on midnight: writing but mostly reading
/They say nothing good happens after midnight, but I do not know that to be true.
I am writing this quite literally burning the midnight (essential) oil, under a Full Blue Moon in Sagittarius (what a Crystal-Girl sentence, I simply cannot help myself). A blue moon is when there are two full moons in a single month, occurring once every two-ish years.
Something marvellous happened today; I had the privilege of meeting one of my absolute favourite authors on this green earth, and we will get to that, but for now, the moon.
A friend (hi AZ BS) asked me this evening if I had any advice for the celestial event, what does it mean to work with the full moon? I said something like this:
A full moon invites us to live in the Re’s:
Re-lease
Re-evaluate
Re-direct
Re-new
I believe Jessica Lanyadoo first introduced me to that concept, and I find it so beautifully distilled from all of the astrological information now at our fingertips, dating back thousands and thousands of years.
Back to Midnight.
Depending on your sleep chronotype, nighttime might actually feel soothing and spacious. The world is quiet. One has space to think (and believe me, sometimes that is a problem, but sometimes it really is a gift). At night one has space to be still, to be free.
It is the opposite of the smell of coffee and bleary eyed morning rush hour.
It is calm, it is a blanket of darkness. A respite. An exhale.
Once in a Blue Moon at midnight, I write, but almost certainly around this time, I read.
When I am encouraging my brain to mirror the quiet of the house, I indulge in fiction. A treat for the mind at the end of another day of human-ing. It is just me, the words of the writer, and the world they built. A world found in pages reflects differently pending each individual reader, varying by our own imaginations, biases, projections, moods, and interpretations. We are all reading the same story through a different lens. Isn’t that the same with any moment in life?
Okay, back to my cool moment today (or yesterday by the time I press publish, being midnight and all).
I had the privilege of meeting one of my favourite authors, Matt Haig in celebration of his new book The Midnight Train. I attended a talk between Mr. Haig and the absolute legend, Alice Hoffman, author and creator of Practical Magic. He was so generous with his readers — jovially signing books and chatting. I get kind of weird in the presence of greatness and today was no exception, but I digress.
Mr. Haig, a #1 New York Times Best selling author, is extremely accomplished but comes across as humble and relatable thanks to his seemingly endless and courageous vulnerability. He appears to be the kind of person who says it like it is, take it or leave it, but packaged wonderfully in British politeness and humour.
Today he said, “I write what I myself need to hear. The question I need answering. It is not coming from a wise place.” (Your readers respectfully disagree, Mr. Haig. What may feel like mental wrestling to you lands as wisdom to us).
He went on to quote a famous Francois, “I have to write in order to think.” In attempt to properly credit the quote, my internet searches left me empty handed, but it did remind me of the Joan Didion quote from her 1976 essay Why I Write: “I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I am looking at, what I see, and what it means.” Joan Didion said she borrowed the title from George Orwell, and in the end, I think a lot of writers are pulling from the same thread: writing is messy, it is a compulsion. It is a teasing-out of sorts. An untangling. It is tapping into something larger than ourselves. Elizabeth Gilbert personifies creativity/inspiration/writing in her book Big Magic. Something to be obeyed when it is bestowed upon her before it floats off to burrow in the heart of another unsuspecting victim.
Mr. Haig went on to say, “It is like fishing my own imagination. Sometimes I write a novel and I don’t really know what I’m writing about.” (Trust me, it does not feel like that as the reader. Everything is beautifully arranged. I find myself highlighting passages upon passages, all under a deeply thoughtful overarching theme, not to mention genius plots and loveable characters). He described that he doesn't always write chronologically, and when Alice Hoffman joked that he must be good at puzzles, he shrugged and said, “I have editors who are good at puzzles.”
Later that evening he shared the sentiment in one of his signature social stories (the things, in my mind, that make his magic feel so authentic and accessible: he generously shares his human experience in real time).
“Non fiction is where you write what you KNOW you know. Fiction is where you write what you DON’T KNOW you know... Where you sit on the banks of your own mind and fish for what you can’t even see.”
— Matt Haig
Literally just in his instragam stories on May 31, 2026 like a prophet.
You might best know The Midnight Library, of which this new book, The Midnight Train, is not a sequel per se, but in the same universe.
Book Recommendation Moment: The Midnight Library was the first of his work to come across my proverbial desk, thanks to a friend who enthusiastically recommended it (thanks, SWS). After that, I was hooked. The Humans is probably my most treasured of his works, and the story behind it is remarkable. Essentially, the book is about aliens on earth and Matt subconsciously was writing from a POV not unlike his own. I only recently learned that some readers shared that it felt like an allegory of autism. They felt seen. They felt heard. They felt represented. Five years later, Mr. Haig was diagnosed with autism, which I can only imagine was quite illuminating in hindsight. He shares this, and many other beautiful stories on the American leg of his book tour and in podcast/radio/print interviews should you be so inclined. The Life Impossible was my top fiction read of 2024. How to Stop Time is simply stunning, The Radleys is completely original, Notes on a Nervous Planet a balm for the soul, and many more, including children’s books which I do sincerely look forward to reading one day.
So thank you, Mr. Haig for sharing your gifts. For writing for yourself. For answering your own questions. Because as I know you must know deep down underneath that wonderful British modesty, you are helping others answer theirs.
Pick up the very recently released 25th work of Matt Haig’s, The Midnight Train, and explore the concept of being nostalgic for the present. Meditate on making the most of the life you are living now through the story of a life flashing before the main character’s eyes in the form of stops on a train that embarks at, you guessed it, midnight.
In the name of liberally placed commas by moonlight,
ty
