Today I’m celebrating the launch of the Emerson Black Writes - The Desk! 🥳
It’s been a frightfully long time since I wrote a newsletter. Honestly, I can’t offer a decent excuse. Have I been busy? Assuredly so. Too busy to write a newsletter, or even a short, simple post with a simple update about Seen in Silverbridge, or my life in general? No.
I could have done it. But for whatever reason, I’ve had a mental block regarding newsletters. I think it’s Substack, and it’s sudden surge in popularity, also knowing that these missives appear in your email inbox, which must be such a jarring notification for you, leading you to think that something worthy of knowing has happened with Emerson and the books.
I think I’ve felt guilty about taking your time.
That thought inspires the most noticeable cringe in me, which is always the most reliable test of veracity.
The other reason I haven’t updated the blog in a few months is simply because there’s been precious little to report. Most of my posts have been writing lessons about process or systems that I hoped would add value to a young writer’s life, but having reviewed my subscriber list, most of the people who receive and open these newsletters are friends of mine who subscribe to Emerson Black Writes to support me. So, long writing lessons began to feel fulsome and superfluous.
However, pushing all those feelings of insecurity aside, I’m back. And what’s more, I’m back with a newsletter that isn’t a writing lesson or an announcement. It’s a mere musing. An off-load. A brain-fart in the wind.
Where Am I and What Am I Doing?
Glad you asked.
I’m currently 15,000 feet in the air, on a Turkish Airlines flight flying from Zagreb, Croatia to Istanbul, Turkey. Belgrade is on my left, Skopje to my right, and in front of me is a tray of rather decent flight food. Kofta and bread, mozzarella and tomato. Also in front of me is my Kobo, with the book The Hearts Invisible Furies open, 20% read. I’m absolutely loving it. As soon as I’ve finished typing this into my phone I’ll get right back into it.
Three years ago, almost to the day, I flew from New Zealand to London. The three years went by like a shot, and now my visa has run its course and I’ve been ejected from the United Kingdom’s lukewarm bosom with little ceremony.
That’s right, it’s time for us to move back to the Southern Hemisphere.
And for this, despite the sadness of leaving, we rejoice! The golden shores of Aotearoa. Or, in our case, just as in the cases of 25,000+ other Kiwis a year, the golden, shark-infested shores of Australia. Yup, traitors to our country are we, running for the economic paradise that is our bigger cousin. We tossed it up for a few months, uncertain about what to do and where to go, and the idea of going home to NZ after growing accustomed to such a bustling city like London felt like too big an upset. But Australia is close! We will now be a short flight away from home instead of two days’ travel.
Ah, so if we are moving back, why are we on a flight to Turkey? Because we’re making the most of our proximity to Europe while we can. We’ve done an impressive amount of damage to the environment over the last three years, spewing carbon emissions out via multiple planes’ exhaust-holes, and we thought we better squeeze in a bit more before we had to leave.
Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Croatia and Turkey. A heck of a whirlwind holiday! It’s been gorgeous, and I’m already grieving it being over, which is odd considering it’s not over. That happens though. When you’re so happy that you feel anxious about it being over.
How’s the writing?
Fantastic! I’ve been just as prolific as ever, perhaps more so, in recent months. I’ve penned pilot scripts for four TV series, rewritten two feature films, and written the outline for another. In terms of books, I’ve just picked up the second draft for Silverbridge Book 4 and am making my slow way through rewriting it. I love the Silverbridge world and am luxuriating in being with the characters again. The only hardship is having to cut so much. The current draft is over 110,000 words! Much too much for a young adult mystery romp.
My morning routine is still strong. Early start, quick stretches while my coffee brews, then deep focus for 1-2 hours. Every day.
Now, I just have to seriously consider adding the newsletters back into the routine, and then we can bring this glorious relationship we’ve been lucky enough to keep simmering back to a healthy boil.
Oh yeah, let me introduce: Emerson’s Desk
I’ve spent the last few days finagling with my computer and website, converting all my newsletters from Substack into markdown, loading them into Obsidian, then pushing them through another converter and uploading them to my website.
And I’m super proud to say, “It works!!”
Welcome to Emerson Black Writes - The Desk).
From here, you can explore the digital garden of all my writing, see how the archive connects using the graph view, and wander from post to post to your heart’s content.
Thank you for checking it out! Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement or if there’s a subject in particular you’d like me to write about.
I’ll still be posting my longer posts to Substack, but there are likely to be shorter posts that only appear on emersonblackwrites. Anything that doesn’t feel email-worthy, like short tutorials on certain apps I use to write, or updates on books, and possibly random backstories about characters that don’t make it into the full-length novels.
If you’re interested in how it all works and want to do it yourself, let me know and I can do a detailed post about it. It’s all been 100% free and open source. Community driven solutions for the win!