The Footnote with Meghan Riordan Jarvis

An index revealing all the minute details of how your favorite authors work

The Footnote is a column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write in which prominent writers give us the lowdown on their work habits — no matter how messy or mundane.

This week’s installment features Zibby Books author Meghan Riordan Jarvis, a trauma therapist and creator of the Grief is My Side Hustle podcast. Meghan’s forthcoming memoir, Chasing Dark Skies, is about her experience living with grief of her own and checking herself into a mental health facility after the death of her parents — the same institution where she sends her patients.

Learn more about Zibby Books here!

Early riser or night owl?

Early — 5 a.m.

Writing on an empty stomach or a full breakfast before you sit down at the desk?

Empty. I don’t get hungry until about 11 a.m.

Long-hand or computer?

Both. Sometimes when I am still mulling over how I feel about something or a chapter is too emotionally “hot,” I’ll write it out longhand and let it sit for a day to two.

Silence is golden or music for inspiration?

Both. More silence than music with the memoir, but I like music on in the background in general.

Favorite magazine/literary journal?

The Atlantic. I love everything in there. I read it online and I can’t figure out the algorithm of what they send me, but I love all of it.

Avoid or devour reviews of your own work?

I’m early in the process, so mostly I’m reading nice, “me too” comments in the blog.

I did get a crappy review on my podcast once that got removed with an apology from the complainer — they had my show confused with someone else.

Frequency of checking Amazon ranking?

Oh, I bet I’ll be a checker.

If you weren’t a writer, what would you be?

Well, I’m a trauma therapist specializing in grief and loss and I love that!

If you could be any other author, who would you be? Why?

Ann Patchett. Her command of words, and ability to drop bread crumbs of a plot gives me the shivers. Plus: SHE OWNS A BOOKSTORE!

How many cups of coffee or tea per day?

I have been advised by counsel to plead the fifth. My husband is English so at least one cup of tea. But my ice coffee intake is one unending stream.

Favorite snack/meal while writing?

Salted cashews. If I’m in the flow, I don’t want to stop to eat and they take the edge off.

Trick for avoiding writer’s block?

Talking it out with my husband or my best friend, Maia. They hear a lot of “can I run this by you?” I understand myself better when I talk it out.

Last charge you’ll admit to on your credit card?

I’ll admit to them all. I make my own money. I spend it. That’s what it’s for!

Book you’ve pretended to have read but haven’t?

I don’t think I do this, actually. Occasionally I won’t admit I haven’t finished a book for book club, but I spent most of my thirties reading really cheesy books, like one where a young English lass inherits a small cottage from her grandmother and she discovers the old gardener's son still lives in the cowshed. Will romance ensue? (Yes, yes it will.) I didn’t feel embarrassed because they were a counter to my heavy day job.

When I don’t read books, it's usually because it's too close to home for me.

Word you always misspell?

How many column inches do I get? I am a notoriously horrible speller. Recipe, vacation, awkward. Seriously, we could be here all day.

Go-to outfit for a day of writing at home?

Gap sports leggings, cashmere wrap/blanket, healing stone bracelets and whatever shirt/bra is clean.

Edits: love or hate doing them?

Love! Editing is like being a therapist. You dump out the motherlode of words, then dig through for the threads that have meaning. Love it!

And I love my editor, Carolyn Murnick.

Largest number of rejections you’ve gotten for a book or essay before it was sold?

I have been incredibly lucky in that my early writing was well-received. Zibby invited me into the fellowship and here I am with a book deal. I will likely be crushed by enormous rejection at any moment — hard hats please.

Number of unsold manuscripts in a drawer?

Two.

My best friend kept an incredibly terrible novel I wrote that simply roasts an ex-boyfriend (women always have your back) and I have a novel I’m in the middle of about a woman whose mother dies while they are on vacation together in a seaside town and she stays there in her grief.

Career goal you still haven’t hit?

I’d like to publish a clinical book on grief (also in the drawer) and kiss my husband on a Jumbotron. I would also like to learn how to Twitter and TikTok.

Places on your travel wishlist?

My crew went west during Covid (twenty-eight national parks and monuments and twenty-one states) so it's smaller now, but Greece, Alaska, Iceland, Portugal, and all the rest of the National Parks.

Number of times you check your word count when writing?

Each time I open my document to write, I update the word count.

Where do you get your news?

Katie Couric’s Morning Media and WAMU (DC’s NPR)

Favorite place to write?

My porch swing. I also often check myself into a hotel for a day or two to get over a hump.

Last book you couldn’t put down?

The Plot. Read it in a day.

Someone whose book recommendations you respect?

My friend Lindsey Mead (also a writer) is someone who has never led me astray.

I hope no one finds out that….

My celebrity crush is Jay Duplass because then he might look me up and call me, and then I’d have to tell my friend Melissa who hopes he will play her boyfriend in the movie about a book about her life, and then we would fight about who loved him the most (just like I did with my friend Amy about Michael J. Fox in 1984) and Melissa and I would stop speaking.

That would be really bad.

My secret dream is to….

Sing on a huge stage with a huge crowd. I grew up singing. I sang in front of one thousand people pretty often, but I’m talking Red Rocks or Wembley. It would be terrifying but fear is good.

Most useless skill I have is….

I can place any actor’s voice in a commercial or animated movie.

You know the voice-over in the car commercial and you are like, “Who is that?” Ryan Reynolds. It's Ryan Reynolds. If I hear a voice once, I know it forever. Don’t bother trying to stump me.