But lover, give me one more day/ to keep our future at bay

The infinite possibilities of the shelved project

I found out this afternoon that Winnie Holzman, the writer known to me as the creator of the TV show My So-Called Life, is known to my oldest son as the writer of the musical Wicked. It is astounding to me that both of these things are true and that I had no idea.

My So-Called Life, for the uninitiated, is a spectacularly well-done and absolutely depressing teen drama, which aired for one season in the mid-nineties before being quickly cancelled. Though I read about the show’s premiere in an issue of Sassy, I didn’t actually watch it right away because it aired when I was in my early years of university and had no television. At the this particular time in ancient history there were no streaming services or DVD collections. So I watched re-runs when I was home at my parents’ house over holidays and summer break. My mom liked it too.

But my mom and I, unfortunately, are not network TV executives. A show about the bleak lives of middle-class teenagers was unlikely to survive in an era dominated by ten seasons of Beverly Hills 90210. It seems like the network may have never been 100% behind the show, given that the first episodes didn’t air until a year and a half after the pilot was made. Holzman was upset, obviously, when the show was cancelled and I can only imagine what it would be like to have gotten close to having your work in a solid place in the public eye (as solid as any creative industry can ever be, I guess) and then feeling like you have to start all over again.

And then she wrote Wicked.

Is Wicked the most popular (heh) musical of all time? I don’t know, but it sure feels like it in my house a lot of the time. Hooray for Winnie Holzman.

I was already thinking about the strange and unpredictable trajectories of people’s artistic careers because I’ve been fixated on the movie The Ballad of Wallis Island, since my friend Martha and I went to see it last month at the Bytowne Cinema here in Ottawa. The movie by itself is fantastic enough, but I was also blown away by the soundtrack, which features an album’s worth of songs written by lead actor Tom Basden attributed to the fake band that he and Carey Mulligan are in in the movie.

The movie was actually co-written by Tom Basden and comedian (and Taskmaster series one cast member and current “task assistant”) Tim Key. In fact they’d previously made the same movie as a short film. In 2006. Almost two decades before it became a full-length movie. As soon as I found this out I went back to watch the short film, which clocks in at about 30 minutes. The core story is there but, as is often the case (Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, Paw Patrol) the earlier version had a lack of female characters, and suffers for it. But what really struck me was that several of the songs that appear on Basden’s soundtrack for the full-length movie are also in that short film. That means that Tom Basden sat on those songs for twenty years. He doesn’t appear to have released them anywhere in the interim. He just made some art, put it in a short film with limited reach, and then… nothing. Until so many years later.

I admire Tim Key and Tom Basden for taking their original idea and having another go at it. Just like I admire Winnie Holzman for leaving My So-Called Life in the past and trying something (really) different.

As I finish work on a re-write of a novel that won’t be coming out until 2027, I have been thinking a lot about what to write next. I have a novel that I shelved after it failed to get any interest from publishers and there are still things I like about it. But then also there are new ideas (Murder mystery? Time travel romance? Christmas romcom?) And book writing is hard. An old idea might give me a head start but a new idea might boost me up with its excitement. I don’t know what’s next. But neither did Winnie Holzman or Tom Basden or Tim Key or anyone else who tries to work in a creative field. Life is short, go make art.

June 2025 - Songs

The first scene of the first episode of My So-Called Life features Claire Danes dancing in her bedroom to the Violent Femmes’ ‘Blister in the Sun’. This was such a relatable scene for me (in high school my best friend Adrianne and I would drive up and down Yonge Street screaming Violent Femmes lyrics out the windows of her dad’s sedan) it really locked me into the show right away.

It’s hard to say what is my son’s favourite song from Wicked (all of them?) but the one that gets most often stuck in my head is “What Is This Feeling” which I will admit has a very compelling scene in the movie (Bowen Yang!)

All the songs on the Ballad of Wallis Island soundtrack are great, and I know I already recommended a few last month, but I especially love “Raspberry Fair” lately. It’s used so well in the narrative of the film.

(Reminder: every single song that I have ever recommended in this newsletter appears on this whopper of a playlist.)

June 2025 - Feelings

Teri Vlassopoulos and Lindsay Zier-Vogel released their books at the same time and are doing a bunch of fun events together to celebrate them, which is very cool. Go see them if they come through your town!

Living Expenses is a beautifully written chronicle of main character Laura ’s struggle with adulthood, identity, and infertility. Her world, once tightly knit, is expanding as her sister moves to California and her mother starts dating again. Laura struggles with her marriage and her repeated tries to get pregnant and has to learn to navigate situations that are beyond her control. The writing here feels effortless, which means that it took SO MUCH effort. I found the characters in the book so complex and well-drawn, not just the main characters but all the side characters as well. No one was perfect but I was rooting for them all, just because I felt like I knew them. This is a good one.

I was lucky enough to read The Fun Times Brigade before it was released because Lindsay asked me to provide a blurb if I liked it. Holy, did I ever like it. Easiest blurb ever. The titular Fun Times Brigade is a children’s musical act (think modern day Sharon, Lois & Bram) that features our main character Amy along with an older couple, Fran and Jim who are well-known folk-musicians. After having her first child and taking time off from the Brigade, Amy finds herself adrift. She joins a popular Toronto indie band and revels in the freedom it brings her, even though that comes with some level of disconnection and chaos. This is a real page-turner and an emotional, compelling read.

June 2025 - How to Help

I know it’s hard to focus on one terrible situation at a time these days, but if you want to give some money directly to some people affected by the shameful immigration crackdowns in the USA, here is a link tree of options. Even $5 makes a difference.

Thanks for reading! See you next month.

J.W.

Instagram : @JenniferWhitefordWrites

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