hello, 2023

Around this time last year I noticed that two of the newsletters I was subscribed to were on Substack. I investigated and decided to give it a rip. I started setting it up and shared the news with Blake.

“You have a Substack?” he said.

“I’m gonna change platforms. People can buy subscriptions if they want to support my writing.”

“Yeah. I know what it is.” he said. Then added, “That’s what all the cool people are doing”.

I’m fairly sure that my husband thinks the coolest thing about me is how I rarely know anything about what’s happening online. I don’t understand meme culture or Reddit. He’s explained NFTs to me more times than I can count and I just had to Google to double check whether that was the right acronym to use. I hope that he also thinks I’m cool because I can define 99% of the words he asks about, so long as they aren’t related to anything I’ve mentioned above.

Last year I began saying things like, “What did you read on Internet today?” I was specifically leaving out the definite article for a self-aging effect. I know I achieved the desired result because Blake ended the Substack conversation by saying,

“But how did you find out about it?”

Since 2015 I’ve endeavored to send out a monthly newsletter. Despite my best intentions, in seven years I’ve sent out a grand total of 16.

This year I published 33 times on Substack. I’m proud of that. Sometimes I talked about upcoming concerts or my work writing, but mostly I just shared with you and I was grateful for that. It got me feeling connected again without the distraction of social media and its perplexing algorithms.

So I’m gonna continue for another year.

I’m recommitting to my initial model of giving paid subscribers content every eight days. Free subscribers will continue to get a monthly message. This year I plan to record myself reading all of the posts so you can listen like a podcast, if that’s your thing.

I’m not going to claim I have BIG THINGS COMING IN 2023. I just know I’m once again happy to work at what I love. It took a lot of self reflection to get here.

If I were to ask anything of you this year, it’s to tell one person about my newsletter. There’s over 1000 of you reading and I know it will make a difference.

Be well, be healthy and be kind. Hope you see you soon, friends.

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buh-bye, 2022.