Irreverently Vulnerable With 'The Books That Made Us' and 'Cosmographia' Creator M.E. Rothwell
M.E. Rothwell on attempted murder in Kampala, shadowing Michelangelo, and the quiet moments at airports. Exploring the vulnerable and the weird.
A monthly interview series with creators who discuss their worst fears, their best joys, and what turns them on.
M.E., thank you. Now, let’s get weird.
This is Irreverently Vulnerable Volume Two with M.E. Rothwell.
What book or movie moment evokes an emotion in you that can only be described as “Nerd Glee?”
My immediate thought on this question was the charge of the Rohirrim in Return of the King, but this was your answer last month, so to avoid repetition I’m going to say the scene in Beauty and the Beast where they go into the library for the first time. My dream is to have a library/study so big you’d need a rolling ladder railing.
In your travels around the world and digging down into history, what’s the naughtiest historical piece of legendary gossip you ever came across, and how could you personally relate to it?
During the Joseon Dynasty of Korea, the royal house employed historians to meticulously record all the goings on at the King’s court in extensive annals. Such was the level of detail that one day, King Taejong fell from his horse and was so embarrassed he asked those around him not to tell the recorder. We know this because the recorder noted down the fall and the King’s request for secrecy. Despite showing strong leadership and excellent military strategy during his reign, he’s now best remembered for his shame at falling off a horse! Goes to show that the best way to deal with an embarrassing moment is to laugh it off yourself!
In those quiet moments when you sit in an airport lounge, exhausted and reflecting, what might be on your mind?
Airports are one of those places in modern life where one can see people of all types, races, and creeds gathered in one place. I remember once being in a queue for the loo in Dubai airport behind an Arab gentleman in a dishdasha (white robe), a giant Nigerian man in a brightly-coloured agbada, and an Asian businessman in a suit, and wondering if I was in the setup to a joke. With that in mind, I spend most of my time at airports people-watching and inventing little stories about strangers’ lives in my head. It passes the time.
You will write an entry in The Moleskin Notebooks today. Or maybe another project that you haven’t unveiled yet. What are the thing or things you do beforehand that need to be done before you can write a single word?
I need to have a hot drink ready-made — whether it’s coffee or tea depends on the time of day. I also need to have thrown my phone to the other side of the room or else I tend to reach for it every time I hit a slight speed bump in the flow.
You just wrote an entry that you love. Or a paragraph. Or you learned something that made you swoon. How do you reward yourself?
If I’ve just written something that I think is really good then normally I’m too excited to stop. I’ll just keep going while I’m on a roll. It’s actually when I hit a wall with it that I start looking for distraction or reward — either on my phone or in the fridge.
A cosmic wish-granter has offered you a +25 manna boost in talent and creative willpower, but in exchange, you must harvest the tears of ten orphans from the cobblestoned streets of 1907 London. What is your response?
I’m taking those tears. Perhaps I went back in time and made them laugh so much they cried!
How do you approach sharing your work? Do you sit on it for 17 months like a brooding seagull, or do you write a draft and release it straight to the ether?
Once I’ve finished a piece I have the urge to share it immediately. It actually takes quite a bit of willpower to not hit publish straight away! My lovely girlfriend and very patient Mum will often act as editors for me, so I run it by them first, and then wait impatiently until it’s release day on the newsletter.
Would you like to tell me about a project you’re currently working on, and why it gives you a little tsunami of excitement to think about it? (This is a non-lethal tsunami – no emotional beachgoers are drowned)
I’ve recently started on a new section for paying subscribers of my newsletter,
, called Atlas Cultura. These are super deep-dives on the great cities of the world and allow me to go full nerd on the art, history, and literature of these great places. I’m working on a post on the art of Venice at the moment and the tsunami is almost washing me away.What approach or tool have you found is most helpful in growing your community?
Substack Notes! Since it launched back in April I’ve gone from one newsletter with 400 subscribers to two newsletters with well over 3000 subscribers! I’m probably on there a bit too much but everytime you post, engage, and chat with the lovely folk on there, the more new readers seem to be drawn in. I’ve connected with so many readers and fellow writers through the platform. It’s really made it feel like we’re all in it together, supporting and cheering each other on. It’s a lovely vibe — something all too rare on the interwebs.
You’re given the opportunity to shadow one historic figure for a week. Like Trading Spouses – this is gonna air on Bravo. What creature do you embed yourself with and why?
This is an excellent question. It would have been pretty cool to spend a week with Michelangelo while he was painting the Sistine Chapel, or with Churchill in his war rooms, but I think I’m going to have to go with Ibn Battuta — the great 14th-century traveller. He travelled non-stop for thirty years, supposedly seeing North Africa, the Middle East, East Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, the Iberian Peninsula, and parts of West Africa — essentially the entirety of the Muslim world at the time, and then some. He must have mastered the art of travel and I’d love to pick his brain on all things he’s seen.
Describe a time when Life had you in a headlock giving you unstoppable noogies, and you threw it off and slapped it and told this Life bully fella to go eat poo.
The obvious occasion that comes to mind was when someone tried to kill me in Uganda. Blood was shed (mine), but in the end I came through the other side knowing more about myself and the human propensity for violence.
A giant flaming tater tot is hurtling toward Earth, and it’s too late to do anything else. What is the line you utter just before it strikes and what song do you play?
I think I’d put on Mozart’s Requiems, look up at that cosmic potato coming to kill me, and say “See you tater, universe.”
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at or join the community at .I’m so glad you came along for this conversation. If you’d like to support Stomp Roams, you can share the story or tap that little “subscribe” button. Learn more about the author at www.jonathandelp.com.
How deep into this world do you want to go? Read Volume 1 of Irreverently Vulnerable with Wilderness Anthology Writer Jonathan Delp (Yes, that is me - I needed to road-test the interview questions before I affronted creators with my belligerent awkwardness).
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What a character! Love seeing this insight into the mind of one of my favorite substackers
I love this!