Craft from the Couch: Episode 03 | M.L. Rio
In which we talk to international bestselling author M.L. Rio about time management and deadlines
Hello and happy Wednesday!
If you’re on Instagram and TikTok and have watched content related to summer weddings, you might have seen posts bemoaning the contemporary practice of blowout bachelor and bachelorette parties. I’ve heard podcasts about this practice, there are entire movies about this tradition, and it’s true that in the last 10-15 years, spending untold thousands on “destination bachelorette” parties does seem to be a thing.
For my bachelorette party, my three best friends, my mother and I all went to my favorite bistro in Paris, and then my friends took me on a scavenger hunt that involved me doing things that were typical of me at the time, like asking strangers for cigarettes and grimacing at Beaujolais. Paris is a fantastic place, but it wasn’t a “destination”—I lived and worked there through my twenties, as did my three friends. My mother had flown over because I was getting married that weekend: the bachelorette in question was two days before my wedding. I picked up the tab for dinner, and the only other costs involved were the drinks we had once my mother went to bed. The party felt like a destination to me—I was getting married! I was celebrating with my friends!—but we didn’t travel anywhere. We didn’t need to. I remember feeling enchanted and awestruck by the contours of my slightly changed new life. That happiness and pleasure was a destination in itself.
What, you may be thinking, does international bestselling author M.L. Rio have to do with bachelorettes? I invited M.L. on “Craft from the Couch” today to talk about time management and deadlines. Time management, for writers, is not only about finding time to write, it’s also (maybe even more so) about stonewalling people who want your writing time. When people request months of your life and a significant portion of your income so that you can pre-celebrate them in Bali/Dubai/Rio, they are asking for your writing time. You do not have to give it.
It’s possible that I sound bitter here, and maybe I am bitter, given that I was always the serious and “studious” one among my friends, the one with the long view and very little carpe diem, so maybe I am jealous of people who throw priorities and fiscal responsibility to the wind, and take off for Dubai to celebrate their bestie. But the thing is, I travel every day as a writer. I travel in my head. Us writers, we voyage at a standstill. We fly away in place. Our imagination is our destination; the only one that counts.
To make it—to really make it as a writer—you have to be a confusing blend of fanciful and beyond-your-years mature. You have to be a keen observer and an empath, and selfish as all get-out. You need to be steely eyed but hopeful. And you need to be hard working. The work, it is so hard. I relate to M.L. because she is hardworking. I respect her writing and her steady work ethic. You know how The Atlantic sent Gary Shteyngart recently to write about the horrible time he had on the biggest cruise ship ever built? I would read the hell out of M.L. Rio reporting on a destination bachelorette.
Introducing M.L. Rio - writer, academic, actor, Doctor of Great Words
Initially, I met M.L. Rio in my email inbox. She was one of the first people to apply to my writing workshop, Turning Points, in the spring of 2023. When I looked at her application, I thought, hmm, this can’t be right. M.L. is a huge star! Her book has been translated into 20 languages! She doesn’t need my help! But that’s what’s so inspiring and exciting about this novelist. M.L. is a lifelong learner, and she’s also someone who skipped over some literary-right-of-passage-stuff like doing residencies and summer workshops, because she was deeply involved in theater and pursuing her PhD in Shakespeare Studies when her book deal hit. When M.L. applied to Turning Points, she was catching up on literary citizenship while also navigating renewed interest in her debut.
Much like our last “Craft in the Couch” guest, Chloe Caldwell, success didn’t happen to M.L. Rio overnight.
While M.L. got a book deal in her twenties, it took three years for her debut novel “If We Were Villains” to gain serious traction. This marvelous novel which the equally marvelous Emily St. John Mandel calls “a vivid rendering of the closed world of a conservatory education…and a genuinely breathtaking literary thriller,” won the hearts of students who were suddenly ripped away from college and high school during the pandemic, giving a deeper meaning to the #darkacademia trend. M.L. and her agent were watching sales go from so-so to rising every week, until suddenly, sales were soaring above anything her team could have expected.
A natural born promoter of her own work and a self-professed workaholic, M.L. did whatever she could to help her book continue soaring, short of joining TikTok herself. The sales just kept on rising, and interest on TikTok turned into a fervor. Booktokers started annotating and color-coding the novel, and gifting the annotated novel became a literary trend.
And sales? They kept on rising. In little time, M.L.’s publisher was discussing a reissue of the novel along with luxury editions for specific vendors, and they were also keen to have M.L. put out a novella in a partnership with Barnes & Noble. Meanwhile, publishers were clamoring for her second novel, which M.L. had shopped around, but hadn’t been able to sell before.
Today, not even a year after I met her, M.L. has a novella, “Graveyard Shift” publishing in September with Flatiron and a second novel, “Hot Wax” coming out with Simon & Schuster in 2025, and a third novel under contract. She’s negotiating foreign rights sales, movie options, copy edits, and national and international tour plans while also Substacking, being a good human, and mom to a big dog.
How the hell does M.L. do all this with her mind intact? How does she rise to meet the many deadlines she’s laboring toward, now?
Next Wednesday, I’ll follow our conversation with thoughts of my own on time management, so please look out for that. But in the meantime, I hope you enjoy my discussion about deadlines with the wonderful M.L. If you haven’t read “If We Were Villains” yet, you’re in for a real treat! Remember that Craft from the Couch discussions all come with a book giveaway from the author that we’re hosting. All deets are in our video interview, below.
A special offer just for my subscribers!
One last thing before we watch the interview. M.L. has graciously created a discount link to her Substack “Discursions” just for our subscribers. The discount gives you 20% off an entire year! Simply click this link to activate the discount and enjoy the writing advice and behind-the-scenes look at authoring that M.L. offers there.
Without further ado, let’s meet M.L. Rio and learn about deadlines!
Thank you for watching! If you’re going to enter the book giveaway for “If We Were Villains,” a few reminders:
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Now for a few announcements about the month ahead.
Wildhouse Publishing Fiction Contest: $1000 is up for grabs for a work of fiction that fits this press’s mission of “adventurous spirituality for unconventional people.” Novels and short story collections are both eligible. Submission guidelines are at wildhousepublishing.com— the incredible author (and Substacker! and my friend!)
judges. This contest is open from September 1st to October 1st 2024.3 Gift Subscriptions to available! I have 3 free month-long subscriptions to Memoir Land available for anyone who wants to try out this newsletter covering all things memoir and memoir writing. First three paid subscribers to DM me win the gift subscription!
Pulled Wool Saddle Pad Retreat in New Mexico! I can’t really think of anything more relaxing than sitting around an open fire learning how to make a pulled wool saddle pad with a bunch of cowgirls on a ranch in New Mexico. I can’t make the dates work myself, but if you are free from November 13-17th in 2024 and are interested in R&R of this variety, all application deets are here!
Stay tuned for my own tips about time management and meeting deadlines next Wednesday. Until then, be well, stay as sane as possible, and know that I am ever grateful to have you here as a subscriber.
Courtney
Submitting to win the book.
We were fighting to stay afloat in a sea of lines to learn, reading to do, texts to scan, and papers to hand in.
I appreciate how you said we do not have to give our time to others who try to steal it, Courtney. AND that we get to travel every day, in our heads. What a refreshing perspective! I think this topic has a lot to do with setting boundaries, which has a lot to do with self-awareness as our foundation. If we don't know what we need, we can't communicate that to others who request something of us, including our time.