I moved to Substack!

hullo everybody! long time no see (my fault, but we ignore that)

today i come along to convey the good news (or not-so-good news depending on whether you actually enjoy the words i throw out into the internet-void or think them a godforsaken curse) that i’ve been writing again! albeit on a different platform: a book blog on substack! (currently named “if cats ruled the world” but i’m in the depths of seriously considering changing it to “the fantasy journals” to fit the theme better. we’ll see. you’re free to offer opinions and screamy thoughts)

offering explanation for the move

the reasons for this decision are multi-fold (i’m a distinguished human now and use fancy words! hi!) but they go something like this:

• i hate this blog. as ash nicely pointed out, “it was a stage in my life” and i’m a different person now. i love lots of things that have nothing to do with books and writing, unlike the anoushka who first birthed and nurtured this precious book blog she valued more than life itself (books were her sole personality, but they sadly aren’t mine)
• this doesn’t mean that the substack isn’t going to feature books, it IS a book blog after all, but it’s going to be more of a mixture. with bullet points because i’m still wholly in love with them, but also frequent cat appearances (my cats have lots of thoughts on the books i read them, as it turns out) (they’re constantly meowing. all the olden cats who used to share my life and my front porch NEVER meowed. the current one’s a weird generation) and the substack, as opposed to the dipped in ink blog, feels like a whole new notebook: all empty pages, waiting to be filled. and i really like the thought of that. no history and no expectations to live up to, which means i get to be wild and free
• but a more practical reason is that substack doesn’t have to be designed the way wordpress blogs do. and in case you haven’t noticed, the design of this blog is… kind of broken. and the contents of my home page and about page and every single other page need to be changed. the thought of doing all of that ALL OVER AGAIN sounds exhausting and makes me want to give up on life and sob. (honestly, the measly amount of time i spend writing blog posts doesn’t even JUSTIFY the hours and hours and hours poured into redesign every couple of months because i can never get it looking “just right”. like, it’s a book blog for god’s sake. it’s purpose it to be WRITTEN ON not dressed up pretty)
• i’ve also noticed a huge decrease in the amount of time it takes me to write a post on substack than what it did on wordpress. (i again blame this on the vast amounts of time i used to spend designing graphics and fancy seperators when i was writing on wordpress. now i simply “heading 2” stuff and it takes a measly second) i do not even kid when i say it’s cut my writing time in half: posts that used to take 7+ hours to go from outline to publish-ready now take me about 3 hours and read much nicer (while also being heaps better at cutting out unnecessary words)
• i don’t use as much screamy caps-lock (in posts. dms and comments are a different story) anymore and screamy caps-lock sentences are kind of the thing dipped in ink is MADE OF.
• i want to eventually introduce paid posts that can be read on a yearly/monthly subscription and i have no idea how to go about doing that on this blog but substack lets me do it very easily! all money money money (said mr. potato-head style) will go towards funding the part of my life where i take care of the stray cats who live outside my house and around the neighborhood (what i fondly refer to as “my measly lil rescue efforts”) because i’m broke but i love them too much to give up. (also shameless self promo here, but if you’d like to see more of my cat neighbors (and also newborn baby kittens because there’s loads of those around at the moment) stalk my cat-instagram: @theruleofcats! i post there more often than anywhere else and DID I MENTION THERE’S CATS? like you’d have to be seriously demented to not love kittens) (don’t worry, i kid. but seriously)

what you need to do

so now all that’s left for you to do is this:

• link me to the best posts you’ve written over the past year that i’ve missed so i can go read ’em and scream in your comments!!!
• head over to my susbtack blog (linked here) and click the “subscribe” button in the top right-hand corner if you’re on the web app on desktop or mobile (or by entering your favorite email address in the popup that appears mid-screen). if you’re on the substack mobile app, i’m not giving dumb instructions because you probably already know better than someone who can’t figure out where “drafts” are located on there (even after searching for a good 15 minutes. i gave up after that)
• all my posts from here on out are going to be on substack, but i’ll still be obsessively reading all you amazing people’s posts on wordpress! SO FOLLOW ME ON THERE, YOU if you’re interested in the words i have to speak and all my future elizabeth rachel dare-style prophecizing
• oh and you’ll be updated of new substack posts via whatever email you register!!! so you don’t have to exclusively log into the app or whatever to read posts

catch up on my substack posts

here’s a smol comprehensive guide to all of the three posts i’ve published on substack so far with little descriptions to help you decide whether you want to read them or say “nay not for me” and mercilessly skip:

• if cats ruled the world… they’d start a substack! an intro post to the substack blog, walking you through some life updates and future plans. you probably don’t want to read that post if you’ve already read this one, since (although it lacks the life updates) the “future plans” in this post are much more up-to-date than that one. and an up-to-date update of my life doesn’t yet exist. (there’s too much happening)
• halp i’m not a reader anymore!!! in this post i go back to my dramatic roots and reveal some secrets that are possibly going to lead you to seeing me in a different light. it’s a post of all the ways i’ve betrayed anoushka of the past BUT I’M DOING BETTER. i swear. also featuring: a list of novellas that i hope to read.
• there’s something in the water. it steals away your memories. wherein i review a dystopian novella i read on the plane, whose sole purpose in life is to freak you out about the rain. (it’s a weird novella)

let’s scream

starting a new project naturally leads to a brain-exploding amount of ideas and i have. SO MANY. i need help deciding between them so here’s some things for you to answer in the comments (i’d be really grateful if you did and send over virtual chocolate and cats for every single one of you who’d like ’em!!!)

• what are your thoughts on the wordpress-to-substack move? do you prefer one platform over the other or would you be willing to read my silly screamy posts absolutely anywhere?
• what would be your preferred frequency to recieve substack posts from me? weekly? thrice-weekly? twice-weekly? everyday? (everyday probably isn’t happening anytime soon, but a girl can dream)
• what would you like to read about? i’m currently very very interested in writing lots and lots and lots of monthly wrap ups (to make up for all the months i spent NOT writing them), along with essays on books and mini book review compilations, plus weird posts like reading journals where i walk you through a readalong of sorts (aka a compilation of my bullet-point-ed thoughts arranged in sections according to chapters, with smol summaries of everything that goes down within the story) that you can follow along with! (i’m actually working on part one of fonda lee’s breath of the dragon reading journal currently and it should be out within the month). and maybe writing snippets and short stories and random tales of my ill-fated writing adventures that no one wants to read about and writing logs and weekly diaries where i let you in on all my secrets, in the form of paid posts? TELL ME YOUR PREFERENCES and anything else you might be interested in!
• would you actually even be interested in paid subscriptions? (something like $5/month or $50 for a whole year) and if yes, what would you want out of them?
• lastly and most importantly, GIMME LIFE UPDATES. on all the books you’ve been reading and the writing you’ve been doing and all the recent events that have been making up your life. i may not be a good replier but i promise i listen to everything (aka read comments as soon as they arrive!)

and that’s it. this is where we part ways (not me and you. me and dipped in ink, my trusty sidekick and digital diary for the past many years! i started it in middle school, when i was 13 and it’s been a long and fabulous journey and i’ve loved every second of it) (except all the redesigning. that has been a humble pain in the ass and i’m happy to be leaving it all behind)