What a happy email! Congratulations on two years of brilliant, thoughtful and thought-provoking newsletter-making.
It's still brisk here in the UK, so reading about your dahlias and ice cream has let me into a summery mood. My goal every summer is to find a good outdoor swimming spot which doesn't get too crowded— and this year's hunt starts now. Reclaiming swimming (or just splashing around and relaxing in the pool) as something I can enjoy without worrying about my body has been, and continues to be, a long but important road for me. I lived in the water as a kid and I love when that happy, weightless, living-in-the-moment feeling resurges in my adult self.
Thanks for the recap of the last two years, and congrats! There are a lot of accomplishments to celebrate in there.
Since both you and Corrine mentioned ice cream I thought I would share one of our summer traditions: my daughters and I make a list of all the ice cream places in our town. I keep the list on my phone and our goal is to visit all of them over the summer. It cuts down on decision fatigue and gives us a delicious goal. In our relatively small town , we still have a lot of places to visit!
My dahlias did not survive overwintering in my basement. Or, if they did, they're taking their sweet arse time showing up in my garden. I put the bulbs back in in April and all these weeks later, nothing.
Your garden looks so beautiful I love it.
I want to be in your feminist romance book club! After I read several of the stem-romance books by Ali Hazelwood I wanted to find someone to talk to about them because I felt like they were a little feminist but also stealth unfeminist. So unsatisfying to argue this in Amazon reviews. (But why do all of the protagonists have to be so tiny and the men so huge? Like SO huge?). I recommend Float Plan and The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment. Please give me roughly a dozen recommendations to carry me through the summer!
I haven't read them but as a working academic I was very disturbed by the plot summary of The Love Hypothesis! Even body size aside, clearly not much awareness of problematic power dynamics at work...
Yes! Academic here, I kept imagining the characters IN the actual place I attended grad school and it was so creepy. I stopped halfway through the book because I'm not trying to relive grad school job/committee desperation vibes.
Congratulations to the Burnt Toast crew!! And as a powerlifter, especially congrats to Corinne on the upcoming meet!! Meets can be overwhelming, but the crowd has always (in my experience) been overwhelmingly supportive. I hope it’s an incredible experience and you make so many new lifting friends!
Congratulations!! I look forward to your newsletters every week and feel very smug about discovering you so early in the game haha. I would totally pay more for a premium tier, just FYI ;)
Ooh say more. What would you want the premium tier to offer? And curious if anyone else is into this idea! (But don’t worry, I won’t make y’all do another survey.)
Yeah I love the links and having them more sporadically with more discussion could be nice! I think one thing I especially like about premium tier writing content is when a writer is willing to use it to share experiments with a slightly different voice or genre than usual, which might be too risky to post in their main newsletter or blog if it risks turning off the segment of the following that only wants this writer's content to follow a pretty specific formula.
I loved One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Also been reading a lot of Alisha Rai and Kennedy Ryan after finding them through Jasmine Guillory events! I love the idea of the one on one dates, my 6 yo mentioned a day I took him out to lunch as his favorite thing to do with me and we haven’t gotten as much 1-1 time since he started kindergarten. I still have a couple days with my almost 4 year old home with me while I work part time and I haven’t had to schedule the 1-1 time as much. We have a place that sells hot dogs and ice cream downtown and we all love going there in the summer. I am also looking forward very much to going to the beach when the school year is over and celebrating my kid turning 4 while there!
I like how on Captain Awkward's patreon, she shares a mixed bag of slightly less polished extra writing--it's a mix of journal entries, rough drafts she wants to workshop, recipe-centered food essays that are slightly longer than the typical social media food post, pet anecdotes + pics, stuff like that. I also like how Slate plus gives bonus podcast content to subscribers that's again a bit less polished but very fun.
INTERESTING. I'm also seeing in the survey that some folks don't love how long the Friday emails have gotten now that they are threads + links (used to just be threads), so I could see making links it's own email (maybe with more like tweet-length thoughts about each article to prompt discussion).
I wondered about that! Now wishing I'd put in a question to see if people like the threads or the link/recs better! (And totally welcome a newsletter biz discussion here too since that way more people can see what everyone is thinking... though I will report on the summary results later this month!)
What a happy email! Congratulations on two years of brilliant, thoughtful and thought-provoking newsletter-making.
It's still brisk here in the UK, so reading about your dahlias and ice cream has let me into a summery mood. My goal every summer is to find a good outdoor swimming spot which doesn't get too crowded— and this year's hunt starts now. Reclaiming swimming (or just splashing around and relaxing in the pool) as something I can enjoy without worrying about my body has been, and continues to be, a long but important road for me. I lived in the water as a kid and I love when that happy, weightless, living-in-the-moment feeling resurges in my adult self.
YES. Reclaiming swimming is so so powerful! (and joyful!)
