Welcome to The Wandering Writer
a newsletter about wandering, writing, and sometimes staying put
by New York Times bestselling novelist Michelle Richmond, author of THE MARRIAGE PACT, THE WONDER TEST, THE YEAR OF FOG, and others.
Hi. Thanks for stopping by! I started The Wandering Writer in 2021—that strange year of no travel—to share excerpts from the notebooks I kept while living in Paris as a “trailing spouse” on a diplomatic passport (heads up: sounds glamorous, but it’s not!)
Before The Wandering Writer, I wrote The Reluctant Parisian—a blog I started when my family moved to Paris in 2018. On that blog, I attempted to distill daily life into short pieces that (I hope) convey the sometimes invigorating, often disorienting experience of being a stranger in a strange (and much romanticized) land. With The Wandering Writer, I wanted to broaden my perspectives beyond France.
“I myself have been tempted for a long time by the cloud-moving wind – filled with a strong desire to wander.” Matsuo Basho, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
This newsletter could just as accurately be called The Wondering Writer. I write not only about where I wander and have wandered, but also the many things about which I wonder. So you will find some traditional travel pieces on The Wandering Writer, like Five Days in Dinan, and you’ll also find Last Days in Paris posts, wherein I share thoughts and observations from my family’s final expat days in Paris. We returned home the day before the second Paris lockdown began, and those final days were a beautiful, strange time to be living in Paris.
Free subscribers receive a post about once a month.
Paid subscribers receive
a post about once a week, including all Last Days in Paris posts
audio versions of most posts
access to the complete archives, where most of the The Wandering Writer posts live
a complimentary paid subscription to my other substack, Novella, where I’m serializing a novella
If you wander, or if you wonder, or if you write, I hope you will find something to inspire you in this newsletter, or something to make you think.
On Wandering and Writing
For many of us, all of the everyday barriers to creativity fall away when we travel. Something about walking unfamiliar streets, sleeping in an unfamiliar bed, seeing and tasting and smelling unfamiliar things, wakes me up, shakes me out of the creative slumber that too often accompanies routine. Wandering induces wondering, which is a beautiful state of being.
Because 2021 was a year of no travel, in the early posts dipped into the past, particularly 2018 to early 2020, when my family used our home base in Paris to travel as much as possible in Europe. (European travel from Paris is easy and fairly inexpensive.) I’ll also be examining the way new places and experiences inform my writing and the work of writers I admire.
Years ago, I wrote a number of travel essays for Lonely Planet, the Travelers’ Tales anthologies, Telegraph, the Wall Street Journal, and other publications. Then I began concentrating on writing novels. As there was always a next book due to the publisher, I let my travel writing fall by the wayside, though I continued to keep journals when we traveled, just as a way to remember. When my family moved to Paris in 2018, I began blogging about expat life, with the intent of distilling daily life into short pieces that (I hope) convey the sometimes invigorating, often disorienting experience of being a stranger in a strange (and much romanticized) land.
I should mention that I’m not a digital nomad. I’m a home base kind of person! My husband and I moved to the Bay Area from New York City in 1999 and have been here ever since, with the exception of two and a half years in Paris. We live in the house we bought 15 years ago. We love traveling, but we also love having a place to come home to.
The Wandering Writer is a work-in-progress, an experiment, a deep dive into the places I’ve been and the places I still plan to go, an ode to the writing life. I hope it will also be an inspiration to you to write about where you’ve been and where you’re going, and to find a way to wander wherever you are.
If that sounds good to you, I hope you’ll subscribe. And if you enjoy the newsletter, you might enjoy my books too. You’ll find them here.
Happy wandering!
Why subscribe?
Subscribe for free to get a free post or two every month. Every new edition of the newsletter goes directly to your inbox.
The Wandering Writer is a reader-supported publication. Consider a paid subscription to receive weekly posts, exclusive audio, and access to the full archives.
Consider a founding member subscription to also receive a signed, limited-edition paperback of The Wandering Writer, which will be published in summer of 2023.
Why are some posts paywalled?
I am using Substack as a working notebook to compose both a novella and an essay collection. Because writing is my livelihood and I plan to publish some version of these posts in book form in the future, I am making the full version of many posts available only to readers who feel strongly enough about the work to support it with a paid subscription.
Additionally, in the past year, the rapid advancement of AI has highlighted the importance of protecting one’s work from corporate theft. AI language learning models scrape publicly available posts with no regard for copyright. Recently, this has resulted in authors having deepfake books sold fraudulently under their name on Amazon. Most of us saw this too late and are now trying to play catchup.
I will continue to make some posts available to everyone, while rewarding paid subscribers with exclusive fiction, essays, and audio.
A Serial Novella-in-Progress
I am currently writing a serialized novella, By the Time You Read This, on my other Substack.
My Books
I’m the author of eight books of fiction, including most recently THE WONDER TEST and THE MARRIAGE PACT. I’ve also published two rather obscure story collections, including the 2014 collection Hum, which includes a foreword by the writer and painter Rikki Ducornet, who happened to inspire the Steely Dan song “Rikki don’t lose the number.”
Looking for your next long read? Here are some of my books:
The Wonder Test - the first book in a new series featuring FBI agent Lina Connerly, “a gripping blend of danger and sharp social commentary on high-stakes education, the 1%, and suburban tropes” (Booklist, starred review). Set in Silicon Valley
The Marriage Pact - the bestselling psychological thriller about a marriage cult, published in 31 languages - “a high-concept, fast-moving thriller…a gripping and intriguing read” (The Sunday Mirror). Set in San Francisco
The Year of Fog - the New York Times bestseller about memory, obsession, and one woman’s search for a missing child - “Gripping” (People Magazine). Set in San Francisco and Costa Rica.
My other books set in San Francisco: Golden State, No One You Know, Hum
Books set in Alabama: Dream of the Blue Room, The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress
