Taking A Beat

Why I'm pausing this newsletter.

Dear Sighers,

For the last six weeks, the phrase “write newsletter,” has sat at the top of each day’s To Do list without ever being checked off. First my mother was in the hospital, then I was frantically trying to catch up on writing deadlines before embarking on a three-week book tour, then I was on said book tour, then I came home and immediately got sick.

This morning when I woke up, I was still sick. I also had one clear thought in my head: it’s time to put the newsletter on hold. It wasn’t an easy conclusion to reach. I’ve loved being in regular communication with so many of you and I’ve loved exercising the journalistic muscle of writing fast and regularly, just like I used to do when I worked at a newspaper. Plus, I’ve finally topped two thousand subscribers, a milestone that was weirdly difficult to achieve.

But in a year with four new books to promote and several others to write, I haven’t been able to stick to anything close to a regular newsletter schedule and I don’t like feeling like I’m falling short.

In September, my next nonfiction narrative, The Wild Season, hits the shelves. The book may seem like a departure from my previous work, but it’s actually a return to my roots as an environmental reporter. An adventure story that takes place entirely inside a small park in San Francisco, it’s about wildness, domestication, imagination, community, childhood, and the miraculous things that happen when you give the world your undivided attention. It’s also about rabbits.

There’s a good chance that this newsletter will be the place I share some of my thoughts on these topics in the not-too-distant future, including, perhaps an excerpt from the book. But for now, I’m going to hit the pause button on both paid subscriptions and regular newsletters so that I can concentrate on my main gig, which is writing (and promoting) books. In the meantime, I’ll be sending out occasional news about my children’s books and appearances through my other newsletter, When They Told Me To Write I Bowed. If you don’t already subscribe to that one, I hope you’ll sign up now.

Thanks for bearing with me as I think about where to take things. If you have suggestions, I hope you’ll leave them in the comments.

With a sigh,

Dashka