about life lately

I have the beginning of four or five newsletters sitting in my drafts right now, which means I’ve started talking about something four or five times before deciding that actually I do not want to talk about that something.

I think this is because my mind has kind of been all over the place. Summer is a chaotic season for me anyway—no school and thus no schedule, which my little ADHD brain thrives on—so I find myself in this weird mental washing machine, just upside down and turned around on repeat. Half the time I don’t even know what day it is, and living in liminal space like that always kind of fucks me up. There’s a not-insignificant element of grief that plays into my mental status, too, I’m sure. As Nikki Payne says in her recent, brilliant newsletter, it is a fuck-ass time to be alive in America.

(Note: Nikki goes on to talk about Black creative resistance and reclamation through the lens of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter tour and it is a truly joyful read, so please go check it out ASAP.)

All that to say, I’m both woefully overdue for a newsletter and fully incapable of writing anything thematic or meaningful or even particularly good, so I decided I’d just update you all in a very ‘we’re at a table at some café, sitting in the sunshine while we chat about life’ kind of way.

First, my family and I recently went to Chicago and had an absolute blast. My husband was born there and spent the first ten years of his life in one of its suburbs (shoutout Bolingbrook), but our son has never been, so we braved the humidity and made our way over.

Chicago is one of my very favorite cities in the world. It reminds me of New York in the way that I can feel the pulse of it, almost, or feel it breathing. I don’t know exactly how to explain it; it just seems alive in a way I don’t feel in many places. My husband and I spent the entire time we were there looking at each other like, “should we…move here?” To be fair, we do this with EVERY place we visit, but Chicago might be a real contender someday!

(And yes, I know about the winters.)

We only had three full days there, but trust that my husband made sure our schedules were full. Sleeping in? Never heard of it. We clocked 20k steps EVERY SINGLE DAY. We went to the Shedd Aquarium and the Griffin Museum of Science and Industry, where we took a tour of a “working” coal mine and learned the (very grim, but deeply important and currently relevant) history of coal mining. Our son was born into a Cubs family, so we went to Wrigley Stadium for a game, and then went back the next day for a tour. Wrigley is the second oldest stadium in the US, just two years younger than Fenway, and man is it steeped with history. I was taking copious notes and thinking about how impossible it is not to feel romantic about baseball.

We of course went to Millennium Park to visit the famed Bean, biked along Lake Michigan and dipped our toes in the water at Oak Street Park, where my husband used to go as a kid. We took a water taxi to Chinatown and back, walked all over the place, and even kayaked down the Chicago River to Navy Pier to watch fireworks. I thought we were going to die the whole time, given that we’d never kayaked before and there were, you know, huge boats all around us, but we did make it (my son had the time of his life, so I guess that made it worth it) (kind of).

Some of my favorite shots from the trip

I also had an event at The Last Chapter Bookshop, an absolutely amazing romance bookstore! It’s been nearly a year since I’ve done an in-person event and to be honest, I wasn’t sure many people would show up because The Ex Vows is nearly a year old (on the 16th!). But Chicago is wonderful, and full of wonderful people to boot, so they DID show up for me!!

Behold the two pictures I have:

It was so great to be in conversation with the brilliant, iconic, gorgeous Ana Holguin and also with readers, some of whom I’ve been chatting with for ages but finally got to hug in real life! I love the tangibility of in-person events; there’s just something about face-to-face community that feels so restorative to me as both a writer and a human being. Like, we are all real people behind these user names and profile pics! Sometimes it’s good to remember that!

Anyway, thank you to everyone who came out and thank you especially to Amanda, the owner of TLC, for hosting me and staying way past closing to do so. Additional thank yous to Jessenia and Sydney for all their hard work at the event! I can’t wait to be back in Chicago, hopefully sooner than later.

Other than traveling and shepherding my son around the greater Bay Area, I’ve been spending some time with my laptop at various cafés:

To be totally transparent, I thought I’d be writing like the wind this summer, but the chaos has largely defeated me. Despite that!! I am writing and that feels like a major win, no matter how slowly it’s going. The first act of a draft always feels like such a foreign place to me: who are these people? What do they want from me? They want me to help tell their story? I don’t even know it! I miss my old friends (Noelle and Theo and Georgia and Eli, in case you were wondering), and I’ve conveniently forgotten that I felt this way about them at one point, too. Those rose-colored glasses are strong.

But I’m starting to figure these two out. I always make sure I dream ahead to some special moments or scenes I can’t wait to write, and I’ve got a few of those sparkling in the distance. I also feel a special kind of relief with this book because in The Ex Vows, Georgia and Eli couldn’t flirt with each other right off the bat thanks to their history. My book 3 characters are the complete opposite, which is FABULOUS for me because if there’s one thing I love writing, it’s shameless flirting. I’m sure I’ll have to cut out about half of it, but for now I’m letting them do their thing (aka I couldn’t stop them if I tried lol).

I’ve also been randomly playing around on Pinterest lately, and I like the vibe I curated so I had to share with the class—mainly because I already shared in a Substack note this week:

I love a baseball hat and good hands :)

A few more things before you go? I’m switching to bullet points because I’m lazy:

• There’s a sale going on at Barnes & Noble right now through the 20th! When you buy one romance paperback, you get the second 50% off. If you’re in the market for some Jessica Joyce books, both You, with a View and The Ex Vows are eligible!

• On August 6th, I’m going to be in conversation with the illustrious

  Mazey Eddings
  to celebrate the release of her latest banger, Well, Actually! I can’t wait to gush about my love for Eva and Rylie (and Mazey) and hope to see some of you there! You can purchase tickets HERE.

• I do have a couple additional in-person events this year, but they haven’t been announced yet, so just know that I will potentially be seeing you soon!

• I’ve just finished or am in the middle of reading a few wonderful books right now:

  • Daddy Issues by Kate Goldbeck: When I finished this book, I stared at the wall for a bit. There’s something about Kate’s writing that is so honest, and I think when you’re talking about love, there’s nothing more romantic than that. Her mind is brilliant, this book is brilliant, and I was particularly moved by the conversations surrounding the complexities of being a step-parent. I will also never look at Chili’s the same way again.

  • The Princess and the PI by Nikki Payne: I mean. Nikki Fuckin’ Payne. I’m mid-read on this one and it’s everything Nikki is—unbelievably smart, terrifyingly witty, and SO engrossing. This may single-handedly push me into a romantic suspense reading era. Is this a Nikki Payne fan account? Yes.

  • Sounds Like Love by Ashley Poston: I’m listening to this on audiobook, which is narrated by Patti Murin, and man, what an experience. I love Jo and Sebastian so much and their love story is spectacular, but I also just so deeply appreciate the discussion of creative burnout and how to find yourself—your voice—again when it feels like it’s abandoned you for good.

Okay, I think that’s all from me for now. I hope that you’re all staying safe. Take care of yourself, take care of the people you love, take care of your neighbors. If there’s anything that’s going to carry us through all of this shit, it’s staying in community with each other.

xoxo

jess

P.S. I have become very self-conscious about my em-dash usage. To be clear, I’ve always been an em-dash girl. I might even dedicate my next book to em-dashes. It’s me, not A.I.!!!