The inevitable apology post

Wait! Don't turn away in disgust!

I am sure that none of you have been waiting at your inbox, hands pressed in prayer (or maybe gnawing at your cuticles?) waiting for my latest missive. On the other hand it’s obnoxious to set up a newsletter with a paid option and then disappear for weeks. And I am sorry about that. 

What have you been doing, Bradley? 

Well! I’ve been getting my book-coaching business off the ground, which I am enjoying tremendously. After I left my last job I had a little bit of fear that maybe I just can’t work in general, like maybe I just hate work, maybe I’ve been bred to live a life of leisure like some kind of purebred cat. (Not a life of hard labor like the regular mixed breed whose puke I just scraped off my yoga mat.) But it turns out I like work that suits me, and book coaching really suits me. Helping people! Editing! Not looking at traffic numbers and google analytics! Sign me up! Oh wait I signed myself up. Get in touch if you want to be coached by me. (Non-fiction only, please.) I’m still developing my practice, which means you get in on the ground floor and prices are as low as they’re ever going to be. I don’t even have a website up yet, with pictures of me laughing at something off in the distance. That’s how new I am at this. 

I’ve also been spending a lot of time at my sister and brother-in-law’s upstate* home, which is very, very nice and I feel very, very fortunate to be able to take advantage of it. Last week Scott and I went up there and read books and ate hot dogs and peach cobbler and I attempted to swim in the pool and gave up because it was just a tad too cold for me, a baby. We drove around to various towns and dreamt of someday living in such a place. Now that Henry is comfortably ensconced in a /rent-stabilized / apartment and says he’ll never move out, who knows? Maybe we’re done with the city? We’re certainly feeling too old for Brooklyn, I’ll tell you what. This place is getting younger and hipper all the time, and we are not.

(*When I say upstate I mean “two hours upstate from where we currently live,” which to real upstaters is hilariously not upstate; New York is extremely large, it turns out.) 

Anyway. While I was doing these things I was also thinking about this newsletter, and what I want it to be. I could see it being many things: I could put on my coaching hat and giving writing tips and answer your questions; I could continue doing what I’ve been doing, which is ramble about my life and my dog and maybe writing will come up occasionally, but that seems kind of disorganized and less than professional. But I did ever promise professional-grade newslettering? I don’t recall doing so. Anyway. I put it to you, reader: what would you like to see here?  Writing content? Blog content? Both? Neither? Some new, third thing? Comment, if you have the ability, or just reply to this newsletter. I reply to all the replies. I can’t help myself. You’re too charming to resist. 

In conclusion, I give you this song, which I discovered off my pal John Moe’s excellent newsletter (you really need to be following him, and also listening to his podcast, “Depresh Mode.”). I like it very much.