With change and gratitude

Dear reader,

For the past 273 days—39 weeks—I’ve been engaged in writing this newsletter to you. To be honest, when I started out I wasn’t sure I’d get this far! There’s been something beautiful about writing a weekly missive. It requires daily practice and focus to keep on keeping on, with all of life’s other interruptions. I’ve been able to share a bunch of fiction and non-fiction writing with you. (There’s about two hundred of you by the way—hello!)

When I started this, I had something to prove to myself. I wanted to feel like a fiction writer again after years going by of writing fiction in the dark, by myself, sharing it with no one (or maybe just one or two people). And I wanted to bring that work into the light. Thank you for being the light.

Since I started this, I’ve had the opportunity to hear from so many of you (whether in comments or email replies) on topics that mutually mean a lot to us, to bring on an editor (hello, Molly!), and to make connections with new writing mentors and have conversations about my goals and work.

After some reflection, soul-searching, conversations with smart people, and many cups of tea, I’ve decided to circle my efforts around my fiction writing practice and, instead of sharing that work biweekly here, to work on revising and submitting content to literary journals and other fiction markets. Why? Because I want the work to be good. Like, really good. I’m excited to share this next stage of my writing journey with you.

See? I’m still keeping the lines of communication open. It’s meant a lot to me to have this relationship with you, and I’m not turning the music off and kicking everyone out of the blanket fort just yet. Please, stay as long as you like. Make a tea, grab a pillow.

I’m going to take the month of November off to work on revisions, submit grants, send in short fiction work, work on my novel (yes, I’ve started a novel!), and head to World Fantasy Con in Montréal with some other writers. Actually, now that I’ve typed it all out—that’s quite a lot, isn’t it?

I’ll meet you back here in December to let you know how it all went, and we can figure out what the next version of Blanket Fort will look like together.

Thanks so much, take care, enjoy Halloween, and I’ll see you in December.

With big feelings,

Mel