Surviving a Book Tour and Apartment Woes in Tulsa —Writer Diary
Tom Pyun is a novelist, creative nonfiction writer, and nonprofit consultant. He earned his MFA in fiction from Antioch University Los Angeles and has been awarded fellowships at Vermont Studio Center, VONA, and Tin House. His writing has appeared in The Rumpus and Joyland. SOMETHING CLOSE TO NOTHING is his debut novel that follows a gay couple’s messy surrogacy journey.
This diary represents a week in Tom’s life at the tail end of a book tour while living in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as part of Tulsa Remote, a subsidized remote work program.
Sunday, December 1
5:45 AM: My upstairs neighbor wakes me with heavy footsteps on a squeaky floor. I insert AirPods and play a meditation video until I fall back asleep.
9:00 AM: Wake up and make coffee.
10:00 AM: Meet my poet friend for more coffee. She is also part of the Tulsa Remote (TR) program, and we discuss our plans for when our years are up.
12:30 PM: After a shower and lunch, I furiously edit a manuscript excerpt due at midnight for Bookends, a novel writing incubator run out of SUNY Stony Brook Southampton.
3:30 PM: Take a break from editing to watch figure skating and astrology videos on YouTube.
5:15 PM: Drive to Sprouts, about 10 minutes from my apartment in Midtown, because they tend to have lactose-free dairy products in stock.
6:30 PM: Return to editing but losing steam. I regret leaving this for the last minute and struggle to concentrate.
9:00 PM: Brush my teeth and do a skin routine while listening to an online Zoom meeting for Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA).
11:00 PM: Submit my manuscript excerpt to the awesome admins of the Bookends Fellowship, knowing the last ten pages are probably filled with typos and unreadable sentences.
Monday, December 2
6:15 AM: Upstairs neighbor wakes me up again with her desk chair rolling back and forth above me. I pray she moves in with her boyfriend before wondering if I should break my lease.
8:30 AM: Drive to dermatology appointment in South Tulsa to remove a skin tag on my scalp.
9:30 AM: Leave doctor’s office after a painless, almost bloodless procedure. I hope I have enough hair to cover the scab and that audience members don’t notice it at my book talk tomorrow night.
10:15 AM: Catch up on client work emails. Much consulting work has piled up over the last two weeks while on my book tour. I have a mild panic attack. Swear off caffeine.
11:30 AM: Meal delivery program delivers food for the week. They look awfully small but edible. Sacrifices must be made since a recent pre-diabetic diagnosis.
12:30 PM: Upstairs neighbor stomps upstairs. I vow to break my lease. Then I look around my apartment, see all of the crap that I would need to pack, and decide I can stick it out until May.
3:00 PM: Lead a Zoom call with my favorite client. We’re on track to completing interviews for the report I’m writing for them, which is due in the spring of 2025.
4:00 PM: Interview a nonprofit leader for the report on Zoom.
5:00 PM: Start getting ready for the gym until I remember I’m not supposed to work out for 48 hours because of the derm procedure. YAY!
6:30 PM: Heat up and eat one of the pre-cooked meals delivered earlier—beef sirloin with gravy, potatoes, and string beans. It's alright, but I worry that all the meals will taste the same.
7:30 PM: Work until bed.
Tuesday, December 3
6:30 AM: Upstairs neighbor wakes me up with her stomping. At least I don’t need to set an alarm anymore. I take a deep breath. It’s not her fault, and I blame it on the building's engineering.
9:00 AM: Meet with a new friend, a former editor and Tulsa Artist Fellow, moderating my event. I buy him coffee and beg him to order breakfast, too, since I never got him and my other event moderator's thank-you gifts. We happily talk about everything but tonight’s book talk and plan to meet before the event to iron out details.
9:45 AM: Moderator friend gives me a private tour of his and his boyfriend’s Vintage Barbie Museum pop-up next door. I leave feeling inspired by Tulsa’s creative community.
10:30 AM: Answer work emails and correspond with my fabulous publicist. She confirms receipt of a listicle I wrote about queer books that inspired my debut novel.
2:00 PM: Landlord drops by, responding to my complaints about the stomping and squeaking of the floorboards upstairs. Of course, the upstairs neighbor tiptoes around like a mouse, making me look crazy. We discuss the terms of breaking the lease. They’re fair. I say I’ll think about it.
5:00 PM: Stress about what I will wear for tonight’s book talk. The black jumpsuit makes me look like I’m trying too hard, and I settle on black jeans, brown boots, and a white T-shirt under a gray cable-knit cardigan.
