Autumnal Equinox Update

A Note to my Readers

John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888

Dear Subscribers, Greetings on this night of the fall equinox! I hope you’re well—or at least managing—in these bizarre times. Speaking of hanging in there, I want to thank everyone for sticking with me here. I am still figuring out the best way to use this platform, and, as a lot of you probably know, my husband, the writer Walter Kirn, and the writer and editor David Samuels, started a new publication, County Highway, in late July. Needless to say, it was a hectic summer in our household. County Highway is a print-only newspaper, a 19^th century broadsheet with a magazine sensibility that tells true stories from around America, stories that don’t often find their way into glossy magazines that tend to be focused on the coasts. I am thrilled to be writing a column called “Remedies” for the paper.

My column, which will appear in every issue, looks at various remedies, herbal and otherwise, that address the kind of modern physical ailments—and spiritual maladies—so many of us are suffering from now. These essays will be (as I tend to be) rooted in and concerned with the human body, but obviously I’m interested in the body as a portal to the soul. The first one was about Elm flower essence, which is for the feeling of “overwhelm”—perhaps you know it?—and about Dr. Edward Bach, who first codified and mainstreamed the use of flower essences. My second piece is about…well, it’s a still a secret for a little while longer. But it’s a fun and fascinating topic, if perhaps “a wee bit gross,” as David, my editor, joked. I wish I could post the columns here, but for now they live only in the paper, which can be found at various bookstores, general stores, hardware stores, and other aesthetically aligned venues around the country. (See the website for a list.) Or by subscribing to County Highway.

As most of you also know, I’m at work on a book of essays about Las Vegas titled Flamingo Road. For me, that requires diving to the bottom of the ocean and staying there for extended periods of time. (If you are interested in receiving updates about my book, sign up here. I send out emails rarely, and won’t spam you.) But I so enjoy writing for this platform, and I have some excess creative energy that has to go somewhere, so I don’t intend to abandon it. In June, I wrote an homage to Tina Turner that I published here, and in July, a somewhat stranger dispatch from my life, “The Closeup Agency: On hand models and Hollywood.” I truly loved writing those pieces. They also took me a while to craft, and thus might not be the ideal way to use this platform, or at least not all the time. I know a lot of people just use Substack as a newsletter, to send out updates and information—like I’m doing right now—but I’m not so interested in that. I’ve been thinking about writing a series of diary entries, as the spirit moves me but on a fairly regular basis, and will likely begin that and see how it goes.

I also thought I’d put the question to you, my friends and readers: What would you like to read from me here? More magazine-style pieces and essays? Diary entries? Dispatches? Interviews? Short stories? Letters like this one? Fragments? Dreams? (Kidding, sort of.) A combo platter of the above? Are there specific subjects you’d like me to write about? Tell me your thoughts in the comments, however specific or general. Of course, I’ll continue to write according to my instincts and whims—that’s the whole point of this place. But more regularly. I already have another post ready for you. So tell me what you’d like to see here in Pennyroyal. And soon I’ll tell you why I chose that name.

Yours,

Amanda