Happiness Sprinkles + Book Club ZOOM Link
Book Club meeting This Sunday at 8pm ET/5pm PT
Hi lovelies!
It was easy to be over the moon this month, what with Netflix’s movie premiere and the incredible response from all of you for the Damsel book and movie. But even between all the glitz and glam, I found ways to stuff even more joy into my life, and I want to share those happiness sprinkles with you (below).
But first, I am so excited about our March Book Club hangout!
Feel free to come even if you haven’t read the book! (Just be prepared for spoilers.)
Book:
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub
Time:
Sunday, March 24th, 2024 at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT
Book Discussion (30-ish minutes)—What makes this book tick? We’ll talk about things like whether the plot worked and if not, why not? Where was the pacing great and where did the tension dip, and why? And why do some people love Character A but others hate him, while Character B is universally adored?
Bonus Writers’ Chat (30 minutes)—After the book discussion, we’ll have an optional hangout to share what we’re working on, ask each other for advice on writer’s block, finding a literary agent, doing book publicity, etc.
Zoom link:
To prevent Zoom-bombing from not-nice people, the Zoom link will be at the very bottom of this post behind a paywall.
Paid subscribers get full access to our Book Club for Writers & Curious Readers, as well as our private Creativity VIP chat group.
100% of paid subscriptions go toward funding our Scholarships for Aspiring Writers (more details here)
*I want to make sure that everyone can participate in our book club, so if you cannot afford a paid subscription, please email me at evelyn@creativeinspiredhappy.com and I will gladly set you up with a complimentary subscription.
Happiness Sprinkles: Things Worth Smiling About in March
I Adore Jennifer Garner
I have loved Jennifer Garner since she played Sydney Bristow in “Alias,” so when I found out that she was a conversation host for Adam Grant’s book tour stop in LA (and that they recorded it and made it a podcast), I had to listen. Turns out that Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from “The Office”) had been slated to be the conversation partner, but he got Covid, so Jennifer stepped in at the last second.
She had not read the book. She furiously read up to page 73 on her way to the event. She hilariously tried to ask questions that only involved topics up to page 73.
Jennifer Garner is so genuine and funny and self-deprecating, and I also loved Adam Grant’s book Hidden Potential (about how all of us can become superstars even if we don’t start out as the most talented.) This podcast episode is worth the listen.
Quit Doomscrolling; Do This Instead
On Tuesday night, I attended a Substack Bestsellers celebration in San Francisco, where many of the Bay Area’s top writers gathered to hang out, swap book recommendations, and enjoy the open bar along with the Substack founders and other wonderful people who work at the company.
(If you don’t know what Substack is, it’s the platform that powers my newsletter. A different way to think of it is a “newsletter blog”1 that is delivered straight to your inbox. Or you can read on their app.)
Anyway, I’ve recently traded my morning news app doomscrolling for reading some of the delightful writing on Substack, mostly short digestable essays about… everything. Here are some of my recently discovered favorites, if you’d also like to read them:
What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking:
is one of the OG Substackers, and she’s got you covered for, well, when you don’t feel like cooking. Also, she screamed when she found out I wrote Damsel, and because of that, she immediately became one of my favorite people.Make It Good: You may know
from her famous NYT bestselling cookbooks like Against All Grain. Well, she just joined Substack and is bringing her specialty of cooking for those with autoimmune diseases, so if that’s you, check out her newsletter which will be full of recipes.Noahpinion:
is one of my husband Tom’s friends from college, and I just found out he writes an uber-popular Substack about economics, politics, life in Japan, and basically anything that a person-who-likes-to-learn-new-things would want to read.Breakfast Club with
: running and philosophy. Sam was one of my favorite people I met at the Substack event. He’s just one of those guys who is easy to talk to and quick to smile and you want to be his friend. I don’t even run, but heck, I’ve been meaning to learn for years, so maybe I’ll try now… Or maybe I’ll just sit in my chair and read the fascinating stuff he writes about.
There are so many more great Substacks to recommend… But I’ll stop there for now because I want to share more of my March Happiness Sprinkles!
Surprise, Surprise. Evelyn Recommends another Food-Related Movie/Show
Délicieux - I’m learning French right now and I love food, so when I heard about the movie Délicieux, it was exactly what I wanted to watch. It’s about a chef who dares to innovate and therefore gets fired by the close-minded aristocrat he works for, and then how the chef rises back up and invents the world’s first restaurant. (Don’t worry, there are subtitles if you don’t speak French… like me. Yet! I don’t speak French yet.)
Makeup Artist Tips from the Red Carpet -
Newsletter reader
asked me about my hair and makeup at the Netflix movie premiere, so I thought I’d share!Here’s the thing—I wasn’t the kind of teenager or young adult who was super into beauty products, so I’m still learning tricks now at almost-45 years old. I picked up some great tips from my red carpet appearance:
Get a glowy look by adding a drop of serum to your foundation. This is apparently important for us “life-experienced” people of a certain age who are beginning to have fine lines on our faces. Matte foundation accentuates those lines. But glowy foundation makes you look like you’re naturally airbrushed. The formula is 1 big drop of NARS Light Reflecting Foundation (color M1 for me) + 1 small drop of Clarins Double Serum. Just mix together in your palm and apply as normal (use a makeup wedge).
The secret to perfectly winged eyeliner is pointy Q-tips! I didn’t know these existed. But basically, you draw your eyeliner like normal and then you dip a pointy Q-tip into makeup remover and erase your mistakes! It’s like a pencil tip but soft. If your line was too thick, no problem, just erase part of it. Wing too curvy on one side? Erase the top part of the arc! This is game-changing for me.
Barely-there lip color for a red dress. Because my red carpet gown was so bold, we didn’t want my makeup to compete. So we went with a barely-there lip tint that I’m now obsessed with—Bobbi Brown Extra Lip Tint in Bare Claret. It made my lips just a little redder than usual, but not as obvious as a lipstick. (I also don’t love the feel of lipstick on my mouth—too dry—or lip glosses—too goopy. This lip tint is very light and I didn’t notice it at all.)
Magic hair tool - The Dyson AirWrap isn’t cheap, but it works like a dream, is way faster than a normal curling iron (10 minutes total to curl all my hair), and is gentler on hair since it uses hot air instead of heated metal. If you’re going to lots of fancy events or like to have your hair curled more often than not, it might be worth the splurge (or putting on your birthday wishlist).
(I don’t get affiliate fees for any of these links. I just like sharing happy things with you!)