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2 months ago | 
courtneymaum.substack.com | Courtney Maum |Yascha Mounk |Kathleen Schmidt |Lauren Hough
Hello and welcome to the almost-weekend. My only plans include waiting for the slightly warmer weather to hit the east coast so that my Olympic ice rink of a driveway will stop being a death threat. Thank you to everyone who wrote in with their own ghost encounters after I shared the story of the straw-hatted phantom who plagued me while I was in San Miguel last week. There might be a part two to that story, because I’m speaking to a medium today, so we’ll see what happens.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
texashighways.com | Lauren Hough |W.K. Stratton |Rubén Degollado |Fowzia Karimi
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
texashighways.com | Jason Stanford |Lauren Hough |Tyson Bird
Texas’ friendliest places and faces “Howdy” is not like any other greeting. I don’t just mean it’s decidedly Texan and a little folksy. For the record, it’s an abbreviation of the formal “How do ye?” that got shortened to “how dee” and shortened again. There may be other places where howdy is said. But I have lived in more than a few states and traveled to even more, and I’ve never heard it outside Texas.
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Aug 21, 2024 | 
courtneymaum.substack.com | Courtney Maum |Lauren Hough
Hello, and happy Wednesday!Last week, we picked up some new subscribers thanks to my post on whether you should be writing an essay collection instead of a memoir. New subscribers, welcome! A few things for readers new and old alike before we talk to Lauren:If you are a new subscriber, this footnote will tell you what we get up to here at Before and After the Book Deal.
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Aug 14, 2024 | 
courtneymaum.substack.com | Courtney Maum |Lauren Hough
In honor of our next Craft from the Couch guest being author (of the fantastic collection LEAVING ISN’T THE HARDEST THING), today’s post will explore whether you should ditch your traditional memoir project and write an essay collection, instead. But since I’ve been deep (very deep) in French vacation mode, I have a few announcements before we can talk craft. Need a web designer? And a discount?
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Feb 2, 2024 | 
lauramckowen.substack.com | Laura McKowen |Elissa Altman |Lauren Hough
Happy Friday, and congratulations: we made it through the year of January! On Monday, I’ll be featuring my first guest essay ever, the first of many this year, by my friend and absolutely exquisite writer, . For paid subscribers. I’ve read a lot this month, so most of the recs are book recs. I’ve also spent an extraordinary amount of time in bed and on the couch doing absolutely nothing (playing all the NY Times games—Spelling Bee is my current favorite—while half-watching a show).
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Oct 30, 2023 | 
highplainsobserver.com | Lauren Hough
CHASING THE WINDBy Lauren Hough J.B.’s grandson Roger Buchanan tells me that keeping the windmills outdoors was important to his granddad, who died in 2003. “Granddad wanted to see them out there spinning in the wind,” he says. Roger started the Southwest Pioneer Windmill Association to preserve the windmills and educate people on their importance. “People don’t understand how crucial windmills are,” he says. “Without windmills, we couldn’t have settled the Plains.
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Aug 25, 2023 | 
laurenhough.substack.com | Lauren Hough
Took about five minutes of scrolling to see the first prison rape joke. I wasn’t surprised exactly but it’s still jarring every time I’m reminded most people don’t believe in anything, not really. They were raised by Democrats so they’re Democrats or they fell in with the right crowd in college. It’s not a belief system so much as a tribe. And what’s good for the tribe is prison rape, which is usually bad. Sure. Awful. A thing that should never happen. Unless it’s someone from the other tribe.
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Aug 19, 2023 | 
elizabethmarro.substack.com | Elizabeth Marro |Lauren Hough
When you encounter someone who is an only child what thoughts, if any, cross your mind? Are you in the presence of a kindred spirit or an alien being? If you are an only child, what do you encounter from people who grew up with siblings? If you grew up with siblings, what do you love about it, hate about it? Welcome! You’ve reached Spark.Learn more here or just read on. If you received this from a friend, please join us by subscribing. It’s free! All you have to do is press the button below.
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Apr 3, 2023 | 
laurenhough.substack.com | Lauren Hough
I should’ve done it long ago, but I’m a coward. I could’ve done it in better fashion. I could’ve used my checkmark to impersonate Ted Cruz and tweet eloquently on safer gun laws and protecting the rights of immigrants and trans people. But I’ve never been all that eloquent on twitter. I tweeted about my life, played around with friends when a current event became a joke-writing workshop. I talked about my dogs, Dolly Parton, shitty jobs, and my book. It wasn’t all bad for a while.
