FIRES is Coming Back, Y'all
And I want to know what you want!
Hi All-
I hope you’ve weathered the holidays with a little bit of grace as we move through more uncertainty. Those of you who traveled, I hope it wasn’t too stressful. I stayed home in Seattle and decided not to holiday with my family because I am “high risk.” Kind of a bummer, I have to say. But I am happy to report that my symptoms of RA seem to be coming under some sort of control, though it feels dangerous to type those words because I don’t want to jinx it.
Right now there are major fires burning in Colorado. I spent a year on a hotshot crew out of Fort Collins and lived in Golden, CO and Denver for several years in my twenties. My heart goes out to everyone who is feeling the impact of those fires.
It’s needless to say that they are quite unusual, and it’s very strange that Colorado has yet to see any significant snow this year. Meanwhile I have my little space heater going because my Seattle apartment isn’t made to withstand the below freezing temperatures we’re seeing. It’s been snowing here off and on since December 26th.
I am excited to get back to work.
I have a lot on my plate in this new year. My editor gave me my book back and I’ll be returning to that soon. I’m reading 365 short stories for my other newsletter, Socially Awkward, I am teaching yoga online and at several studios in Seattle, and I have a couple writing jobs and freelance writing gigs I’ll be working on. But I was in the middle of this project and this project means a lot to me and I am excited to come back to it!
Please leave a comment below about what you want from this newsletter.
Here’s what you can expect when FIRES resumes (next week!):
Subscriptions are active again.
There will be no paywall. Yep, that’s right. I’m removing the paywall to FIRES because I want everyone to have access to all the content. This is important to me because I really want all the work I do to be accessible to everyone despite their financial status. So, please do become a paying subscriber if you can. It’s challenging for me to do this work without paying subscribers. As someone who has lived over half my life in poverty, accessibility is super important to me. Your paid subscriptions will make that sustainable.
There will be a weekly (or bi-weekly) “live” thread, where we can all engage with each other. I am not yet sure of what day/time is the best for this, so please do comment on this post with any that would be convenient for you.
Weekly roundups of all news wildfire and climate change related.
Monthly longform history pieces, a continuation of what I started before my hiatus. The next one will be part II of Oregon’s fire history.
Interviews. I am hoping to have one interview released a month. In January I’ll be releasing my interview with Christopher Adlam, a regional fire specialist working in Southwestern Oregon. If you’re someone who works in fire or fire ecology in any capacity and would like to be considered for an interview, please reach out. If there’s someone you would like me to interview, ditto.
I think that’s it? If there’s more that you want, please drop it in the comments. Your feedback is super important to me!
Lastly: subscriptions are active again! AND I am offering 25% off subscriptions for the next week. That means $20 off a yearly paid subscription and $1.75 off a monthly subscription. That’s kind of a lot. So now is the time to subscribe!
I promise that if I ever go on hiatus, I will always pause paid subscriptions, so you’ll never be paying unless you are actively getting content from this newsletter. Y’all are important to me like that.
I hope you have a wonderful new year and will see you on the other side. Infinitely grateful for your support!
With love,
Stacy