21 Comments
User's avatar
Mindy's avatar

OMG I want to hear the whole Daughter of Ellen!!

Expand full comment
Amanda Murphy's avatar

Me too. I’m only 7 mins in and I’m like, noooo! I need to know what happens. (I think Pru will betray her 🤫) an instalment every week pleade, Julia!!!!!!

Expand full comment
Sandy Blue's avatar

Yes!

Expand full comment
Sandy Blue's avatar

Maybe read a chapter every week?

Expand full comment
Brian Bouldrey's avatar

THANKS FOR THE SHOUTOUT, Julia! I wish we could have hung out in Wilmette, too. Love your 7th grade novel, and I love Buffet Cuisine. An excellent story about buffet cuisine: Tobias Wolff's hilarious and awful "SMORGASBORD".

Expand full comment
Brian Bouldrey's avatar

also, that account of the night with Sinead and the pope pic--wowzer

Expand full comment
Timothy W Keller's avatar

That lampshade is flawless.

Expand full comment
Julia Sweeney's avatar

Anthropologie online Home Section. I know. 10 years ago I found it there and ordered it. I will have it forever.

Expand full comment
foglight's avatar

great saturday spiel & i love your embroidered shirt :)

i have that new yorker! with planet earth being broiled in the microwave on the cover. but i often skip the short stories if i don't know the author. "cynthia ozick," ok, gonna read her story now.

gonna check out the dardenne brothers, too.

i'm 64, & i'm with you. we can't change the world. it's often tragic but always fascinating just to observe what *is.*

Expand full comment
David Williams's avatar

Sinead O'Connor was a hero, years and years before the Boston Globe, before anyone was talking about the horrid Magdalene Laundries. and the morally bankrupt , misogynistic criminals running them. 5 *****s for that appearance. It might be the best thing that ever happened on SNL. ---( Besides, maybe, "The Continental" and the otherworldly prescient "It's Pat!")

Expand full comment
susan allshouse's avatar

Thank you Julia for yet another wonderful Saturday Substack Update. It is like a conversation with a dear friend who is a great storyteller, at least you feel like a friend and you are definitely a talented storyteller. I'm blown away by your Sinead/SNL story and very curious about Ellen's daughter. See you next Saturday!

Expand full comment
Beth Lapides's avatar

Tom was so great last night wasn’t he? The story of the all the ‘signs’ that he was gay. Omg. I loved watching it with you so we could squeal in delight together! ❤️

Expand full comment
Phil Oliver's avatar

I get the profundity of stoically accepting what you can’t change, and at 66 I get that maturity brings a greater impulse to write your novel instead of tilting at the world’s endless windmills. But isn’t it best to be a stoic pragmatist, and not conclude too soon that you can’t change the world... or perhaps inspire younger people to try? And write a novel that inspires in that way, just as Letting Go of God has inspired so many to accept responsibility for the world. Anyway... glad you’re on Substack. I missed an opportunity to meet you at a philosophy conference I had to cancel on, in Spokane years ago. Looking forward to following your next creative chapter.

Expand full comment
Julia Sweeney's avatar

I know. I do want to be a Stoic Pragmatist, in fact, I am a Stoic Pragmatist! I agree with you and maybe find some compromise within myself. Thank you for being so complimentary about Letting Go of God. I do want to do things that I think could help our world to be more the way I think it should be, and the way it surely would be better. If only I had more power! But I have been experimenting with giving up on that idea of any activism, and it has resulted in a reduction of stress and a lot more creative energy. So, hmmm. I have to think on it more. A philosophy conference? I wonder what that was? Anyway, sorry to have missed you.

Expand full comment
Phil Oliver's avatar

I understand. Personal stress-reduction and creative energy are also essential for the good life. It’s a happy convergence when you can lower stress, raise energy, AND help “save the world”...

It was a meeting of the society for the advancement of American philosophy, but I may be misremembering that you were to be in attendance. I was going to talk about your work, though, before circumstances required me to cancel.

Expand full comment
Margaret Downey's avatar

Wonderful. Enjoyed every word. "Daughter of Ellen" must be the next Substack!

Expand full comment
Howard Coombe.'s avatar

RIP Sinead. Read Sarah Kendall anyway.

Expand full comment
Jason Smith.'s avatar

Had a feeling you'd have a Sinead SNL story. Congrats on the novel.

Expand full comment
Amanda Murphy's avatar

Ok. Firstly Yay! So glad you‘ve finally got that sorted. I’ve been shouting at the screen for weeks. You’re definitely a ‘novel‘ woman. 😁 stop worrying about whether it will be good and just enjoy writing it. Many things can be sorted out in the edit. Just don’t enjoy the solitude too much, you‘ll end up being that woman, who hasn’t left her house in years.

Love the novel have written a comment below

You have such a fun life - can‘t believe you were actually there when she did it.

Anyway, if you like a good storyteller you should listen to Sarah Kendall. Australian comedian, brilliant.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g5h2g

Expand full comment
Mindy's avatar

Super cute shirt! :-)

Expand full comment
Marinarena's avatar

You're cute. Of course you can write a novel at 63, Julia. You have a wealth of wisdom and wit to add in a story. Why even question this, I say ! :-)

Expand full comment