Remember back in early November when I said I wouldn’t disappear for six months again? Yeah, sorry. I guess I lied. Or, you know, I didn’t technically lie because it’s been at least eight months and I said six. I’m not really back-back, but I’m here to issue an invitation. (Skip to the text box near the end if you’re in a tl;dr frame of mind.)

First, an explanation. I’m exhausted. Everything feels harder than it should. Over the last two years, I’ve experienced an unending parade of personal and professional crises, and the emotional impact has been amplified by the stress of what’s happening in the outside world. I’m doing my best, but I’m seriously burned out.

I’ve pared back my responsibilities. I turned down a lead role in a musical, resigned from a nonprofit board, and stopped taking on new clients at work. I’m doing all the “right things”: eating as well as I can, going to the gym, sleeping a reasonable amount, trying to prioritize human connection. But you know what I’m not doing? Having much fun.

Sure, I’ve written a short story every month for the past year and a half. That’s fun some of the time, but you have to have gas in the tank to do quality creative work, and I’m running on fumes right now. Some of these stories have felt more like contractual obligations than creative pleasures.

I wanted to come back to this newsletter. I truly did. In fact, I took a “how to improve your newsletter” workshop in February, and the first point of the class was “you have to want to write a newsletter.” And I realized, I don’t.

I used to enjoy writing my newsletter! But somewhere along the way, it became just another chore on my endless to-do list.

To be honest, I never recovered from leaving Substack. I don’t mean that I never regained the number of subscribers I lost when I left the service. I didn’t, but I was never very focused on growth. I’m happy to write for a handful of people. The real issue was that I never recovered the creative momentum I had. I’ve had trouble sticking to a schedule, and I couldn’t/didn’t want to niche down into an appropriately focused subject (the deadliest poison of all internet efforts). I wasn’t providing much value, not even entertainment value. I kept breaking promises to my readers and to myself. I always knew my newsletter wasn’t going to be a smash hit, but I began to fall short of my own, internal metric of success.

So, I left this space dormant. I didn’t want to burn it all down, but I didn’t want to engage with it, either.

Over the last several months, I began to notice a pattern. I’m not living like it’s 1996 or anything, but I have been de-emphasizing tech-based activities and products. I got rid of my FitBit and I stopped posting on social media. I’m sick and tired of the internet. I don’t want to install another buggy app or pay a new subscription fee for software that I used to own. I want to touch grass, literally and metaphorically. I want to interact with real things in the real world.

I’ve been sewing more, and I love having something tangible when I finish a project. I’m reading physical books again – not exclusively, but more than I have in years. I started checking out DVDs from the library, and purchasing box sets of my favorite shows so I wouldn’t need to chase them across various streaming platforms.

I recently subscribed to The Onion, and each month, when I sat down to read the paper version, a persistent thought began to plague me: What if I made my own newsletter physical? What if I just… sent my subscribers a letter in the mail?

I thought about this for a long time. Sure, it sounds nonsensical. Why turn a tiny, dormant email newsletter into an expensive and impractical experiment? Why? Because it sounds fun to me. That’s it. That’s the whole story.

Here’s the deal: If you opt in, I will literally send you something in the mail every month from now until the end of the year. This is an experimental short-term commitment.

It does cost more to send paper in the mail as opposed to sending an email, but that’s not an issue for this project. I saved up to take an expensive online course over the summer, but when the time came to enroll, I balked. I realized I wasn’t in the right head space to get the most out of it. So… I have a pot of cash ready to go for printing and postage, at least through December.

Which brings me to an important point: I am not asking you to pay. I will include a QR code to kick in some money for postage if you’d like (and only if you’d like), but I’m footing the bill. This is for fun, not for capitalistic gain.

I am, however, asking for your trust. You’ll need to give me a name the post office recognizes and a mailing address. Most of you have known me online for years, but I understand that plenty of folks wouldn’t be comfortable handing over that info. I get it. I can assure you that I’m not selling your info to anyone, which is more than most social media networks can say. I’m just going to be your one-way pen pal for a few months. Or hell, you can write me back. That’s also fine!

Here’s the short version: ▪️I plan to send a physical, snail mail newsletter until the end of 2026. ▪️You don’t have to pay anything. (Though you can voluntarily kick in for postage.) ▪️Click here to enter your postal info by 10 August 2026 to get on the list.

Each month will probably be a little different. I may send a “real” newsletter, something more like a personal letter, a postcard, or… anything I feel like trying. If you need an added incentive, please note that I intend to do something extra special for October, as always, only this time it will be something you can touch. (OOOOOOOOoooh!) I’m not promising high quality or excellent entertainment value, but I am promising that (barring disaster) you’ll get at least five pieces of mail from me.

I’m not saying I’ll never post here again – never say never – but until the end of the year, I’ll be sending physical mail. I’ll re-evaluate in December and decide what comes next.

I hope you come along for the ride! (I understand if you’re not interested, though.) This is the first time I’ve been excited about my newsletter in what feels like a million years. If you know me in real life, you know that I have a strange enthusiasm for snail mail. (Some of you already get random postcards from me!) This will be, if nothing else, an interesting experiment.

Click here to sign up! Your first letter should arrive in mid-to-late August.

That’s all for now. OKAY, BYE! 🖤