Mental Health in Communal Living: How Writing Helped Me Cope
Are you someone who finds solace and strength in your connections with others?
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Bailey Merlin
Bailey Merlin
- May 25
- 4 min
5 Lessons Learned from My First Year as a Debut Novelist
A Lot of People Live in This House is celebrating its first birthday! Now that I’m an expert (ha), here are 5 things I’d do differently.
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Bailey Merlin
- Aug 12, 2023
- 7 min
5 Misconceptions About Communal Living
These 5 misconceptions will change your mind about communal living.
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Bailey Merlin
- Apr 5, 2023
- 3 min
Writing About Your Friends
It’s wild to me that my novel, A Lot of People Live in This House, will be in the world soon and that people will read it. A scarier part...
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Bailey Merlin
- Mar 17, 2022
- 4 min
The Bond House: Seeds for the Summer
Fish cakes, I think. I don’t write much about my home situation anymore, but it’s not because I’m not happy. Quite the opposite. It just...
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Bailey Merlin
- Apr 2, 2021
- 5 min
The Bond House: Moving In and Moving On
Something awful happened in March. Brennan and Lark—longtime housemates and very good friends—moved out of the House. This is awful for...
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Bailey Merlin
- Mar 29, 2020
- 7 min
The Bond House: Little Love in the Time of COVID-19
The Bond House had a baby. Well, Michael and Claudia had a baby, and the rest of us are proud aunts and uncles. Mara was born into a...
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Bailey Merlin
- Feb 4, 2020
- 3 min
The Bond House: Eat Your Feelings
The dinner table awaits. Despite having had the benefit of human history to develop language, we are shockingly bad at descriptions. As...
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Bailey Merlin
- Sep 30, 2019
- 7 min
The Bond House: Degrees of Separation
Mucha will remain vigilant, waiting for his lady love. It’s funny how quickly we bond, to the point that we get so used to life together...
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Bailey Merlin
- Apr 5, 2019
- 5 min
The Bond House: Romance Novels Are Killing Me
Stuck inside. All I can do is read shitty romance novels. Why does this feel like a hostage situation? Since the rousing success of...
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Bailey Merlin
- Mar 24, 2019
- 4 min
The Bond House: Abuelita
Claudia, Josefina & Sweet Baby Pineapple It is a well-established fact that the House is unusual. Let’s not talk about the revolving door...
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Bailey Merlin
- Dec 30, 2018
- 4 min
The Bond House: A Year in Review
I’m really growing into this host position. Please, come to our house so I can feed you. After ten minutes out in the fresh air this...
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Bailey Merlin
- Nov 20, 2018
- 5 min
The Bond House: When Friends Become Family
It’s only an adventure if I have to get on a bus. It’s been a while. Life has this strange habit of going fast and slow all at once, a...
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Bailey Merlin
- Sep 10, 2018
- 2 min
The Bond House: August? We Don’t Talk About August
When I was growing up, I had no idea that people traveled in August. Where I’m from, vacations happen in June and people spend their time...
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Bailey Merlin
- Aug 18, 2018
- 5 min
The Bond House: Chopped Edition
Preview: Our Chaos With summer winding down to a close, it’s easy to get behind on important things: chores, paperwork, meeting up with...
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Bailey Merlin
- Jul 5, 2018
- 7 min
The Bond House: Those Summertime Feelings
Summer hitting us hard, at last January lingered on for about six months. Now, all of a sudden, we’re over halfway through the year. The...
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Bailey Merlin
- Jun 7, 2018
- 4 min
The Bond House: We Go Full-Gatsby
Precious. In the bleak midwinter, we sat around the kitchen table and talked about Claudia’s upcoming birthday. Michael and I strove to...
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Bailey Merlin
- Apr 30, 2018
- 5 min
The Bond House: Biscotti in the Car
Blurry and, yet, we look great Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it was only four months ago that I moved into a house with Craigslist...
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Bailey Merlin
- Mar 30, 2018
- 4 min
The Bond House: March Madness
Gideon, lost in snow As a poor, naive Southerner, I thought that we might see spring and put away our snow boots by the end of February....
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Bailey Merlin
- Feb 26, 2018
- 4 min
The Bond House: Breaking Bread
Celebrating “New Bonds” One of life’s great pleasures is sharing a meal with friends. There’s something to be said about a bowl of salad...
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