Big Summer Announcements

Announcing this year's changes to the Summer Romance List, plans for this newsletter, and something personal.

I tend to bury the lede, but I’m not going to do that today. First, I’ll share the exciting personal news: we’re expecting our second baby in the fall! I’m thrilled, exhausted, depleted, and grateful to experience another pregnancy—and all winter/early spring when I was talking about illness in our house, we really were sick! It just happened to pile on top of first trimester for me, resulting in mental and physical burnout.

Even though I’m feeling better now, I’m still adjusting to new limitations and boundaries with parenting a toddler while growing a human, plus maintaining a small business and trying to feel like my own person. It’s…a lot. Pregnancy brain is real, and powering through to meet deadlines or increase my work load is simply not possible right now—and I’m working on being okay with it.

So, what does this mean for The Eclectic Reader?

I’m still committed to writing in this space, but keeping a consistent schedule has proven tricky. I’ve been writing approximately the same number of newsletters, maybe minus one per month, but my usual Wednesday and Sunday editorial calendar has gotten away from me. Here’s what I can do in this phase, and what you can expect in your inbox:

• Six or seven newsletters in your inbox per month

• Among those newsletters, 3-4 will be exclusively for paid subscribers

• The same topics: books and reading, collections of interesting links and favorite things, printable reading lists, and occasional personal essays

I’m hopeful that this looser schedule will provide the right framework for consistently sharing work while honoring my mental and physical needs. Newsletters from The Eclectic Reader will come as a bit of a surprise to your inbox—a delightful one, I hope—and I intend to focus on quality rather than quantity, sharing carefully curated and thoughtful pieces.

What about the Summer Romance List?

I had so much fun putting together last year’s Summer Romance List and The February Romance Collection, but with everything going on, it’s been impossible to accomplish another big reading project this year. I will, however, share my long list of anticipated summer romance releases with paid subscribers, indicating which titles I’m prioritizing, prettily formatted in a printable PDF.

I know my paid subscribers love a well-curated list, and I have plans for mini printables spread over the entire summer, like what to read on Kindle Unlimited and which backlist romance novels make for perfect beach reading. In other words, you will still receive plenty of summer romance recommendations, just in a slightly different format, on a slightly different schedule.

Paid subscribers can expect the first summer romance list (my anticipated romance reads for May-June 2024) to land in their inboxes on May 14th.

Now you’re all up-to-date! I’m happy to answer questions in the comments or in DMs. If you’re experiencing a similar struggle with “keeping up” on Substack, I’d love to chat. Talking with fellow writers and creatives always helps me to feel encouraged, inspired, and less pressured. I’ll be back soon with more reading updates, and maybe some pregnancy survival content, if you’re interested in reading about it.

Cheers to the summer reading season and to taking good care of ourselves!