Thanks for the recap of the last two years, and congrats! There are a lot of accomplishments to celebrate in there.
Since both you and Corrine mentioned ice cream I thought I would share one of our summer traditions: my daughters and I make a list of all the ice cream places in our town. I keep the list on my phone and our goal is to visit all of them over the summer. It cuts down on decision fatigue and gives us a delicious goal. In our relatively small town , we still have a lot of places to visit!
LOVE that.
So proud of you and happy for all of us who get to be part of (and learn from) the space you've created here!
💜💜💜
I am taking three weeks off from my job.
HERE FOR THAT.
I loved Get a Life, Chloe Brown! It's been my favorite romance since it came out.
Also my favorite!
My dahlias did not survive overwintering in my basement. Or, if they did, they're taking their sweet arse time showing up in my garden. I put the bulbs back in in April and all these weeks later, nothing.
Your garden looks so beautiful I love it.
I want to be in your feminist romance book club! After I read several of the stem-romance books by Ali Hazelwood I wanted to find someone to talk to about them because I felt like they were a little feminist but also stealth unfeminist. So unsatisfying to argue this in Amazon reviews. (But why do all of the protagonists have to be so tiny and the men so huge? Like SO huge?). I recommend Float Plan and The Roommate and The Intimacy Experiment. Please give me roughly a dozen recommendations to carry me through the summer!
I felt very similarly about Ali Hazelwood! We are trying to choose mostly non-tiny protagonists from here on out...
I haven't read them but as a working academic I was very disturbed by the plot summary of The Love Hypothesis! Even body size aside, clearly not much awareness of problematic power dynamics at work...
Yes! Academic here, I kept imagining the characters IN the actual place I attended grad school and it was so creepy. I stopped halfway through the book because I'm not trying to relive grad school job/committee desperation vibes.
Following! New the genre and want all the recs!
Congratulations on 2 years! For your book club all the Jasmine Guillory and Talia Hibbert books.
We love Jasmine and Talia! They inspired the need for the club
Congratulations to the Burnt Toast crew!! And as a powerlifter, especially congrats to Corinne on the upcoming meet!! Meets can be overwhelming, but the crowd has always (in my experience) been overwhelmingly supportive. I hope it’s an incredible experience and you make so many new lifting friends!
Congratulations!! I look forward to your newsletters every week and feel very smug about discovering you so early in the game haha. I would totally pay more for a premium tier, just FYI ;)
Ooh say more. What would you want the premium tier to offer? And curious if anyone else is into this idea! (But don’t worry, I won’t make y’all do another survey.)
Yeah I love the links and having them more sporadically with more discussion could be nice! I think one thing I especially like about premium tier writing content is when a writer is willing to use it to share experiments with a slightly different voice or genre than usual, which might be too risky to post in their main newsletter or blog if it risks turning off the segment of the following that only wants this writer's content to follow a pretty specific formula.
Oh that's very cool. I may be a one-genre pony, but I'll ponder this.
I loved One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. Also been reading a lot of Alisha Rai and Kennedy Ryan after finding them through Jasmine Guillory events! I love the idea of the one on one dates, my 6 yo mentioned a day I took him out to lunch as his favorite thing to do with me and we haven’t gotten as much 1-1 time since he started kindergarten. I still have a couple days with my almost 4 year old home with me while I work part time and I haven’t had to schedule the 1-1 time as much. We have a place that sells hot dogs and ice cream downtown and we all love going there in the summer. I am also looking forward very much to going to the beach when the school year is over and celebrating my kid turning 4 while there!
Congrats on two years, on building a strong community and giving so many people a voice to share and be seen!
I like how on Captain Awkward's patreon, she shares a mixed bag of slightly less polished extra writing--it's a mix of journal entries, rough drafts she wants to workshop, recipe-centered food essays that are slightly longer than the typical social media food post, pet anecdotes + pics, stuff like that. I also like how Slate plus gives bonus podcast content to subscribers that's again a bit less polished but very fun.
INTERESTING. I'm also seeing in the survey that some folks don't love how long the Friday emails have gotten now that they are threads + links (used to just be threads), so I could see making links it's own email (maybe with more like tweet-length thoughts about each article to prompt discussion).
I like the idea of separate emails for links and threads.
or alternate links and threads every other Friday?
(here's where I typed out more and then deleted to save it for the survey ;) )
I wondered about that! Now wishing I'd put in a question to see if people like the threads or the link/recs better! (And totally welcome a newsletter biz discussion here too since that way more people can see what everyone is thinking... though I will report on the summary results later this month!)
I'm just one person, but I like variety, so long as it isn't something you feel pressured to do. my hope is that it could be a way to release pressure
Huge congrats on all you've accomplished in these two years. I'm so proud of you and amazed by you!
Can't wait for our event!!
ME TOOO
Ever Dunmore’s historical romance series is feminist and fun and hot!!!🔥