my original agenda, but just before I left, a friend gave me a Macy’s gift card for helping her with her novel. (Thank you!) So I went to the Macy’s in the Del Monte Shopping Center. It is the same Macy’s I used to go to in the 1980s. I remember going shopping there with a friend from college, Joey Feldeisen (1967-2021). He is a friend I miss having in my life.

Joey and I took French together for two years and served as senators on the Hartnell College ASB. He made me laugh more than almost anyone I’ve ever known. We shared private jokes in French class—Joey was one of those people who said the things all of us were thinking but were too afraid to say. And the way he said them was a delight—he could have been a stand-up comedian. Joey spent his entire year as an ASB senator on the rotary telephone in our little ASB office trying to achieve one goal for the benefit of the Hartnell College student body—he tried to book The Bangles to play the outdoor amphitheatre. He didn’t succeed, but he devoted himself to the task. I’ll never forget walking into the ASB office and finding him there on the phone, each and every day, trying to track down Susanna Hoffs.

In 1985-1986, The Bangles were killing it. They had several hit singles, including “Walk Like an Egyptian” and “Manic Monday”. But they didn’t play Hartnell College, despite my friend Joey’s best efforts. That’s a shame.

I found a few new blouses during my shopping trip, but I also found some good memories. It’s so cool the way being in a place triggers memories, things you’d forgotten, or at least thought you’d forgotten. They’re still there after all, and one thing I’ve learned is the more you remember things and write them down, the more the act of doing that unearths even more memories. Joey would be happy to know that our Macy’s still has Godiva chocolates on display at every checkout stand—until I saw them sitting next to the cash register, I’d forgotten that we used to buy them, every time, even if we bought nothing else.

The last morning I was in Monterey, I slept in again and then went for a walk along Cannery Row. I was surprised at sleeping in those two mornings. Sleeping in is something I don’t do, and I haven’t been sleeping all that well lately. But all the fresh sea air, the freedom from responsibilities, and lots of walking outdoors was the best sleep aid. And I think one of the things that improved my sleep the most was making a conscious effort not to turn my vacation into work by requiring myself to do things. I was free from work responsibilities, yes, but it also felt good to be free from a self-imposed list of things I thought I should be doing on vacation. Taking life as it came was the most relaxing thing of all.

That spirit of playing life as it lies continues this morning. The last two days of work have been difficult—our IT department switched my computer out while I was away, and nothing was working when I returned. That finally got sorted out late yesterday afternoon, but I’m incredibly behind now. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a post for all of you that uses my drive to Monterey to demonstrate writing interiority and incorporating memories into a story organically, but it’s not finished, and I decided not to force it. So I made a pivot, and this morning, you get this instead—my thoughts about taking a break and giving myself a break. That’s what’s on my mind this morning. I’ll have the other post for you soon.

I’ll end by saying that, as a writer, you never really take a break. Lots of ideas came to me over the course of my vacation, and I made pages of notes, and they’ll eventually turn into something. That is also writing, and for today, I’m good with that.

“You may be able to take a break from writing, but you
won’t be able to take a break from being a writer.”

—Stephen Leigh

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

CENTRAL COAST WRITERS’ CONFERENCE
Please join me at the Central Coast Writers’ Conference, September 26th & 27th, in sunny San Luis Obispo, California! I’ll be speaking on a panel about finding your writing tribe on Friday and presenting two sessions on Saturday, one on the who, what, where, when, and how of publishing short pieces and one on funding your writing career with grants, fellowships, and residencies.

GOLDEN QUILL WRITING CONTEST
The Golden Quill Writing Contest is now open for entries in the categories of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. This year’s judges are Juliet McDaniel, whose debut novel Mr. and Mrs. American Pie is the book upon which the hit Apple TV+ series Palm Royale is based; Deanne Stillman, author of many nonfiction books, including Twentynine Palms: A True Story of Murder, Marines, and the Mojave; and SLO County Poet Laureate Caleb Nichols, author of Teems///\Recedes.

“I don’t like the whole off-and-on thing. I don’t like ‘taking a break.’
Either you’re with me, or you’re not. And that’s how I kind of deal.”

—Selena Gomez

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS

Ten Sleep (coming 6/24/2025)
This is the second novel by Nicholas Belardes, author of The Deading. Here’s a little blurb from bestselling author Stephen Graham Jones: “Open these pages and fall into a cattle drive up in the high lonesome country, where it’s not just the cattle and the work that are challenging—here there be monsters, too.”

Absolute Pleasure: Queer Perspectives on Rocky Horror (coming 9/16/2025)
This anthology includes Trey Burnette’s piece “A Rather Tender Subject.” The essays in Absolute Pleasure … explore … [the] complicated legacy of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, along with queer and trans joy, sexuality, family, generational understandings of queerness, and what we do with our problematic faves.

Vicious Cycle: A Thriller (Corey in Los Angeles) (coming 10/21/2025)
The debut novel by Jaime Parker Stickle. A former reporter gets a new spin on life in this gripping debut from author Jaime Parker Stickle, whose psychological roller-coaster ride set in sunny Los Angeles tackles motherhood and murder.

Sing the Night (coming 10/28/25)
This week’s cover reveal! The debut novel by Megan Jauregui Eccles. Magic. Music. Madness. Discovery a fantastical retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo and Erin Morgenstern.

“Even when I am writing I usually take a break around lunchtime
and go for a little walk to clear out my head.”

—Patricia Cornwell

SOME THINGS FOR READERS

Vroom Vroom: On being the human in the machine
(Danielle Lazarin for Talk Soon)

Summer Reading List for 2025
(Benjamin Dreyer for A Word About…)

The Curious Case of the AI-Generated Summer Reading Roundup
(Kathleen Schmidt for Publishing Confidential)

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes … including you.”

—Anne Lamott

SOME THINGS FOR WRITERS

Worth the Climb: Self-Editing Secrets That Actually Work
(Allison K. Williams for The Brevity Blog)

Embracing the messiness of writing (and life): My almost love letter to Anne Lamott
(Catherine Palmer for Amid Life with Catherine Palmer)

Sensitivity Reading in Speculative Fiction: Why It Matters More Than You Think
(Karen A. Parker for Jane Friedman)

“Let me take a break from writing until your memories break me again.”

—Mayank Roy

Leanne Phillips
Writer | Book Coach | Editor
​leannephillips.com

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1. This is not a humble brag about how hard I work. I tend to turn everything into work. I’m beginning to believe it’s a trauma response of sorts, and I don’t think that’s a good thing for my health and well-being. So it’s something I’d like to change about myself. Living my life in better balance is something I’m always striving toward.