Thanks you for bearing with me while I figured out the next chapter for Notes from a Hired Pen, given Tinyletter's upcoming shut down. After exploring many options (thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!) I've decided to move the newsletter over to jenamiller.com, and run it as both a blog and as a newsletter.
This works for a few reasons: first, I know how to use WordPress, so it's an easy transition. Second, my web designer can roll everything over, which means that my archives will be preserved, on my own website. And third, I won't be stuck in this situation again down the line should I pick another newsletter platform, and the same thing happens. Now, it's on my site, where it's under my control. Added bonus: we'll now have a comment section, if people choose to use it.
As a subscriber to this newsletter, you don't have to do anything. The posts will live on my website, and also be sent as a newsletter via Jetpack. When everything is moved over, the email list will be too, so you'll already be signed up on the new platform. The next time you get a newsletter from me, it will look different, but it will be the same newsletter, same me, just with a new wardrobe.
Sheesh what a mess — and I only remembered this weekend that I had to switch where I sold the ebooks recently too. Yikes! I'm also racing to hit a few pre-holiday deadlines, so I don't have much to say in terms of freelancing right now except that one of the things I've learned in nearly 19 years of doing this is that these things happen. Technologies change, tools change, and we have to be able to adapt (even if I did so kicking and screaming). So once again, thank you for bearing with me. See you in 2024 — from a better, shiner, platform!
Recent Bylines
"The Wide Span of the Rainbow Bridge" for Slate
"In a Post-Covid World, There's a New Landscape for At-Home Medical Tests" for Johns Hopkins Magazine
"Finished 'All the Light We Cannot See?' Let these Dramas Sweep You Away Next" for Tudum
"UAW Strike to have a Ripple Effect on Construction" for Construction Dive
"$16 billion Gateway Program Construction Finally Underway" for Construction Dive
"Unfair Labor Practice Charges on the Rise" for Construction Dive
"Cervical Cancer: Elimination is Possible" for InventUM
"A Rare Cancer: Malignant Mesothelioma" for InventUM
"Savannah Du '18 and Michael Zhang '17 Form Indie Pop Duo" for Princeton Alumni Weekly
"Is an 'Employee Experience Winter' Coming?" for HR Dive
"How to Help Employees Deal with the Demands of the 'Holiday Spirit'" for HR Dive
"Challenging the 'Good Enough' Cybersecurity Mindset" for Cybersecurity Dive
What I'm Reading
Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
Wreck the Halls by Tessa Bailey
Savage Run by C.J. Box
The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
The Queen of Dirt Island by Donal Ryan
Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly
Inheritance by Nora Roberts
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
What I'm Watching
- Once Upon a Studio. This silly Disney short made me cry. CRY! Well, I'm still grieving so a lot of things make me cry, so that makes sense.
- Staged. I bought all three seasons of this faux-reality show, of pals David Tennant and Michael Sheen, which started during the pandemic. Extremely funny. I enjoyed it very much.
- The Marvels. I saw this the morning I flew to London (because with an 11pm flight, and being ready to go the night before, I didn't have much else to do). I liked it! I think it suffered due to the strike, but also: it's a family movie. Why wasn't it marketed like that?
- Escaping Twin Flames. Oh cripes, another cult. This is a weird one (not the documentary itself, which was well done, but the cult itself).
- The Girl in the Picture. This true crime documentary is a sad one. All the trigger warnings about it, if you want to look it up.
- American Murder Next Door. Okay, yes, I know, I've watched too much true crime lately, but I guessed who the killer was right off the bat. If you've watched any Dateline, you know what I mean.
- You've Got Mail. Of all the things I could have watched on my flight home, I picked a movie I've seen a zillion times before — I even wrote a graduate school paper that included it! It's such a snapshot in time of both what email was, and what the book industry was, and the writing feels like it's just gotten gotten better over time. I chose wisely.
- Sex and the City. The flight had a selection of what I guess they thought were some top episodes, and it was like settling in with an old friend. Has the show aged well? Not entirely. But these episodes were a fine way to pass the time.
- Mr. Monk's Last Case. I enjoyed the Monk TV show, so why not watch the standalone movie? It was…not what I expected. He spent most of the movie planning to end his own life. Yes, they get the gang back together, and yes, he solves a murder, but it was also pretty dark.
- Barbie. I saw this in the theaters, and then watched it at home. Ryan Gosling deserves an Oscar — something I feel even more so on seeing it again.
Until next time, from our new home!
Jen A. Miller
runningalovestory.com
bookaweekwithjen.com
Notes from a Hired Pen ebook series
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