Issue #137, Special Edition: Read Your Feelings
Good morning, shoppers!
You might be sitting here going, wait, it’s Tuesday! That isn’t when my very favorite (we’re your favorite, RIGHT?) shopping newsletter that really puts the idea that a free Substack account is cheaper than therapy to the test usually hits my inbox!
Well, today isn’t any ordinary Tuesday. Today is the day my first book, Bring It On: The Complete Story of the Cheerleading Movie That Changed, Like, Everything (No, Seriously) hits bookstores! Please forgive the self-promotion, but the journey to today has been almost as long as the book’s subtitle (i.e. VERY). The earliest reporting that I did on this project was in early 2015, and it wasn’t always a book, but now it is, and if you have the ability to achieve one of your lifelong dreams, well, I highly recommend it.
The first half of the book follows the making of the movie, a true underdog story (did you know that screenwriter Jessica Bendinger pitched her script 27 times before she got a greenlight? Lucky us for her persistence!) and an unlikely Cinderella tale at that. From barely getting made topping the box office and having an enduring legacy now, 22 (!!!) years later, what a ride. I spoke with the cast and crew of the movie—yes, Kirsten, Gabrielle, and Eliza are all there, plus some surprise names that you would never guess had anything to do with the movie, hello Jonathan Demme—and got the whole scoop on how this underrated masterpiece was made. In the second half, I speak with experts, fans, cheerleaders, academics, all of them, about why we still love the movie so much, and its eerie prescience. There are plenty of movies from 2000 that don’t hold up, but this one, this one absolutely does.
And then there are the pictures! I was so lucky that the incredibly patient team at Chicago Review Press ran with ~my vision~ and worked with me to make this book fun and gorgeous. When they agreed to publish, they probably didn’t think that they’d be fielding text messages from me that said “what if it was like the Vitruvian Man, but a cheerleader????” with no additional context, but they totally did—say a hearty hello to page 39. A gorgeous color photo insert is like nothing you’ve ever seen before, a scrapbook made by the coolest high schooler you know who also happens to be very into Bring It On and have access to behind-the-scenes photos and ephemera. That cool high schooler, by the way, is actually me, and a lot of the look and feel of the book was crafted (literally) in my basement with scissors and a gluestick I borrowed from my 4-year-old while I had COVID and couldn’t focus on words on a screen well enough to work on my manuscript, but COULD collage my feverish little heart out and email the results to my amazing editor and agent. That handwriting on the cover, by the way? That’s my chicken scratch. It’s personal, y’all.
I have so much more I’d love to share about this process and this book, but I reached “okay, Kase, that’s self-indulgent enough” a few paragraphs ago. If you pick it up, I’d be forever grateful. Please let me know what you think of it, and tag me in your socials! I’m @worstkase on Instagram and Twitter, and my publisher is @chireviewpress on both. You can rate and review the book on Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, anywhere stars are available. The link above goes to the SYF Bookshop page, but please purchase from wherever you want, including and especially your local bookstore! If you purchase through MY local, Words in Maplewood, you can leave a note at checkout and I will sign and personalize it for you, if you’d like!
As for events, there’s a sold-out (!) screening at the Alamo Drafthouse tonight to celebrate the launch, but I’ll be hanging out in the bar afterward signing, and there’s a rumor that there may even be themed cocktails, ooh la la. If you want to stop by and high five me, that will likely be around 9 p.m. onward (the screening is at 7) at the Lower Manhattan location. On Sunday, 12/11, I’ll be at the Montclair Book Center in New Jersey at 2 p.m. doing a reading and signing. If you’d like me to come do a signing or screening at your local, please tell them! Tell me! Tell everyone! I’m so proud of this book, and so appreciative of anyone who reads and helps spread the word. And I’d like to give a SPECIAL shoutout to Maggie, my newsletter partner in crime and possibly my separated-at-birth sister, who has not only listened to me and taken care of me through this whole process, but was also the first person (who wasn’t married to me or contractually obligated) to read the book all the way through, and one of the first people I even told when I got the deal to write it in the first place. Spot her cameo in the book, if you can. Maggie forever! I would say get you one, but sorry, it’s a limited edition of ONE.
Enough about me, more about ME. This wouldn’t be Shop Your Feelings without a few products after all. It will surprise no one to hear that I’ve been stress-shopping my way through this whole process. A few selections from the odyssey:
This subscription won’t make you a better, faster, or more productive writer, but dang is it cute. I have so many tiny notebooks stashed in every bag at all times – you never know when you’ll need to jot something down so you can look at it later and go “wow, what does that even SAY?” A great gift for the writer or list-maker in your life, too.
I didn’t know that earlobe dysmorphia was a thing, but I guess I have it now. Last week, I went to get some celebratory holes in my head with a stacked lobe placement I haven’t been able to stop thinking about, with a second hole vertically right above the standard lobe piercing. My earlobes, it turns out, are too small. It would look crowded and weird. I’m genetically destined to not have the cool-girl piercing I wanted. I settled for a replacement earring for one of my other earholes (I have five to choose from, but imagine if I had seven), this cute, sparkly number that really calls to me with its almost hand-drawn shape.
I’m hoping that there’s no such thing as having too many pink jumpsuits, because if loving this star-spangled number is wrong, I have zero interest in being right. To me, it is perfect, and makes me feel like Author Of Book.
I’ve long been living that weighted blanket life, but I felt incredibly (and a little sheepishly) Seen when I was gifted this anti-anxiety pillow, conveniently right before that basement COVID episode I talked about earlier. When I say I spooned this thing on the daily…It’s fuzzy and soft, but also has an insert that can mimic a heartbeat, and you can insert a heat pack too. It’s like cuddly a pet but it doesn’t smell weird (unless you do) and you don’t have to feed it.
This is an incredibly self-indulgent self-gift, but hey, you only publish your first book once, right? I’ve long been looking for an excuse to get one of these gorgeous sweaters, and here we are. Do you know the deep-cut Bring It On reference on mine? Get in there.
Overall, thank you all for reading, both this newsletter and the book. I would say I have no words, but clearly, I have MANY. Just…thank you.
Add to cart,
Kase