Friday, November 24, 2023: Newsletter Recommendations

Daily diary, Day 1179:

I hope all of you in the US had a good Thanksgiving holiday, however you celebrate. I had a very relaxing day, where I put reading at the top of my to-do list. Now this didn’t mean I jettisoned everything else, since in addition to getting in two walks and doing the daily dusting and some core exercises, I also had my usual zoom meeting. Nevertheless, I almost finished the novel by dinner time and finished up this morning over breakfast, so I feel quite pleased with myself.

I also read a few newsletter posts over lunch yesterday, and decided that I would write about two of them today, because they are from two of my very favorite newsletters, and I especially liked their posts from yesterday.

The first post was from a newsletter called the Austen Connection, the author going under the name Plain Jane. This is one of the first newsletters I discovered on substack, and it is about all things Jane Austen, with these really thoughtful essays about her books, her characters, and the Regency period. I always learn something from reading her posts, and. I especially recommend that any of you who like Austen or Regency romances give it a try.

Having just confessed in my last post about my love of Georgette Heyer, the dean of Regency Romances, you can understand why I would enjoy a newsletter that look at this period. In addition, since most of my imbibing in Austen as an adult has been through shows like the mini-series Pride and Prejudice an every Austen movie that has come out in the past few decades, you might imagine that I also enjoy those posts that look at how Austen has been portrayed in modern media. But perhaps most significantly, this newsletter has inspired me to go back to the source and it is the reason I’ve started listening to Pride and Prejudice as an audiobook, intending to listen to all of the the Austen books through out this coming year.

The second post is by an author, Jo Linney, whose newsletter Growing Old and Owning the Real World, is also one of my favorites. She writes really thoughtful pieces about grief that she calls endings and beginnings, but also I am also delighted but her rambles down what she calls going down various rabbit warrens. She is a beautiful writer, and I again, highly recommend you read this post, and meander through her archive.

---

In case you aren’t sure how you got here, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. This is my newsletter reflecting on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully. If you aren’t already subscribed but are interested in doing so, you can subscribe for free by clicking the little button below. If you enjoyed this post, please do click on the little heart and/or share with your friends, and I always welcome comments!