I finally have a newsletter! Plus you get...

 I'm a techno-dinosaur, perhaps because my mind is so often in the 1740s. For several years I've known I needed a newsletter because every writer does. And every time I thought of it, I went and did something productive: wrote a novel, or ate dulce de leche ice cream, or cleaned the toilet. The thought of figuring out how to set up a newsletter gave me a megrim. 

Illustration for Pamela by Samuel Richardson

I tried twice, unsuccessfully. The house was getting really clean. But after working on it again for several days, I finally succeeded
and sent out my first one. Here I am, preparing to post the first issue. There are still a few bugs to iron out but I'll fix them eventually. And after I hit the magic button and sent my chatty little letter off, I set up a "welcome" letter.

The advice for producing a newsletter that wouldn't be annoying was to put an "unsubscribe" widget at the top, in addition to the one that  automatically appears at the bottom. I tried to do this, but unfortunately, the actual instructions were written by computer geeks for computer geeks. I did not (and still do not) know what a widget is or where to find one, much less how to insert one. One of my less refined characters would probably have a pithy comment about that.

So I jury-rigged one by adding a line at the top that said something like, "If you ever want to unsubscribe, there's a button at the bottom of the page (because I can't figure out how to put one up here...)."

 Surely it should be easier to do this stuff than it is?  Oh, and by the way, the subscription thing is at the bottom of my website "landing page": https://18thcenturyromance.com/. There must be a way to put a button (or widget?) someplace else, too, but that's something I haven't figured out yet.  

And because this is a short post and I happen to have a couple of short reviews, here they are: 

16 Souls by John J. Nance is as good as a disaster novel can be. Even better, it’s a perfect blend of disaster novel and courtroom thriller. The story gripped me and the characters were believable.  I had things to do and places to go yesterday and instead I immersed myself in it until well after bedtime. 

The Pied Wizard of Regis Towne by Laura Strickland is a delightful fairy tale. Who could fail to be enchanted by the story of a self-respecting Rat transmogrified into a Man very much against his will? It’s all the things I enjoyed about fairy tales when I was a child, but with more humor and depth. I spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening with it and will be looking for more by Ms. Strickland.