Pull up a chair, because this week had a little bit of everything.
Let’s start with the real chaos: jury duty happened, and it was somehow both the most boring and most unhinged experience I’ve had all year. I liked it enough — or hated it enough — to give it its own write-up on Medium under Quirky Rants, because some things need room to breathe.
Then there’s the slow-motion comedy that is my author platforms. Amazon’s Author Central has finally figured out how to do its one job and started sending alerts when something new drops. Goodreads, meanwhile, appears to have also relearned how to read, because my books are finally getting sorted over there too. I need every bit of that traction — I’m still racing the other Alexandra Grant, the actor’s wife, for algorithm real estate. Same name. Not the same bank account. I wish.
Weather update, because Kansas demands it: a cold front pushed through and the real feel dropped from 110 to 99. Actual temps barely budged — still 97-plus — so let’s not pretend we thawed. No Arctic front. That part was just for the drama.
Also new this week: a Telegram channel, Spilled Ink and Echo (https://t.me/Spilled_Ink_and_Echo). Ink Flow, the weekly newsletter, will be dropping on the same Sunday schedule as everything else.
And coming next week — an open-ended story collaboration page here on Substack, where writers can pick up a story, a poem, a stanza, whatever’s on offer, and keep it moving. Guidelines land with it.
That’s the week. Go forth.
Alexandra
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Alexandra, this whole update feels like one long reminder that your week refuses to stay in one genre. 😂❤️
Jury duty being both painfully boring and completely unhinged sounds about right, and I’m glad Quirky Rants is getting the full version because now I’m curious what happened badly enough to deserve its own room.
I also laughed at the other Alexandra Grant problem. “Same name. Not the same bank account. I wish.” 😂 That’s such a good line. But it really does sound like Amazon and Goodreads are finally starting to work with you instead of making you drag everything into place yourself.
And Kansas dropping from a 110 real feel to 99 and calling that relief is just rude. 😂
What I’m most interested in, though, is the open-ended collaboration page. I love the idea of someone starting with a story, poem, or stanza and then handing it to the next person to carry forward. That could turn into something wonderfully unpredictable, especially if writers with very different styles start crossing paths.
You’ve got a lot moving at once, but it feels less scattered than it sounds. It all seems to be widening the same thing: more places for your work to travel, and more ways for other writers to come into the conversation.
Definitely curious to see where the collaboration experiment goes. ❤️✍️