And What Do You Have To Show For It?

A quick note: apparently Substack has a Nazi problem. I was not aware of this because all I do is come on here, write my little essays about how my kids are cute and sometimes I’m happy while other times I’m sad, and hey look here’s an okay poem I wrote, and then I hit publish and go about my day. I am neither all that interested in nor remotely adept at utilizing Substack’s community-building features, so I only ever see the newsletters that I specifically subscribe to and I don’t subscribe to any Nazi newsletters. Apparently, there’s a Nazi problem, though, and the powers that be at Substack came out and said, yes we know about the Nazi problem and it’s unfortunate, but also free speech blah blah blah, marketplace of ideas blah blah blah, we make money from the Nazis making money so we’re not going to do anything about it. I’m paraphrasing, but that was the gist. The good news is, I don’t charge for my newsletter so I don’t make any money through Substack, and I don’t pay for any newsletters, which means I’m not helping fund a company that Nazis are also funding, and by reading my newsletter for free, neither are you. But all the same, it sucks, so I’m going to find another platform for sending out my newsletters. There is a lot of discussion among writers who use Substack about whether people should move away from the platform or if it is better to stay because if everyone good leaves then the Nazis win, plus the internet is a cesspool and there are Nazis everywhere so why draw the line here, and also free speech blah blah blah, censorship is a slippery slope blah blah blah. Whatever. I’ve got nothing at stake in this newsletter. It is not my income. I’m so thankful for everyone who subscribes, but also it’s a pretty small list of people. I have been told that to build a writing career in this day and age you need a strong online presence, a clear brand, and a solid list of dedicated followers. Having to constantly shift platforms and bleed followers as people abandon various social media sites does not help achieve this goal. And yet, all I want out of this life is to love my family, enjoy myself as best I can, write my little stories and try to share them with as many people as possible in a place with as few Nazis as possible. This doesn’t feel like too much to ask. I have absolutely nothing to lose by choosing not to share my creative work on a platform that is actively and openly profiting off of Nazis, so that is the choice I am planning to make in the new year. I’ll look into other options and migrate the emails from my current subscriber list to whatever new platform I settle on. I hope you will be okay with that shift and will continue to follow and read what I have to offer, but if you’d rather not or you’re worried about having your email shifted to a new platform, please feel free to unsubscribe so that I don’t unintentionally bring you along for the ride. It might take me a little bit to do this because it’s the end of the year and I have other more pressing obligations, but trust that I am working on it and the shift is coming.

Thank you for taking the time to read and support my work this year. I hope 2024 brings you health, happiness, and some good stuff to read!

One last quick reminder that if you’re in Baltimore, I would love to have you come check out one of my upcoming readings. I’ll be at The Womb Room on January 6th for their gala (6-8:30 pm), and at the Hampden branch of the Enoch Pratt Library on January 11th (6:30). I’ll be reading pieces from One Good Thing and Mother Nature, as well as some past publications and a few new pieces. Also, there’s still time to register for my workshop The Written Womb at Yellow Arrow Publishing.

In a year when you have a baby, it can be hard to feel like you accomplished much beyond simple survival.

In 2023, I played 832 rounds of Exploding Kittens. I made 213 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I sang 726 lullabies. I cried three gallons of tears. Cleaned up eight gallons of spit-up. Slept fewer hours than I would have preferred. Gave more kisses than I can count.

And I had a small handful of publications:

My chapbook, One Good Thing

Bulletproof in Ellipsis

When I Say I’m Fine, One Good Thing, and A House Near the Other Houses in the Middle of the Block in Corporeal Lit

Homerun in The Under Review

As Evening Falls in Boats Against the Current

What Burns in Feral

As well as some children’s poetry: Did Orville Say to Wilbur and Flight of the Firefly in The Dirigible Balloon, and Finally, Some Rain! in The Toy Press.

I also published two issues of my children’s magazine Little Thoughts Press, featuring wonderful writing and artwork by both adult and youth creatives.

Lastly, I wrote 45,000 words of a novel draft and have a clear plan for finishing it in the first quarter of next year. I can’t wait to get it to a point where I can start revising. That’s my favorite part of the process.

Thank you to the editors who published my work this year. Thank you to the writers and artists who contributed to Little Thoughts Press. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my writing, and especially those who purchased copies of my book, or the magazine. Thank you to everyone who reached out this year to tell me that you liked something I wrote, either here through this newsletter, or from one of my other publications. In a year where my focus and energy were so often needed elsewhere, those little notes of encouragement kept bringing me back to my writing, and as it so often has, writing saved me on those days when I felt like I was barely hanging on. I’m looking forward to being able to do more of it in the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

~Claire