Saved the newest Emily Henry for this summer in the air.
I Channeled Steve Irwin and Saw an Eel in the Wild
The important thing about this eel report is that I saw an eel in real life, in a little lake at the Hobbiton movie set in New Zealand. I should say, the really truly important thing about this eel sighting is that my daughter saw the eel first and came running to find me, and then explained to a lot of people traveling with us on an educational tour that I write a newsletter about eels.
I had to tell them it’s not a scientific newsletter, I’m just a fan, and eels are so amazing and weird. Like how did a bunch of eels get into this little lake tucked away in the idyllic farm hills on the north island of Aotearoa?
I was not the only person excited about the eel on the edge of the lake, and our tour guide told us that there are plenty of eels in the lake but that for a short time there was also a seal, Sammy. A seal who followed rivers and streams inland and found himself at a little lake in The Shire. From a New Zealand entertainment site: Sammy the seal, “has been spotted throwing and chasing the eels.” SAMMY THE SEAL HAS BEEN SPOTTED THROWING AND CHASING THE EELS. I love eels, but I also love this image of a seal having the best adventure of his life.
I am not sure if I would choose to be an eel, but if I were an eel, I imagine apart from a week terrorized by Sammy the Seal, being a healthy little eel in the lake at Hobbiton with its manicured gardens, hobbit homes, and extremely enthusiastic visitors would have to be one of the best places to be an eel.
So many of the middle school kids on our tour talked about living and moving to Hobbiton. Like, I’m gonna live in this hobbit house with the yellow door, or I’m going to come back here and live in New Zealand and be a tour guide—so many big plans! Which I fully support and also 100% recommend watching 12 and 13 year olds discover and see themselves in the wider world in this way. And those eels are doing it—they found their way up rivers and streams to a little lake outside Matamata where the doors are round, every minute detail is considered, and the cider and stouts at the Green Dragon Inn are lovely.
If Hobbiton is on your travel bucket list, or the bucket list of someone you know, you can share my newsletter for some more travel inspiration and reminder to look for eels when you get to the lake. It was an amazing experience, created with so much care! Such beautiful eels! And wonderful, wonderful guides and gardens.
Bonus Eel-Like Imagery
These are eels right? This is a large clock on the exterior of the Customs House in the Circular Quay—the heart of the business district in Sydney Harbour. Eels can have pectoral fins, fins on the side of their bodies behind their head, so I think these are eels. Definitely eel-like. Honestly, I should have asked someone because this Customs House is an informative center for visitors to Sydney. I guess this means I will have to go back to Oceania, and double-check on these ornamental fish and then also travel to the suburbs and catch a Parramatta Eels rugby match while I’m at it. I loved Oceania.
Author Life Highlight
Before I travel anywhere I like to try and connect with local and independent bookstores, and I was so excited when I realized that Little Unity Bookstore in Auckland, New Zealand was going to be walking distance to my hotel while in the City of Sails.
So I sent an email and was stoked to find out that they’d have copies for me to sign of Crocodile Hungry, which is published in Oceania by Scholastic Australia and New Zealand.
An author-life highlight is seeing my book in the window of a bookshop in Auckland, New Zealand, which is so far away from my home that you have to fly at least 15 hours and cross the international date line to get from one to the other. Signing copies in the shop was such a treat. Like I know books exist in different places, but holy moly, sometimes it’s a totally different feeling to see it in person. *cries in small things that feel big*
Author Tip: Reach out to bookstores or work with your publicist to reach out to bookstores before you travel to new places. It’s much more likely that your book will be on the shelf, or it will give time for an indie bookstore to order stock if they’d like to have copies signed.
One of my favorite things about traveling is finding books that I can’t find at home, so I’ve got a whole book haul from New Zealand and Australian authors from Little Unity bookshop.
This trip was such a whirlwind and jam-packed, and I’m really looking forward to reading these stories and revisiting photos and jumping back into all the rich details. I journaled a little bit while on the trip, and kept a food diary of all the new things I ate and tried. When school is back in session and routines become more regular, I’ll revisit all my photos and slip back into what it was like to walk through the Sydney Opera House, or what it smelled like waking up in Rotorua with their very potent sulphuric geothermal gases.
Writing exercise: Look back at photos from a trip—recent or older. Give yourself a few minutes per photo, and write down all the details that you remember from that experience. What time of day, what was the weather like, what was the mood, what did you notice, what did it smell like, how did you feel in this new place? After you’ve revisited that experience, what kind of details are just outside the frame? Is there potential for story in the images? Is there a kernel of a new idea? Give yourself more time, like five or ten minutes, to explore new ideas and free write.
Stay up to date on all things eels and author news from yours truly, Eija Sumner. You’ll want to be subscribed to catch all the details on a double-header day and story time with my friend, Lisa Frenkel Riddiough, and a Read-In at the Capitol in Boise, Idaho with Authors Against Book Bans on August 10th!
I’m saving all the information for August events for a whole bonus newsletter because this newsletter is getting out of hand and Substack is sending me error messages about email length! This is the Substack equivalent of the orchestra playing me off the stage. Please subscribe for more info, and if you made it this far, bless you, please keep reading for steamy romance reads.
Summer Romance Reading
I think it’s fair to say that I’ve never traveled so much in one summer (or one year), it’s been everything from educational tours with middle schoolers, to work trips, to writing reunion trips, and it’s been a lot of time in airports, airplanes, hotels, and buses.
I love being in new places and trying new foods and seeing new things. But the flying is not my favorite. I need to totally escape or cocoon myself the best that I can with eye mask, face mask, noise canceling headphones, hooded sweatshirt, neck pillow— full on I can’t see you, you can’t see me—complete dissociation on the airplane. Imagine one of those single pop-up pods for soccer mom sidelines to stay dry and germ free—that is me on an airplane.
So when I am not cocooned and sleeping while hurtling through the air, I read romance novels. Complete escape. So here’s my list of summer romance reading. Excellent characters, dialogue, and meet-cutes and knowing that everything is totally going to work out. Which is exactly what I need to keep my brain from spiraling while over 30,000 feet in the air. I love reading romance, but I stock up on the Libby app and save all my romance recs for when I travel. I would say that Luster is less what I would call Romance, and more of a sexy literary novel, but look at the cover design showcasing that for readers.
To round out all the romance reading and think about where Romance fits within the publishing industry and it’s cultural impact and significance, it’s been fun to listen to and read all the segments on the romance book industry from Culture Study by Anne Helen Peterson.
Everything from the Culture Study segment on ACOTAR, and romantasy powerhouse Sarah J. Maas, to the podcast on How Romance Writer’s Rewrite Publishing’s Rules (here’s the apple podcast link), and the podcast episode on How Romance Novels Center Marginalized Joy (apple podcast link). I know you can listen wherever you listen to podcasts, so if I did not link up to your preferred provider, it is worth it to search it up, baybee!
I’m a paid subscriber to Anne’s Culture Study newsletter and podcast because I think she’s brilliant, and her guests are brilliant. It’s one of two podcasts that I do not miss, it’s a space that always feels like sitting in on a really great cultural seminar.
Also, there’s this great NYT piece on the boom of romance-only bookstores. Yay, read more romance!
If you made it this far, thank you for spending some solid time with me. If you liked this newsletter and want to share it with people so that they can weigh in on my ornamental eel poll on Sydney’s Customs House, I would appreciate it. August and September are going to be busy—more soon!