This is it

Off to the sea ✌️🌊

I’m no longer sharing my writing on Substack, but you can still read my work on my website or sign up to my new newsletter here. Or keep reading for the original version of my last post here…

Buckle that seatbelt, babe, because I’ve got three bits of news I want to whizz you through today…

1. I’ve got two books out this week! 

If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know my debut novel, Dear Neighbour, was published in hardback last summer. As of this week, Dear Neighbour is now available in paperback for the first time (including directly from me). A love letter to the power and necessity of found family and community in the face of austerity, housing insecurity and gentrification, it’s been literal years since Dear Neighbour was written, but I’m still proud of it, and incredibly grateful for the positive reader responses it’s had. And it was so fun to get to launch the paperback into the world by taking part in Blackpool’s World Book Night celebrations earlier this week, in a night that featured drag, dancing and some brilliant performances by Blackpool’s queer choir Electric Pink Voices. And it’s been a big week for my brand new fiction chapbook, Lost + Found, which came out on Wednesday. I’ve loved seeing the photos of the pre-orders arriving, and I’m still proper chuffed about how beautiful it looks. If you want to get your hands on either of these, you can grab them here. 

2. Baby’s got a summer gig

Proper thrilled to finally be able to share that I’m the first ever writer-in-residence for Queer Amusements, a brand new queer arts festival taking place in Blackpool this summer. I’ve been spending more and more time in Blackpool since my mam moved there during the pandemic, so being chosen for this role feels like an amazing chance to deepen my connection to the local queer arts community, and one I’m really grateful for. I’ll be going along to as much of the programme as I can, and sharing my experience throughout the festival over at Blackpool Social Club. The first instalment in that series is out later today, and once it’s live you’ll be able to read that here. I’ll also be developing some new performance material as part of my residency, so I’ll be documenting that process in more detail as it unfolds too. 

3. I’m outta here

I’ve been using Substack to send you these letters for just under a year, but this one is my last. The enshittification of Substack is well underway, I’m feeling it, and I don’t want to stick around while it rots further. But fear not, my loves. I’ll still be writing to you, but I’ll be using a different newsletter provider and sharing my writing on my website. There’s nothing you need to do, because I’ll be moving all subscribers over to the new system. This is just an advance warning so it’s not too jarring when future editions look and feel a bit different. You can expect a short hiatus in transmissions during May, because I’ll initially be focusing on getting things underway with sharing my experiences as writer-in-residence for Queer Amusements, then I’m going on a big walk across Portugal. If you missed it when I shared some experiences of walking 100+ miles across Spain last year, you can find more about that here and here. Unlike last time, this upcoming trip is a coastal route, and as a lifelong water baby I’m buzzing my absolute tits off at the prospect of spending ten solid days by the sea. But I’ll be back in your inbox in early June, hopefully with some gratuitous shots and hyperbolic descriptions of my time arsing about on every available beach.

Thanks always for reading. I’ll see you on the other side.

💖

A random post-swim sea shot from back in 2021 / how I hope to spend as much of life as possible