I am an autumn person, but I'm an autumn person who is also a summer person. I love, love, love summer, and I'm not generally fond of change. So when summer starts to fade, I start to mourn. For a bit. Then I remember I love autumn and make the shift. That's what usually happens throughout September. Now I'm ready.

Here's a bunch of things I did, wrote, read, and/or thought about this past month.

1. I wrote an essay about something I've had on my mind for a while now: It's Not Okay to Start Late. It's for all the other elder misfits pursuing creative work later in their lives who might also be tired of being patted on the head an patronized instead of valued for the full scope of what they have to offer.  
2. I posted a list of what I've been reading, watching, and listening to: Recently 24 September.
3. My podcast Quiet Little Horrors released an episode on Skinamarink and tomorrow will release an episode on Hausu (an inspired haunted house theme pairing, if I say so myself).
4. I posted October's round-up of dark writing markets for my fellow writers.
5. I appreciated Austin Kleon writing about the advice to never waste a midlife crisis.
6. "You are right in describing the world as ‘bizarre and temporary’ – it is indeed a strange and deeply mysterious place, forever changing and remaking itself anew. But this is not a novel condition, our world hasn’t only recently become bizarre and temporary, it has been so ever since its inception, and it will continue to be such until its end – mystifying and forever in a state of flux." Nick Cave on living in a bizarre and temporary world.
7. This is an older article, but there's a lot of wisdom in it for writers, artists and anyone living creatively: the weirdest story ideas come from your own obsessions.
8. Also: I completed the annual harvest ritual of navigating the corn labyrinth.

Well, it seems that Twitter continues to crumble around us, but Bluesky is definitely picking up the slack lately. I still have a handful of invitation codes for Bluesky so if any of my newsletter readers would like one, let me know. You can reach me by email at [email protected]. I will be on vacation for the first part of October so please forgive any delays in responses.

Thank you for reading! I'm grateful for you. 🖤