It’s green chile time
Life updates, paid subs
Say it with me guys: last week I QUIT. MY. JOB!!! After five years living in New York City big changes are coming. Liz has taken a new job in Santa Fe so we’re relocating imminently. The movers are coming at the end of this month and then we fly out the next morning to New Mexico. We’re so excited about all of this. Without badmouthing our employers too much, neither of us will miss our current jobs. Liz is going to be much happier at her new gig. Our new apartment is going to be bigger and better for soooooo much less money (NYC rent: genuinely criminal). I’ll be on dad duty as we get settled there, which I’m thrilled about. Liz and I went to college in Santa Fe and we still have friends in town (hi Mary and Ian). Plus: green chile burgers, green chile enchiladas, green chile scrambled eggs, green chile ice cream (haha just kidding, unless….)
What does all this mean for you, dear readers? In the short term, don’t be surprised if my writing output dwindles to an absolute trickle for the next couple months and if even the book reports only have one or two selections in them. When I’m not thinking about the move I’ve been feeling extremely dumb and lazy. But! Hopefully, once we’re settled into our new place and we’ve gotten Patrick into a new daycare routine, I should have several days a week with nothing to do but read and write. I’m hoping my output should improve by December or—let’s be honest—January.
I love doing this newsletter. It’s beyond rewarding to know there are people out there who actually enjoy reading it. I don’t say this enough but I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you for being here.
Now like I said, I quit my job and do not have something new lined up in the Land of Enchantment. It’s cool, my baby isn’t going to starve, don’t worry. But, as I learned from Tony Soprano, you gotta earn.
It’s with that in mind that I’m announcing that I’m turning on paid subscriptions for this newsletter. I’ve kept The Underline totally free up to this point because I respect you and know that the quantity of what I’ve been delivering could not justify a price tag. But times change and, again, I hope to ramp up my output in the coming months to a point where I don’t feel guilty taking money for my dumb little thoughts.
Substack’s official advice for going paid says I should write a rundown of what the sub will get you and why it’s worth it to upgrade but, having learned all I know from George Costanza, I’m going to do the opposite. I want to be perfectly clear here: this is a bad deal. If you want to get the most value for your five dollars, there are many many newsletters that are a better choice than mine. If you want clear-eyed, honest, righteously outraged accounting of the news of the day, subscribe to Indignity and Welcome To Hell World. If you want writing about literature from someone who actually knows how stories work, subscribe to
(many of you do), or , or any of the other big name novelists on the platform. Hell, if you want the mix of essays, personal reflections, and book roundups that I’m shooting for, subscribe to my fellow SJC alum , who’s doing exactly what I want to do better than I can while also pioneering the burgeoning field of Taylor Swift-osophy.All that being the case, all I can say is that I think I have a perspective that’s my own and that I make connections and formulate thoughts you won’t find elsewhere. I have so many ideas I want to share if only I could find the time. If you upgrade to paid (please do), you will be doing so to support me and my work without getting anything extra in return. I plan to keep everything in front of the paywall for now. Your money will simply be a way to say that you value what I’m doing here and that you want to help make it a viable thing for me to continue to put my time toward. Thank you to any of you who choose to do this, it truly means so much. Talk to you soon.