Just over one year ago, I started this newsletter as a way to share recipes and my work with others across the internet. It also came at a time when I badly needed a creative outlet, and I’ve had a lot of fun trying new things and stretching myself into an area of writing that I’ve never done before.
But today I find myself in a different situation, and lately this newsletter has often felt like a burden. I don’t want to find myself in a place where my hobbies and passions feel more like work, but that’s where this is heading. For that reason, this newsletter will no longer be coming out every week. I’m not shutting it down by any means, but I won’t be publishing anything unless I really have something worthwhile to share. Maybe that means it’s one a month, maybe it’s twice in a week, but I don’t want to just put something out there just because I feel like I have to. The last couple months have been very difficult in a lot of ways, and the added anxiety of trying to scrounge up a newsletter topic when the creative well has run dry was not something I needed.
You’ve given me access to your email inbox, which is not something I take likely. You get enough garbage in your email as it is, the last thing I want is for this to become something you toss out with the junk because you don’t think it’s worth reading.
This leads me to my other reason for the change, which is that I don’t think an email newsletter is a particularly good medium for recipe work. When I started this, I had a larger plan for building something, of which the newsletter was only a part. I want to find a more permanent, traditional home for my work, and I plan on finally moving that direction.
So that’s all for now. Thank you again for reading. Seeing friends and strangers alike reading, subscribing, and sharing my work has been a true joy, and I can’t properly express how much it means to me. I hope to have more to share with you soon.
Won't pretend it's not a bummer I won't get to read your writing as often, my man. But as another Internet writer-turned-stay-at-home-Dad, think it's really easy to say "with all this time at home I'll find some to write" and then feel bad when you use that time in various ways to maintain your mental stability instead. My experience is that, in fact, the best thing for you and the family is usually to, you know, use your time in various ways that maintain your mental stability. If the newsletter isn't one of those ways any longer, then that's what has to be cut back, bummer for me or not.
Thanks for what the newsletter's been and whatever it'll be in the future, Pete
I feel ya on this one - I have to post once a week for my job to social media and sometimes it does feel like a burden! Whatever you do decide on, if you keep writing I will keep reading!