Molly Fitzpatrick will be reading at Difficult to Name on Saturday, August 12
You've written for an incredible number of different publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Ringer and Bon Appétit. What's it like to work with different editors at so many places?
It's good! I wish this were a more exciting answer, but I've been lucky enough to work with a lot of great editors, many of whom put as much thought and care into my stories as I do. I don't really have a single beat (although a lot of it does fall under the broad umbrellas of "television" and "person who watched Addams Family Values too much as a child"), so the wider the variety of places I write for, the more of my interests I get to explore.
You're a big Vanderpump Rules fan. Is there a particular episode/clip that would be a good initiation for the, uh, uninitiated?
I only started watching Vanderpump Rules during that Nor'easter this past March (thanks to some perfectly timed service journalism from Samantha Rollins), but I absolutely inhaled it. Personally, I believe in starting reality shows from episode one, because I am insane and don't have much going on in my life, but also because that really lays the head-scratching groundwork for the improbable hookups, beefs, heel turns, and drunken sunglasses heists that will come about in later seasons. You get out what you put in! That said, if beginning at the beginning is too big an ask, try any episode centering around one of Stassi's birthday parties.
What can people expect from your reading?
A little Halloween in August—but nothing actually scary, unless you find, like, Tumblr posts about the Skeleton War scary.