Subtle Sabbatical

The newsletter is currently on pause for a little while, thanks for understanding!

Hey everyone—Just a quick note to say that I’m not going to be able to send out any new issues of the newsletter until I meet my next couple of book deadlines (which I wrote about back in December).

I decided not to send out an email announcing that I wouldn’t be sending out any more emails for a while, because, well, that seemed sort of silly. But I wanted to put a note here on the homepage in case anyone is wondering what’s going on / if everything’s all right. It is! I’m just trying to finish up, with all the highs and lows that go along with that.

In setting the newsletter aside, I took some inspiration from the writer Chris Kraus, who said in a recent interview (emphasis mine):

I only put myself on a schedule if I’m working on something, and I’m not working on something every day. But the schedule is pretty structured when I use it and it mostly involves making sure that writing is the most compelling and interesting part of the day. There can be other things so long as they’re tepid—the reality of the book has to be the most real thing going on. I usually work in the mornings and early afternoon and sometimes try to channel my sleep to wake up with answers I couldn’t have found otherwise.

For me, the reality of the book and the reality of the newsletter have sometimes been in conflict—I never want the newsletter to be or feel tepid—and for this final phase of work I wanted to allow myself to have only one “real” thing going on.

I’ve also been thinking about what’s next for this newsletter, as it nears its five-year anniversary (!) on February 24th. Does it continue on its usual every-other-Monday schedule? Should I change things up somehow? I don’t know if I’ll have any answers by the 24th, but I’m hoping the break may provide some clarity.

In the meantime, the weekday Worm Zoom continues as usual. Feel free to join us: It’s always fun to see new faces on there (though you don’t have to turn on your camera), and it’s been especially nice to have that community lately, as I veer between the aforementioned highs and lows.

OK, thanks for reading! Uno and I send very best wishes from our writing desk / napping station: