This post has been incredibly hard to write, but here we are.

So, before I get into the career necromancy, some housekeeping.

Who tf are you?

If you've never heard of my ass before - uh, hi. Thanks for reading this far! I'm an artist and writer; you can call me Magpie or Michelle. She/her or xe/xer. I'm queer and poly, and I live with my two spouses, our son, and three cats in southern Alberta, Canada. I make jewelry and knitwear and sometimes sew; I write science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction - and maybe romantic and gothics?! Ideas are cooking. I even have a non-fiction research project I want to work on and publish.

I got married in 2022, moved houses in 2023, and moved again in 2024, the same year my wife had our son. It's been exciting and busy and packed, and life keeps happening - but it's been pretty hard on my non-fiction writing output.

Also politics and mental and physical health issues have been a thing happening to me, so you know, those take time, too.

The rundown

So, what can you expect from this space? How often can you expect it?

• I'm hoping to post biweekly (every two weeks) or more.

• Content will vary between poetry and articles, with fiction excerpts or short stories, brain permitting, plus occasional publishing news.

• I may re-publish some of my best old articles from the blog archives. Re-published articles may be edited or rewritten, and both their vintage status and any alterations to the original content will be noted.

• Expect typos. Sometimes I need to say things more than I want to say them perfectly. I'm also going to be writing on my phone a lot.

I'm going to sunset my MailChimp newsletter and switch to publishing on Substack and on Patreon. I may still publish on Medium and Tumblr, but I'm considering sunsetting my OG Blogspot blog for traffic reasons. (SciFiMagpie is my handle on pretty much every site you can think of.)

Regardless, the same content will be accessible at each of these social media locations. I'm probably not ever going to do exclusive or paywalled content. At most, paywalled content might be early releases.

I'm also sunsetting my editing work. I'll be doing the occasional book for friends, but 11 years is a good run. I haven't always been as reliable or prompt as I would have liked, mostly from mental health, and it's time for me to let editing go. I need to make stuff.

However, if you like my fiction and non fiction, or my artisan stuff, this is probably good news. I'm also going to be posting more on my Instagrams, so follow @rainbowbazaarartcollective or @SciFiMagpie on Instagram or even Tiktok to see what I'm up to. Theoretically, I might be on Bluesky, but I'm more of a long-form or group-chat bitch, so I can't promise much.

I also want your opinion on all this! If you're familiar with my previous writing, chime in. Where do you want to see me?

If you've read all this way, leave me a 👍or ❤️ the post.

See you all soon - for real this time. Change is scary, but I have too much in my head, and I'm tired of closing my mental cupboards on half-finished ideas. Time to start releasing them into the wild.

***

A writer and artist, Michelle Browne lives in southern AB with xer family and their cats. Xe is currently working on the next books in her series, other people's manuscripts, knitting, jewelry-making, and drinking as much tea as humanly possible.

Find xer all over the internet: *Website * Mailing list * Magpie Editing * Amazon * Tumblr * Mastodon *Facebook * Medium * Twitter  * OG Blog* Instagram * Paypal.me * Ko-fi