Happy New Year, Stock Fiction family,
If charming video greetings from your favorite obscure fiction writer are not your thing, below is a verbatim transcript of what I was on about for nine minutes, complete with photos and links to everything you missed by not watching. 😊🥂 Please keep in mind … I don’t talk as pretty as I write. And my hyper-animated facial expressions are worth a thousand words. 😉
Hi, friends.
Happy New Year.
I believe the last time I did one of these, I said that it was going to be my last annual report. So, I don't want anyone to think I'm going back on that word.
This is not an annual report. I'm actually here to make a couple of announcements, for anyone who's not thoroughly keeping up with me online or in real life (IRL).
The first announcement is:
Today is January 1st. This Friday, January 3rd, I am launching my new newsletter, The Romantic.
My first post will go out on Friday morning. I let those of you on my Stock Fiction list know about this a week or so ago.
I set myself a pretty lofty goal. It didn't seem lofty at the time, but I was hoping to have 100 subscribers on board for this new publication.
… Grrr…
That's my other announcement growling in the background, but you have to wait for that.
So, 100 subscribers was my goal. I figured, well, I have roughly 1,300 of you here.
I guess it didn't seem like a huge reach. But apparently it was, because a week later, and a very unsuccessful Notes campaign later, I'm at 30 subscribers.
Am I unhappy about this? No.
I think the 30 of us are going to have a fantastic time on Friday. And after that, I hope that the 30 of us will consider ...
… My announcement is ruining her debut.
Shh. I'll be with you in a minute.
Do you want to go now?
All right.
I guess I have to get my other announcement now. Then I'll come back to this.
Come here. I want to show you to my friends. I want to show you because you're so sweet.
This is my other announcement.
This is Lola.
She came to live with us the Friday after— No, the Friday before Christmas?
Yeah, Friday before Christmas is when you came to live with us.
She's from a shelter, she's super sweet, and she's my baby and my muse and she sleeps right next to me on the floor next to my desk, and so I'm not going to be by myself anymore when I'm writing.
This is all very good. 🤗🤗🤗
And now I'm just going to cuddle my dog for 10 minutes while you guys watch.
I'm just kidding. I'm not going to do that. But I did want to introduce you to her because she is a new light in my life, and I'm very excited about that. So, yay for me, and yay for you because you're probably going to get a lot of pictures of her now at the bottom of all my posts because that's what people with cute dogs do because they can't help themselves.
So back to The Romantic.
Really excited about this project, friends.
The Romantic is the third iteration of this new newsletter that I have workshopped in my brain and ... I feel like it's as ready as it's going to be to be in the world. And I'm just excited about trying something different.
So, it's going to be mostly nonfiction, but I'm going to be writing about love stories. And I feel like that is the biggest topic that I could possibly cover, which is why I'm really excited about it. I feel like there are so many avenues and different ways that I can pick apart something that is very dear to me and that essentially fuels everything I do. Whether you've noticed or not … I can't escape it anymore, so I'm not gonna try. But I am gonna try to make this new newsletter something valuable and something that will build a community around my work of people who are excited about what I'm excited about.
Not to say that the people around Stock Fiction aren't excited about the things that I'm excited about, but Stock Fiction, I've decided, for better or worse, was a beautiful way for me to figure out what it is I wanted to do and what it is I want to keep doing. And it's not going anywhere.
I do want to let those of you who are kind of on the fence about joining the new crowd at The Romantic, Stock Fiction will remain a presence. And I think I'm looking at it now as almost like an open mic scene.
Every once in a while, I'm going to have something really juicy and fun that I want to share with you. And I'm going to show up at the open mic, and hopefully there'll be enough of you there to receive whatever it is I'm there to share.
And we'll have a good time with that.
But ultimately, in terms of growth and workload, I'm going to be putting a lot of my time and effort into the new scene at The Romantic … and guys, it's going to be fun. If you're hesitating at all, I don't exactly know why.💕 I mean, if you've ever read any of my humor or nonfiction work, or if you've read any of my romantic fiction, it's just going to be fun. And positive. And probably kinda sexy sometimes—I don't know—it's just going to be … great. 😊
So please … consider subscribing.
I don't ask a ton of you guys. 💜 So just think about it. 🙏🏼😉
And for those of you who have subscribed already, 💕💕💕💕 I'm really excited to see you on Friday, and I'll definitely, in the early weeks, be looking for feedback on how things are going. Again, this is a very new thing for me. So I will be welcoming feedback in the early stages.
What else do I have to tell you?
I already introduced you to Lola and, oh yes.
My poetry collection, dear mystery …
I have sold a handful of copies. I'd love to make that two, three, or four handfuls before the end of this new year. So consider that as well.
If not for yourself, then for someone in your life who enjoys poetry.
And thank you to those of you who have already obtained a copy. 💜🙏🏼
I don't want to make public resolutions anymore.
It's bad enough that I make resolutions privately and I can't live up to them. That's already a disappointment to me. So I have decided not to share any of my professional goals, publicly, going into 2025, but I have written them down and I've sealed them in this envelope, which I'm going to show you.
You can see the envelope, but I'm not going to let you see what's inside.
I'm pretty sure I still remember everything I wrote down, but the point is it doesn't matter. I have five goals in here. Plus I have three “alternate goals,” I'm calling them, in the event that I can't pull off one of the five, I have some backup goals in there, too.
So ideally, my hope is to focus on doing the work that's going to help me achieve those goals this year. So, that might mean a shift in the way I've been operating to this point. And I hope that I have your support in that.
And I think that's all I needed to say. I didn't want to make this a lengthy ordeal, but I did want to wish you a very happy new year, a healthy new year, a survivable new year.
It's going to be a ride, friends, for all of us.
So, let's hang on and see what happens.
All right.
Best to everybody.
Love you.
See you on Friday.
I'm serious. 👀
It's gonna be fun. 💕😉
Cheers.
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