Jaclyn Paul's Blog

School pickup street reading is back in season and I love it

I have mixed feelings about driving in the city in general, and driving my kid to school in particular. As a kid myself I scoffed at peers whose parents chauffeured them to and from school every day. It was uppity.

But we had yellow school buses. City kids don’t. While I would love for him to commute on public transit someday, I want to wait until my child is a little bigger — and hopefully more easily visible — before I ask him to cross a major road between school and the train station. I al...

Oasis Live ’25, Greek yogurt, and a return to work retreats by the sea

In keeping with past promises and current values, I’m collecting (usually) little life updates under the “journal” tag here. I’ve made a soft return to social media but never want to be the reason someone who steps away from those platforms misses out. As such, I’m going to do my best to replicate my Instagram feed in a format that hearkens back to my early-2000s LiveJournal days.

Anyway, the unofficial end of summer has been a whirlwind. Most notably, my childhood best friend and I attended ...

A brief update, plus two podcasts to share!

I’ve been quiet this first half of 2025.

That’s on purpose.

I’ve taken a step back from social media and focused more on “real world” conversations. My definition of “online” versus “real world” is a little squishy. You might get exactly what I’m talking about, or you might raise an eyebrow and disagree. It’s one of those distinctions I know when I see it.

For me, “real world” means direct communication. Actual conversation for its own sake, not optimized for likes and shares. I have a ...

A peek inside my Bullet Journal, summer 2024

When I posted a close-cropped photo of my notebook on social media a few weeks ago, someone asked for a look at the full spread. I share this curiosity about other people’s notebooks and other thought containers. However, it’s taken me a minute to gather some photos. I tend to fuss over choosing a representative sample. Then there’s the issue of privacy — both mine and others’.

In the spirit of keeping this blog casual, I’ve tossed out most of my perfectionism. If I’ve left a stone unturned, ...

Writer’s lunch (a.k.a. my hand-me-down granola recipe)

I posted a(nother) photo of my customary lunch granola yesterday and someone commented, “Care to share?”

Well, sure.

Jump to Recipe

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A post shared by Lena George / Jaclyn Paul (@lenageorgeauthor)

A while back I decided to toss out most of the modern hOw tO MaKE yOuR auThoR WebSiTe advice and return to my roots. My roots being print zines back in my punk youth days and LiveJournal during my angsty college days.

In other words, blog whate...

“Dear seeker…” AI magically rewrites my content. Hilarity ensues.

On my ADHD-focused Instagram account (@jaclynpaulwriter) I post a lot of text slides with observations or bits of wisdom. I try to stay quick and light with the writing. It’s easy to overthink these things and give them an inappropriate share of time.

Last week, while making a batch of ADHD Instagram posts, I noticed Canva had added a “Magic Write” AI feature. I could now right-click and tell the AI to make my prose more “fun” or “casual.” Cool. I could see that being useful. Naturally I bypa...

One platform lesson we can already learn from #swelce

In the Wild West of today’s internet, you kind of never know when something will blow up. Often it happens when we aren’t even trying, and with content we didn’t intend to prioritize.

They say any publicity is good publicity, but I’m not so sure. I prefer to build a well-targeted audience gradually. A viral moment would be nice, but only if it felt relevant. That is, only if it put my work in front of people who needed to see it.

As someone who thinks a lot about professional identity, and...

A week of author events and happy times

Last week was an absolute whirlwind. Lots of traveling, lots of smiles, lots of good book stuff. I’ll share some highlights and photos.

Side note: I started my first blog in 2003. Remember what blogs were then? They were all full of posts like this! I loved it. Honestly, I would scrap every piece of social media we have today to bring back personal blogs. But I digress.

I almost can’t believe last week was a short week. After a day off with family for Labor Day, I packed so much activity i...

Hometown show alert! Frenchtown Bookshop September 7 @ 6:30 p.m.

Starting this fall I want to focus on more in-person work and events. After ten years of focusing heavily on blogging and social media, I feel drawn to a more IRL existence.

More on that later (maybe). For now I want to talk about the kickoff to my real-world fall and winter.

It’s a hometown show!

I’ll be at the Frenchtown Bookshop on Thursday, September 7 at 6:30 for a reading, discussion, and signing.

I’m so excited to do this event. Frenchtown is right across the river from where ...

Book review: Nigeria Jones by Ibi Zoboi (YA)

Note: versions of this review also appear on Goodreads and Instagram.

How about an unintentional Fourth-of-July themed post? I forgot to post this on Friday, but the timing feels right with the Declaration of Independence theme and the Philadelphia setting.

Last week I read Ibi Zoboi’s new book NIGERIA JONES (affiliate link). I chose it for Philly-specific reasons, but I ended up loving it in general.

We meet sixteen-year-old Nigeria on the fourth of July. It’s also her baby brother Fre...