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Hey Reader,

Do you have a vocation, do you think? Something you’re called to do?

This morning’s “word of the day” was vocation and it got me thinking. I used to think my vocation was helping people to write books, and I still do think that. But this year has been so difficult, in terms of business (seriously, it’s been dire, and I know I’m not alone) it’s made me question everything.

It’s part of the reason I’m training to be a joiner and carpenter. The other reason is someone needs to make our windows and we don’t have £45,000 to pay anyone. I didn’t expect to fall in love with woodworking the way I have, but there you have it!

Making something real with my hands, that the online business world and AI can’t touch, feels extremely appealing right now. Changing the face of the trades and bringing in more women and other people not traditionally welcomed in construction also feels appealing.

But. Or AND. Because it’s all related… I still get so excited when I get to speak about writing and creativity and how powerful it is and how important it is that we do it ourselves, with our own brains and bodies, and don’t outsource it to AI.

I get so excited when I think about curiosity, and curious people, and the people I get to hang around with because of my business — and what can I do with that? How can I bring people together in real rooms in real life to just be nerdily curious about things?

And so in the midst of trying to find clients and being ghosted (there’s a lot of that about) and in the midst of training as a carpenter and making all our windows, doors, stairs, and kitchen units, I also want to create something new. And develop a new comedy-based Thing with a couple of people who are equally as excited.

Where do I find the time to do it all?

(I’m actually asking.)

Anyway. All that aside, I thought it was time to mention out loud that I can bring all of these interests and curiosities together in something I’m really excited about.

The Curious People’s Supper Club.

I’m holding the first one on January 27 at a location to be confirmed in London.

For a long time now I’ve been nostalgic for the Victorian practice of going to lectures on interesting subjects. Salons, I guess you could call them. They’d invite someone — a scholar, or an explorer, or someone interesting — to come and deliver a public lecture, and you’d go, and you’d learn something new.

Three or four times a year, in different locations around the country (right now I’m thinking London, Bath/Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh) I will host a fancy dinner with a secret speaker.

The identity of the speaker will be hidden until you walk through the door, because the idea is that you will learn something new and random that you perhaps would never think of learning about otherwise. I’m keeping it secret deliberately because I don’t want people deciding based on the subject; I want people to come and be surprised and delighted at how fascinating literally everything is if you get the right person to be excited about it in front of you.

And then, over the course of the evening, we’ll talk about what we’ve heard and what we’ve learned, and what ideas it might spark in our own lives.

There will be absolutely NO marketing or online business bullshit allowed. I’m sick of it all.

The food will be incredible.

The company will be a delight (and no more than 20 people).

The venue will be gorgeous.

And the speakers will be brilliant and unexpected and fascinating.

If this sounds like something you’d like to hear more about, please bounce your mouse off the button below and I’ll add your name to the “tell me more” list and you’ll get first offer on our debut dinner in January.

Right. Now it’s time for the Friday Goodie Bag. Here’s what I’ve found for you.

The Legends Book Fair

I’m a member of Lex Roman’s Legends group, and they made a really cool thing — there are quite a few authors in their group, so they made an online book fair. Love it. My books are in there, and so are a whole load of others — fiction and nonfiction — that you might like.

Hannah Fry’s Traitors mathematics

I don’t know if you, like me, are fully obsessed with Celebrity Traitors but even if you’re not, you might be interested in Hannah Fry’s traitor-catching plan. Hannah is a brilliant mathematician, in case you didn’t know, and hosts a great podcast, and is just generally awesome. She was in this round of Traitors and put her maths skills to good use to figure out how to catch traitors and it’s very, very cool.

This machine that feeds millions

Ever heard of hidden starvation? I hadn’t. It’s when your belly is full, but you’re starving anyway because you’re not getting the nutrients you need. One guy had an idea and a vision and he built machines that fortify staple foods like flour with the nutrients millions — billions — of people around the world are missing. Your idea plus your passion plus gathering together other people who care can literally change the world and I love this.

This rage-filled needlework from Lorina Bulwer

​Lorina Bulwer was incarcerated as a “lunatic” in a Great Yarmouth workhouse, aged 55, probably by her brother Edgar who decided to no longer care for her. She documented all the woes and evils she’d encountered, as well as fantasies. But the evils she names are everyday evils that, frankly, haven’t changed: men in positions of power abusing women, wealthy landowners hoarding wealth and stuffing the poor into workhouses as slave labour, and women being labelled “mad” when they’re actually angry, traumatised, or depressed. Jesus wept. Anyway, she embroidered the most magnificent and bonkers tapestries in a stream of consciousness and I love and hate that for her.

This unusual use for pomegranates

I stumbled across this Thread and it made me laugh so much. Not just the initial vague thought, but the extremely high-quality and silly responses and the good natured replies from the OP.

What I’m reading

Currently reading Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson and I LOVE IT. It’s so fascinating — a history of the English language and how bonkers it is. A must-read for anyone who has to deal with the kind of pedants who utter nonsense like, “Use proper English” because wtf is even “proper English” anyway?

And as an aside: did you know the word “dog” has no pedigree in the English language? It just popped up one day from absolutely nowhere. Previously we said hound or hund. My theory: it kind of sounds like the noise a dog makes. DOG. DOGDOGDOG. DOG.

What I’m writing

I mentioned my carpentry adventures — well, I’m writing regularly for my Project Dingle newsletter again. If you’d like to subscribe, you can do so here, and watch my renovation, building, and woodworking adventures.

Word of the week

Vocation.

Something you feel called to do. What’s yours? Do you have one? Or not?

Quote of the week

Have a beautiful weekend. Go outside (if it stops raining) and look at something green. Give a stranger a compliment. Make something with your own two hands.

And remember to let me know here if you’d be interested in the Curious People’s Supper Club.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

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