January Newsletter
New Year, New Potential
Happy New Year, y'all! Every December I seem to find myself exhausted and maudlin, reflecting on another year gone by and doing my best to fight the lie that I'd spent it accomplishing nothing. And I can say with 100% surety that the feeling of sluggish waste is never true for any of us. If you’re reading this now, then you've survived to face another 365 days which is an incredible victory even if we forget that.
It might be this very facing down of mortality as one year swells big and bursts into the small freshness of another that allows me to step into each January 1st with hope and anticipation. As that clock strike of midnight approaches, all I see is potential.
2023 sees so many things on the horizon. I'm releasing my first novel, That Self-Same Metal, on April 25th even as I'm editing its sequel and preparing to write book 3 in the series. I have events where I've been invited to talk about my book, a list that keeps growing. I'm readying myself for marketing, filming promotional videos, giving interviews, and making publicity appearances. Will all that actually happen? Maybe. But stay ready and you ain't gotta get ready.
I will say that I found the book listed for sale on Target.com and that just kinda hit different. I think it’s because I expected it to be carried in bookstores (which honestly isn’t a GIVEN given) but seeing it at “We sell everything under the sun” Target isn’t something I expected. I may be asking y’all to share pictures on your store runs after April 25th but we’ll see.
On the other side of the career spectrum, I’m currently back as Hotspur in a short remount of Henry IV, Part 1 with the New Orleans Shakespeare festival. It’s exhausting but God do I love performing Shakespeare! I’m also watching my inbox for TV & film auditions from my acting agents. Living in “Hollywood South” definitely pays off. I’m actually waiting for news about a project I filmed back in October.
I'll also be directing my first Shakespeare play in May, a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream that's happening in the sculpture garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art. That's on top of directing the remount of One Night with Billie & Ella, a show I wrote and directed last year at the National World War II Museum. Seriously, when I tell y'all it's gonna be a busy first few months…whew…
Last year was difficult enough that I forced myself to write down the positives and my achievements. It was a year where someone asked how I pictured my future and the image refused to come to me. That more than anything is what I want to transform in 2023. Somewhere in the time between then and now my ability to dream got rusty and I want that compass functioning at its best. Even with so much already happening, I need to be able to look beyond and see the big plans that can burst through the seams of potential. That's my new year's wish.
Currently reading/watching:
Bluey (Still, always & forever as my toddler demands)
That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming
Ballad & Dagger by Daniel José Older
The Director’s Craft by Katie Mitchell
I have more things coming your way including weekly Black History Month content for February, behind-the-scenes stuff for That Self-Same Metal and the rest of the Forge & Fracture Saga, and updates on any public events I’ll be doing this year. Don’t worry, though, I’m not about to spam your inbox. Most of this will live on my Substack and get sent out in a sort of monthly roundup/digest. So swing by, you may find some unexpected goodies.
Until next time!
Love & good vibes,
Brittany