Morning Brew - 🇩🇴 Not from here nor there

Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

Baby’s first steps, your bucket list trip, a new favorite taco spot: Document life’s milestones with Letterfolk’s collection of over 40 life passports. Each journal contains prompts and lists for getting it all down in style.

BeReal is having a moment, but Minutiae is the original anti-social media app. Users get a short window of time to take a picture each day, and after uploading an image, they can either browse their own photo history or see pictures from a random stranger for 60 seconds.

If you’re having trouble getting motivated at work, try Fast Company’s tips for reframing a tough task or an impossible project so you can push through and get results you can love.

“To Dominicans born and raised in the Dominican Republic, I’m American. But to Americans, I’m not. I’m something else. Other. And being in that in-between space is tiring. It’s this constant state of feeling like I don’t fit in anywhere.”

Yaffa S. Santos is a Dominican American author, who was born and raised in New Jersey. She’s a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, a mom of two, and the author of A Taste of Sage (2020). Her new book, A Touch of Moonlight, tells the story of Larimar Cintrón, a young woman trying to live a normal life while hiding the fact that at every full moon, she turns into a ciguapa— a Dominican mythological figure with long, straight hair and backward-facing feet.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Kickoff: “My writing happens from 5 to 7am. If I leave it for the rest of the day, it’s not the same. Either it doesn’t get done, or it gets done in between other things because I have two kids and I’m also a grad student studying to be a therapist. I’m doing an internship in a clinic working with clients. So in the morning, [after I write] I bring my kids to school, then I go to work, then I go home and cook. I like to cook, and I like to write about cooking.”

Cooking influences in her books: “I wrote [A Touch of Moonlight] in 2020. I was home [in the Dominican Republic] with my kids when the pandemic first started, and we entertained ourselves by baking every day. And I personally love adding alcohol to baked goods, like rum or whiskey. So that’s where the idea for Borrachitos came from—which, in the book, is Ray’s bakery that specializes in liquor-infused cupcakes.”

Inspiration for A Touch of Moonlight: “When I was living in the DR during the pandemic, I would ask my grandparents and great aunts and uncles if they had ever seen a ciguapa. Most [said] they had, and it made me curious. The stories they told me made me think about intersectionality, and what it’s like to have an identity [with which] you’re moving through different spheres: You feel accepted in some, but you know that if people knew more about you, you wouldn’t be [accepted]. That feeling, to me, was reflected in the form of Larimar, who in the book turns into a ciguapa and is expected to go back and forth, running into town then back into the forest. It’s somebody who’s on the fringe.”

“The inspiration for that comes from my own intersectionality. To Dominicans born and raised in the Dominican Republic, I’m American. But to Americans, I’m not. I’m something else. Other. And being in that in-between space is tiring. It’s this constant state of feeling like I don’t fit in anywhere.”

On writer’s block: “I had times when I felt stuck [while writing]. What helped me was just putting the manuscript away for a few weeks. Because the more I struggle, the more it feels like I’m spinning my wheels. By the time I go back to it, I see things differently.”

What’s next: “I’m not sure I’m going to go through with this, but I’m thinking about doing a book that has a focus on mental health, specifically on eating disorders in the Dominican and Latinx community. It’s not talked about as much as it should be, and there’s a lot of guilt and shame.”—SS

Your punch list for when you punch out.

Read: On the Rooftop, a novel by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton, follows a mother and her daughters as they achieve musical fame in 1950s San Francisco. A powerful drama about ambition and family during a pivotal moment in history, this is a compelling story about dreams realized and lost.

Listen: Channel main character energy, nostalgia, and fall vibes all at once with this perfectly titled ’90s rom-com inspired playlist. It’s what Nora Ephron would want you to do.

Drink: What’s our drink of choice? A Negroni…sbagliato…with prosecco in it.

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Burning questions of our time.

We thought the rule of thumb was clear: Send a thank-you email immediately after a job interview, and a thank-you card after receiving a gift. But as neckties give way to neck tattoos and emails become DMs, it’s come to our attention that thank-you notes are being sent via text message, and job applicants are *gasp* opting to skip the thank-you step completely.

As each new generation enters adulthood, the accepted etiquette of generations past—such as formal business dress codes, communicating through long email chains, and hand-addressing thank-you cards—gets tossed aside for new rituals.

So, how do you approach the thank-you note dilemma in your professional and personal life? Are they still necessary? And if so, how do you send them (snail mail, text message, singing telegram)? Share your thoughts by hitting Reply to this email! No faxes, please.—MW

And now, your thoughts on worker-friendly offices:

“I’m a director. I have team members scattered around the US and India. The nearest person to me is a three-and-a-half-hour drive away. The corporate office is a three-hour flight away. The office is meaningless to me and has been for a while. It’s all about improving phone and remote meeting skills, and dealing with the unusual bits and pieces of remote working.”—Bob

“Maintaining the office space can [dampen] morale, be cost inefficient, and reduce working time due to transit. Companies will need to offset employee needs by providing childcare and reimbursement or plans for transit. Why would I want to sit in traffic for an hour and pay to park just so I can do a job that I’ve been doing from home?”—Anthony