June 28, 2023
Several years ago I studiously produced a quarterly newsletter, beginning in March 2017 and ending with the spring 2021 edition. I enjoyed doing it. Each edition contained a word from me, a bit about what works were "in progress," a section about my best boy Deuce, an "interview" question, Fun With Photoshop, and ended with a meme of some sort. It was something I could produce during quiet moments at the day job. The old Sitebuilder software I used for a website made it sooooooo easy to upload a .pdf, and then all I had to do was announce it or link to it. That all changed when support for Sitebuilder was pulled.
I thought I could still do a newsletter and simply load it as a page here at Between the Keys. That didn't really work. If a newsletter isn't delivered to an inbox, folks don't seem to take the time to click and go read it.
I used to have a mailing list, which was a Yahoo Group. That worked until Groups went bye-bye.
By mid-2021, we were still struggling with COVID-19. I had settled my stepfather's estate and begun my countdown to retirement. My husband's health was in decline. My mother is in a facility with Alzheimer's Disease. My best friend, whom I met in the third grade, had abandoned me and moved a thousand miles away. My writing partner, Christiane France, had died. I was alone and exhausted. Keeping up a newsletter was not feasible.
Now, that's not a plea for you to say, "oh, you poor thing!" It was simply my season of trial, and as with all things, it has passed.
On our morning walk, Deuce and I discussed whether or not I should restart the newsletter. Well, I talked and he listened as is his way. He never gives me bad advice. He simply lets me speak and lets me know he loves my voice. No one else has ever listened to me as intently as he does. But I digress...I talked myself out of doing a newsletter. I have Between the Keys and it's time I utilize it the way I once did. Maybe one day I'll change my mind - it's been known to happen! But until then, this is still the place where I share my writing world. Thanks for stopping by!
KC Kendricks/Rayne Forrest
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