We're so back?

Holy moly has it really been a year?

Has it been… a year?

Oh goodness. I think it’s been a year. Close enough, anyway.

When I went and checked how long it had been since my last missive, I knew it had been a while. But January 18? A genuine shock. Appalling. A failure of consistency and, dare I say it (and I do), morals. May the newsletter gods have mercy upon me.

I have posted exactly once since July of 2023. Here are some things that have happened since then:

In the world:

—

— …

— You know what on second thought let’s not get into it

In my life:

— In August 2023 I was hired to write newsletters (not this one) for a salary. What a concept!

— In October of this year I was laid off by said company because the [I signed a non-disparagement clause] who run it are a bunch of [I signed a non-disparagement clause].

— I have been freelancing unemployed self-employed ever since and it’s going pretty well, actually.

Self-employment has its perks, one of them being that, when your only job is to write (and you don’t have a boss to steer you otherwise), you can write about pretty much whatever you want. My days are mine to schedule, and I’ve decided to build this back into the schedule.

One of the reasons I didn’t realize it had been a year since posting is that I have several drafts, in various stages of completion, lying around my Substack dashboard. One called “Avast and Oy Vey” is about how I read Moby-Dick at the beach and it actually drove me a little bit insane (just a little). There are others, too, which I will keep to myself because I might actually finish and potentially even publish them soon.

I don’t know how often I’ll be posting on here, but I’m hoping to find a rhythm. I’m committing myself to at least once a week. It’ll be fun, I swear. A lot of books, some music, maybe some curveballs, too.

But that’s all for now. More soon, to that I promise. In the meantime, here is a picture of me and my cat:

Hopefully that’ll tide you over.