6:00 PM: Leave for Magic City Books, about five minutes from me. The staff there are super warm and welcoming.
6:30 PM: Moderator friend arrives, and we walk through the agenda for the event. He’s come up with good questions.
7:00 PM: Book talk starts. Twenty people are in the audience, mainly from Tulsa Remote (TR) and the coworking space. A friend brings me a gigantic flower bouquet.
8:00 PM: I sign books and hug friends. People ask me to read what I scribed to them. Why do I have such poor handwriting?
9:00 PM: I thank Magic City’s staff for their hospitality and head to a wine bar a few blocks away to celebrate with a few TR friends. I order a non-alcoholic Negroni.
11:00 PM: Put the beautiful flowers in water and fall into bed exhausted.
Wednesday, December 4
5:45 AM: Upstairs neighbor wakes me. I immediately re-insert my heavy-duty earplugs that fell out during the night and fall back asleep.
8:00 AM: Wake up exhausted but happy from last night’s book event. I am relieved the tour is done. Tulsa was my final stop.
10:30 AM: Having had enough of upstairs’ squeaky-stomping, I drive to the downtown coworking space, provided free as part of TR.
12:00 PM: Zoom call with a super dynamic career coach with whom I’ve just started sessions.
5:30 PM: Head to a functional fitness class. The instructor makes us run laps around the block in the rain between weightlifting sets.
6:30 PM: Shower and eat one of the prepared meals, “gochujang shrimp.” Tastes eerily like the beef sirloin with gravy from Monday night. I cancel my subscription online.
8:30 PM: Crash early. Exhausted from book tour travel and last night’s event.
Thursday, December 5
6:00 AM: Wake up naturally before my neighbor. Hurray!
10:00 AM: Zoom call with an old college friend writing an academic book on Latin American migration and US immigration raids. I answer his questions about book publicity.
11:15 AM: Drive to coworking space for free holiday lunch. I wolf down a heaping plate of popcorn chicken, chap chae, and too many cookies.
1:30 PM: Drive home to take calls because all of the phone booths and conference rooms at the coworking space are occupied.
2:00 PM: Zoom chat with a more established writer who generously provided me a blurb. He served so much Hollywood tea, and I laughed hard. Makes me miss LA.
4:00 PM: Catch up on client emails and deliverables.
7:00 PM: Zoom meeting with a Korean-American discussion group focused on spirituality and alternative healing. We urge the facilitator to plan an in-person retreat in 2025.
9:30 PM: Watch YouTube videos before falling asleep.
Friday, December 6
5:30 AM: Neighbor stomps around. I grab a broom and stab it into the ceiling before returning to bed.
9:30 AM: Journal and drink coffee.
11:00 AM: Zoom call with a friend who is a Korean-American shaman. She says she had a dream about me living in Portland, Oregon. Hmmmm…
12:00 PM: Catch up on work emails, start outlining the report, and edit a Request For Proposals due for another client.
2:00 PM: Impromptu phone call with an old friend from the VONA writing conference now living in Alaska. We talk about my book launch and their memoir on being a queer nurse forthcoming in spring 2026.
7:00 PM: Meet a group from TR for game night. Turns out the board game cafe is closed for a private event. We head to a bar instead, and I order a non-alcoholic beer.
9:00 PM: Get ready for bed while attending an ACA meeting on Zoom.
11:00 PM: Fall asleep.
Saturday, December 7
6:45 AM: Neighbor wakes me up. I insert earplugs, turn on a new noise machine, and return to bed, angrier than ever.
9:00 AM: Wake up and get ready to meet friends for the last farmers market of the year.
10:00 AM: Drink lattes with my poet friend and another TR person. We order arepas from a food truck and share.
11:30 AM: My poet friend and I hike a trail on Turkey Mountain, about 15 minutes from home. After a scorching hot summer and autumn, walking in the cold doesn’t seem that bad.
3:30 PM: Shower and nap on the couch since the neighbor is gone and the apartment is quiet for once.
5:00 PM: Do laundry (yay, in-unit washer and dryer!) and scrub the bathroom and kitchen.
6:30 PM: Catch-up calls with LA and San Francisco friends. I miss them and California.
7:30 PM: Dinner with a former LA colleague in TR at a surprisingly tasty and authentic Thai restaurant in East Tulsa. Afterward, she shows me around her gigantic F150 pickup truck in the parking lot. We joke she’s gone from New England-raised Trinidadian to “full-on” Oklahoman.
10:00 PM: Chew a licorice tablet because the spicy food isn’t sitting well before crashing.
11:30 PM: Fall asleep.
