It's a weird time for writing, thinking and publishing. Twenty years ago blogs were flourishing and some that started then are still going strong. Livejournal created communities of readers and commentators that was more intimate than the blog model, where comments have to be strongly moderated and there are drive-by assholes to contend with. Social media took away most of the people who were there for the water-cooler aspect of LJ and comment thread communities, but at the cost of any depth in the discourse; it's all comment arguments now.
And now newsletters are a thing. They may not be for long, but I've been watching this development for a wee while and wondering if it would be worthwhile for me to start one. I follow a few, some of which are just monthly posts from writers that are effectively reminders that they exist and write books, and promos for new work. Other newsletters are more blog-like in their depth, and others are invitations for the commenters to start a chat. Brooke Bolander wrote, "It’s like LiveJournal but it comes to your inbox and some people pay for it!" which made sense to me.
So what's in it for readers? I'm doing a whole lot of things, arguably far too many, mostly because I have Views about the way the world is right now and I'm not interested in sitting by and watching it get worse. Hence the strapline of this thing, "Writing in the early days of a better world."
Also:
I write science fiction and fantasy
I write poetry
I (occasionally) make films
I write games
I'm an expert in environmental management
I campaign for transgender equality
I'm active in local and national politics, including standing for office
I study economics, philosophy and politics
... there ought to be something among that lot that people are interested in.
Also, there has been a debate in SFF circles lately about a canon, and what works should be foundational to the genre. One of the things that you'll notice if you look at a lot of the pulp-influenced ones, the Gernsbackian and Campbellian stories, is that they looked on politics and sociology as 'soft', and therefore not worth paying attention to. But SFF is about people far more than it is about wiring diagrams, so while I'm saying, "Look at this!" as I learn interesting things about how people relate to each other, I plan to post writing prompts for anyone who wants to take a shot at putting them in stories.
As I said above, it’s a weird time right now. We’ve been in our bunkers for six months, trying to keep from getting sick or pass along infection, wondering how we’ll pay the bills, and losing the connections that make us people, and not just consumers. I miss geeky chat, and one of the things I’d like to do with this is to get folk in the comments chatting with one another. Because you have to sign up to this thing, I’m hoping that the chat will be a bit more civilised than you find on social media or blog comment threads. And I hope that while people will disagree about some of the things we chat about, there will be give and take. Because your mileage will vary.