Anyone out there?

I appear to have a Substack newsletter, since 2021. I have no recollection of creating this and am a bit bewildered as to why in recent weeks I’ve received notifications from this site that I have new subscribers. Really? I’ve offered nothing.

I’m a sucker, though, for signs and omens and I’m wondering if I’m supposed to start a Substack newsletter? Or do I stick with the heretofore largely dormant monthly Mailchimp newsletter that I recently revived? If I were to start a Substack newsletter, in a market that’s already overcrowded with excellent content, what could I bring of value to readers?

A little help? Any suggestions? I have had this recurring mad idea of late to serialize a novella or novel I write while adopting a pen name and persona. Just for the hell of it. Just to see who shows up, and what class of ink they wield. Like how we transform while wearing a costume or behind a microphone at karaoke. It seems like that would be fit fare for this platform. Thoughts?

Speaking of my writing, my second novel, Sing, I, publishes in April. While the spark for the story was the corner store holdup I witnessed as a young girl in Dublin, Ireland, I set Sing, I in a sparkling coastal town not far from San Francisco, where I’ve lived for over thirty years. Once I opened the novel with an armed robbery at a convenience store, I had no idea what would happen next (I never outline or plot) and the story took me surprising places.

Sing, I centers on hauntings; passions (re)ignited; hope despite limited choices; domestic life; women’s friendship (cis and transgender); and LGBTQ+ family life. I love these characters and their world, and believe I’m a better writer and human for having conjured them. Or did they magic me into making them? If you’d take a chance on them, on me, with a preorder, I’d be absolutely relived thrilled.

I don’t know who’ll receive this, but I’m hitting send. You’ll likely never hear from me again via Substack, but just in case this probable once-off missive is once-too-often feel free to unsubscribe. But don’t @ me. The world is already terrible enough. Like I said, I don’t know how either of us got here. I must have been under the influence of the pandemic, or the disease itself. Today, I’m under the (re)influence of this glory.