Nobody Asked, but I'm Starting a Substack

hello, hello. welcome. pardon me. just squeezing by.

I recently switched from AirPods back to my old wired earbuds. They’re tangled, twisted, often caught in my necklaces. But they are never lost, never low on battery, and (so far) never eaten by my dog. I love them for their utility and their tangle, so lacking in pretentiousness and polish and clean progression. The right choice for me in this particular time and place. (Reasonable people may disagree. My husband is an avid AirPod user and immanently reasonable).

That’s a long way to say, I’m starting this substack newsletter for the simple reason that I want to. Yes, there will be tangles. No, it won’t be polished. But it may sometimes get eaten by the dog. (Writing tip #1: Most metaphors fall apart if you think about them too long)

I primarily write fiction, often wrestling identity, place, and transformations. But this newsletter is not that. It could be anything or everything that goes along behind that. Everything making that fiction possible.

By way of background, I come from years of technology consulting. That high-pressure corporate life taught me a lot about focus, deadlines, and tenacity (especially tenacity). These are the type of skills I now hold like cards in a shuffled deck, and I’m hoping to play a good hand or two while I navigate the writing process.

This newsletter is a place to share what I’m learning about storytelling, craft, and my writing… but all while in flux. I have forever been a little unmoored, both physically and digitally. The physical path I’ve cleared behind me (so far) is a dance of wins and setbacks, slick moves and slipped missteps. The choreography unplanned but never dull. And my digital path is littered with blogs and websites and fan pages and zines. Like many in today’s terrifying internet hellscapelandscape, I miss the earlier days of forums, blogospheres, and tumblr sh*t-posting.

I hope this newsletter will feel like a natural progression of that earlier internet ethos as I trace my writing life here in the present. A space to catalog successes, frustrations, and who-knows-what along the way.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I hope these honest reflections might resonate with you, whether you’re a writer, a reader, or just here with popcorn to watch.

Craft. Creativity. Career. I’ll be wrangling my thoughts. And reading yours, too, I hope.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you’re here.

See you out there.