Stamps over Silos! 📬

My plan to remove the paywall. 🚫

Greetings from my studio!

It (my studio) is named The Rabbit Hole. This month a baby rabbit has moved in to our backyard and lives underneath. I'll spare you the blurry phone photos, but I wanted to share the magic. 🐇💫

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My creative ecosystem snapped into place this week!

I'm working towards removing the paywall. (Sadly there is no "remove paywall" button so it is a process.) So I’ve been trying to decide what to offer paying subscribers.

I’ve made a radical decision NOT to create any digital “bonus content.”

No paywalls. No emails. No Zoom calls. No more Internet noise.

Instead,

I will be sending letters (hand written or typed on my typewriter) every month.

Yes, actual paper letters in envelopes.

I'm really excited about this shift for a host of reasons.

• We are already subscribed to more than we can read.

• Sending actual letters feels delightfully anachronistic¹.

• What better way to stick it to “AI art”? Let’s go old school and use paper. Embrace imperfection and leave the fingerprints.

Monthly letters will go out to paying supporters wherever you live in the world. 🌎💫

Pledges start at $3 a month on Patreon or $7 on Substack.²

EDIT: To the kind folks asking if $3 covers postage outside the US, it just does. Global stamps currently cost $1.55 which leaves a bit for paper, ink, envelope, and .40 cents processing fees. If you’d like to tip in a bit beyond that for me you can pledge at $5.

(But I don’t mind sending letters at cost. This is more about connection for me than anything and sending mail overseas is extra cool.)

Twice a year I’ll send something special - like a sticker or a postcard. And those pledged at the highest level “Patron of the Arts” will receive a yearly Unbirthday Gift with a surprise work of art from me: a print, a zine, a collage, or something else I've made. (I'll do my best to make sure it's not something you've had from me before.)

I'll be reaching out to collect mailing addresses soon.

So if you're on the paid tier watch out for that. 🥰

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Continuing the handmade theme I'm trying to work out if we can have old school zines for Neurokind.

I'm still figuring it out, but signs point to yes.

Music by dodie

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I’m just picking up a lot of the books that I stopped reading in my COVID brain fog.

One of those is How We Might Live (2022) about William and Jane Morris.

I'm also re-reading two fiction series right now. Wheel of Time and Stormlight Archive (the final book coming out later this year.)

I'm reading slowly and taking notes on what each author is doing. This is something both Neil Gaiman and Robert Jordan suggested for new writers to do. There is something different in reading "as a reader" and reading "as a writer” which is something both Neil Gaiman³ and Robert Jordan⁴ both suggest to new writers.

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A new version of Stargazing is just another chance to hype Myles Smith - a musician I met on my flight to London. His whole crew were sitting in the seats around me and really helpful when I was trying to find my way out of Heathrow.

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Davy’s new favorite comedy act.

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A big moment for a dictionary lover (I used to literally sleep with a dictionary in high school, which my mom found endlessly hilarious)...

I bought Davy his first Merriam Webster Children's Dictionary.

I still remember mine, but I don't have it anymore.

It was this one.

Actually I love this design. I may have just ordered this for myself. 🤭

I also bought this bird field guide for home ed.

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Observations from my actual garden…

Pinto beans!

We started these in ziploc bags taped to our window. 💫

Blackberries are also ripening! So sweet!

It truly feels magical to have food growing in your own backyard.

This is what I’ve replaced Instagram with.⁵

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What's new on my creative compost heap...

Obsidian 101 is a collection of links for anyone who is new to Obsidian. (I'm no expert, but we can figure it out together.)

My notes on Black Mountain College have had a bit of a tidy.

I migrated my notes on William and Jane Morris from my personal Obsidian.

And I also took some notes from What We Talk About When We Talk About "The Village" by Cat Valente. (I know we all want community and support, but most of us wouldn't really want to go back to "the village" even if we think we would.)

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Delightful finds of the week…

• Check out this illustration of why it’s hard for neurodivergent minds to switch tasks.

• Jocelyn Mathewes on resting when you can.

• Human Made Icons & Human Intelligence Badges (Hat tip to Mitchell Volk & Beth Spencer)

• And Storyfair a new indie audiobook store where the books are DRM-free and the authors get a 75% royalty on every sale. via Cory Doctorow

• Who knew you could combine LEGO and paper with a standard hole punch?

• How do I make this our TV screensaver? via Kottke

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This time last year…

and

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Ok, it’s time for bedtime routine so I just got this done in time.

Drop a comment if you see something you want to chat about.

Cheers,

P.S. If you want a pen pal you can pledge $3 over on Patreon or join the paid tier on Substack.

1. Meaning “belonging to another time.”

2. I’ve revived my Patreon so people can support at a lower price point. Substack has a higher minimum pledge level and also takes a bigger cut from creators. I’ve decided to use both platforms, but offer the same perks to supporters no matter where they pledge.

3. I’m probably an affiliate, but I can’t be bothered to find the link right now.

4. Maybe someday I’ll write about RJ’s Advice for Writers I read in the archives during my trip to Charleston.

5. I’m not quitting / deleting Instagram. But I’m definitely dialing back time spent there and reframing it as a community bulletin board versus my personal memory album.