🏖️The Formation of an Unlikely Hilderbabe, Part One
“Regulars at book events know how rare it is for writers to receive a hero’s welcome; more often than not, they’re greeted by rows of empty chairs. The fact that [Elin] Hilderbrand’s fans traveled to an island 30 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, during the coldest month of the year, to see the places she writes about is remarkable unto itself.
Factor in repeat participants, a 300-person waiting list for each of the last two Bucket List Weekends and the expense and you have to wonder: What is Hilderbrand’s special sauce? And what does a Hilderbabe, as fans are known, get out of her time on Nantucket?”
—Elisabeth Egan, The New York Times: “Where It’s Always Summer, Even in January”
When I read this article at the start of last year, I scratched my head in anthropological confusion. Who are these mostly middle-aged women flocking to this island in pilgrimage to their favorite author? Where is Nantucket, again? Isn’t that one of those spots that fancy East Coast people “summer” in as a verb? Who is this bronzed, blonde bestselling author, the “Queen of the Beach Read,” that, for some reason, I’ve never heard of?
For one thing, beaches aren’t my thing.
I love the ocean, but I prefer to watch waves roil at sunrise or sunset, ideally wrapped in a puffy coat. Forget the swimsuit, sand in every crevice, sticky sunscreen, and the relentless midday sun bearing down. I left laying out after my college days in L.A.
For another, beach reads. Correction were.
For the better part of the last twenty years, I only allowed myself to read non-fiction: books that directly seemed to improve my health, finances, relationships, spiritual life, or business (fiction lovers: I know, I know—what a dumb-dumb, full permission to roll your eyes!).
And then last summer, when my business and I really started Rolling in Doh, I just couldn’t stand to look at non-fiction books any longer. What good were the business books doing, anyway? I was so sick of trying all their strategies and falling short.
So I picked up one of the first beach reads I’ve ever read, yes, for a beach vacation with my family, and indulged myself in the guilty pleasure of Book Lovers by publishing sensation Emily Henry. Anything with 87,128 ratings must be worth checking out.1
Thankfully, this one Emily Henry book opened the fiction-reading floodgates for me. In addition to books on writing craft, the last year has been filled with everything from Pulitzer-prize winners to pulpy paperbacks to new releases by the culturati’s literary darlings.
And so it is, now, one year later, that I recently found myself peering closer and closer into the edges of Elin Hilderbrand’s rabbit hole—a Nantucket inch wide and a mile deep, as the saying goes. There have been so many interesting tidbits along the way.
She was recently interviewed on NYT’s The Book Review podcast about Swan Song, her final Nantucket beach read. She didn’t have any juice left to craft “the same story told a different way” that her ardent fan base wanted from her. She was ready to move on to new and different things, new and different settings and storylines.
This led me to her popular podcast, Books, Beach, & Beyond, where she and a co-host interview fellow luminaries about their writing process and how they feel about whatever levels of success they’ve achieved (and how they got there). Something about insiders talking shop with insiders appeals to me.2
The next step in my immersion was watching her first-ever book-to-movie come to fruition after twenty-four years, Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple,” starring Nicole Kidman and Liev Schreiber. On advice from a mentor and how long it took for her to make it to Hollywood, she told Kit Hoover of The Coop podcast:
“I think he meant if you can be fulfilled personally, any other way than by writing, do it. Because writing is so hard, and so many people fail, and even published writers fail. And even writers who are super successful and get to number one, it took me 24 years to get to Hollywood. I mean, I could not get it. I could not get anything made.”
Twenty-four years! How has she had such career longevity and success?
It turns out one major contributor is that she works out for three hours every day before starting work.
When I heard her describe her typical day one night as I listened to her on an Eat the Damn Cake episode to fall asleep (I especially writing-related podcasts before bed), I rewound three times so I could re-listen to every single word. Was I hearing correctly? And lock this in, I emphasized to my mind. I was completely transfixed by her routine:
She wakes up at 5 a.m.
She takes a 45-minute Peloton cycling class,3 followed by
An hour-long “yog,” a slow run-jog along the water, ending up at
An hour-long barre class in town.
Then, and only then, is she ready to write for the rest of the day.
Who has the time to work out three hours a day, you ask? Elin Hilderbrand, who is also incredibly prolific. Her routine gives her time: for the last 29 years, she has produced at least one beach read every summer, and for seven years, it was two books per year when she delivered at the holidays.
When I heard her workout schedule, a new permission slip clicked into place in my mind. For the last three months, ever since the ER visit, I have worked out at the spaffice for at least two hours every day. Once you throw in sauna and shower, followed by an email and/or writing sprint, I’m often there for four or five hours each day. But I return home a new person.
Lately, as the leaves turn and everyone gets back into full-sprint Fall before the holidays, I have been feeling a little guilty about this.
As incredible as I feel physically, spiritually, and emotionally—light years better than the Bell’s Palsy days—I am secretly dreading the day the “adult” voice in the boardroom of my brain (and business) telling me I need to get my act together already, stop playing hooky, and get back to work. That no one gets to work out this much, there is such a thing as too much self-care. This is self-indulgence, it’s irresponsible, it’s reckless. It’s ridiculous.
But.
But Elin Hilderbrand!
And it’s not just how productive she is, even with the first three hours a day dedicated to her health and fitness. There is something else about her career that, upon hearing it, solidified my unlikely Hilderbabe status despite not having read a single one of her books (yet). Let’s just say I’m a convert, and I look forward to diving in.4
Continue reading part two to find out what that is . . .
❤️
Emily Henry’s speedy ascent has been truly mind-boggling—five consecutive NYT #1 best-sellers in five years—and she’s never done so much as a single book tour or in-person signing 🤯 Here’s Emily on Elin’s podcast:
I chuckled at the way she and Ann Patchett dissed the Iowa Writer’s Program they both attended—the most prestigious MFA in the country for writers—that Elin was most miserable attending.
🚴♀️ Peloton members: you can even follow her at ElinWriterBrand :) Want to be workout buddies? Add me @jennyblake.
If you enjoyed this post, you might also appreciate:
Getaway Car 🚘
“I had been unwaveringly loyal to my talent, and now that the chips were down I expected it to be loyal to me. With so much time for thinking and so little time for writing, I learned how to work in my head. Between pilfering croutons off salad plates and microwaving fudge sauce for the sundaes, I decided I was going to make up a novel, and that the novel was going to get me out of the restaurant. The novel was going to be my getaway car.”
I have been resisting this because I was "too busy and needed to get to the chair ASAP." Using this as permission too. I also LOVED Book Lovers.
I love this so much, Jenny! I've found that I need to get at least ~2 hours of physical activity in per day or my energy starts to wane. So I'm using this permission slip too. It's not self-indulgent if it lets us get the job(s) done. There's only so much our brains can do if we don't tend to our bodies well, right?
I love reading fiction. It's my favorite activity before bed, and it helps me extend my imagination to not just what's true, but also what's possible. Thanks for the reference to Books, Beach, & Beyond. Looks like good "food" for my morning walks.❣️