It's been too long!

Hello my lovely,

If you’re reading this from an email, and you can hear a distant cheer on the wind, it’s because the overhaul of my newsletter has been successful after several months of trying to find the best solution for communications going forwards. Sorry it’s been a while.

If you’re reading this on my website, welcome! You can subscribe to receive future posts in your inbox too, if you wish, via the button up at the top right of the page. As this is a shiny new Ghost website, I believe that people who are subscribed are considered ‘members’ and are also able to comment on posts such as this. 

This marks both a new beginning and a return to the Old Ways (which sounds like it should be something out of a fantasy novel inspired by folk tradition, but sadly isn’t) that I never should have stopped in the first place. I’ve learnt my lesson now, along with thousands of other people over the past 18 months or so in particular.

That lesson? That we gave too much to social media and that relationship became pretty damn toxic. And at the risk of morphing into an old woman shouting at clouds, it feels like social media’s negatives sure have started to outweigh the positives. For me personally anyway.

What to expect from me if you are subscribed or are thinking about it.

In the past, I’ve kept my news just for my newsletter, with nothing new on my website. Now, once a month, I’ll be writing an update post like this one, published on my blog and sent by email to my subscribers. Any in-between blog posts will not be sent out as email newsletters, as that could get annoying. Those posts will simply be linked to in the monthly round-up.

If you prefer, you can subscribe to the blog using an RSS feeder using this link.

Once a month I also aim to write a post that is Stuff That Has Been On My Mind That I Wish to Process By Writing Long Form Content About It, like it’s the early 2000s again. Good grief, this feels so odd. But here we are. 

So what on earth have I been up to anyway?

The Vengeance - my new book!
Well, in book news, the biggest announcement is that I have a new book coming out in December called The Vengeance and you can read all about it, and find the pre-order link, in this blog post. (Pre-ordering automatically makes you an absolute bless-poppet, by the way.)

Imagining Tomorrow - my podcast!
In other news, the biggest thing that has gone live since I was last able to send out a newsletter is the launch of my new podcast Imagining Tomorrow, made in partnership with Friends of the Earth. It’s all about hope in the face of climate change and combines two of my passions; science-fiction (in particular world-building and utopian visions of the future) and drawing attention to amazing people doing amazing things right now to try to make the future better for everyone.

Each episode is an in-depth exploration of a particular solution to one of the many challenges we face, drawn from three interviews: one with a person doing something in their community, one with an innovator (such as new technology or a new approach to solving a problem) and one science-fiction author. If you have been missing meaty, deep content in this world of 60 second long hot takes, that is hope-filled and full of practical ways to move towards a better future, then Imagining Tomorrow is for you!

You can find it wherever you listen to podcasts, or if you would prefer to listen through your browser, you can find all the episodes released so far here: https://friendsoftheearth.uk/about/imagining-tomorrow-podcast

Tea and Sanctuary

A new season of Tea and Sanctuary has also been launched, and you can find all the episodes here: www.teaandsanctuary.com 

This podcast is very different to Imagining Tomorrow! It’s a cosy, super low-stakes chat about totally random things, designed to help you relax. This latest season is also available on YouTube to give greater accessibility.

The release of episodes is sporadic at best, and I am sorry about that. I have no idea if I will ever find a way to do all the things I want to without something slipping, so I guess that the only thing I can say is there is no regularity to this podcast’s release schedule and so subscribing to it is probably the best option. Then when an episode does come out, it will feel like finding a fiver in a coat pocket that you’d forgotten about.

Short stories and the future

In the past, I used my newsletter to send out short stories that I wanted to keep behind a velvet rope, so to speak, rather than just publishing to my blog. Now that I’ve changed the way I run my newsletter, that approach has to change too, as I still want to write short stories inspired by prompts sent in by readers as I love doing that and miss it.

So, going forward, I will call for prompts here on the blog, and then publish the stories to my Patreon before gathering them into collections. As I don’t have tiers on Patreon, and people can access previous short stories and other patron-only content for as little as a dollar a month, I’d like to think it isn’t too big a barrier to access.

As I am elbow-deep in Worldcon Art show prep and finishing season 1 of the Imagining Tomorrow podcast at the moment, now is not the time to ask for prompts, but just to give you a heads up if you’re a Split Worlds fan, start thinking about which character / aspect of the series you’d most like to have a new story about… I’ll let you know why in a future post!

That’s all for now, my lovelies!

Love and noodles,

Em xx