Wine + Pine Reading Series Recap!

the most festive and fabulous night!

Last night I had the pleasure and honor of reading at the Wine and Pine reading series at Ten Degrees bar on St. Mark’s Place in the East Village. I don’t think there is anything I love more at the moment than doing readings. The theme of the series is desire so I chose this piece (now available to paid subscribers only) which is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, Don’t Do Anything I Would Do.

I typically know what I’m going to read weeks (or at least days) before a reading. But last night’s essay was a game time decision. Part of me wanted to read something I had read over the summer at Generation Women, but as I read it again yesterday morning it just wasn’t resonating with me — at all. More on that in the video below. So I decided to go with Ghosts (as I’m now referring to it) and I could not have been happier. Not only was the piece more emotional, but it paid homage to the East Village, with mentions of many of its bars and streets so I felt it was appropriate considering where the reading was being held.

I arrived early, as I always do, and posted up at Bua, a bar directly across the street. Over a glass of champagne, I did a few more read throughs for practice.

As soon as I got to Ten Degrees, I took note of how dimly lit it was. And quickly realized these 43-year old eyeballs were going to struggle reading off my paper. Another gametime decision was made — I was going to read off my phone. Samantha Mann, another author who read last night (she is fabulous, by the way) assured me that the Gen Z crowd only reads from their phones, plus I saw Alex Dimitrov do it at his poetry reading at KGB, so I felt confident in my decision. And it was so. much. easier. OMG. As I always say, trust your gut, that bitch knows what’s up!

I saw some familiar faces in the crowd (shout out to my girlies who came through to support!) which made me feel even more comfortable and I paced through my essay perfectly with no fumbles and no anxiety — a first for me! Even though I’ve been publishing my books for a decade and I speak in public constantly, I only started doing book readings this year and they are different! Especially when you’re reading such personal content. So I felt really proud about last night. And I can’t wait to do it again!

Here are some clips of our author talk Rachel from Wine + Pine held after the readings:

Talking about the difference between writing about business and love:

Thank you again to everyone who came out last night! You have no idea how much your support means to me! <3

Okay, back to writing. This book ain’t gonna finish itself. ILYSM!