Most of the time, I am The Fool.

In tarot, the card The Fool is the first card in the Major Arcana, a set of 22 cards that follow a hero’s journey, of sorts. They depict major thematic moments of one’s life; moments of great change, of great joy, of great sorrow, mysteries to unravel, and devils to contend.

The Fool begins this great journey with everything before them and only the familiar behind; Frodo leaving the Shire, [redacted boy wizard] leaving for [redacted school], Luke leaving Tatooine, Alice tumbling into the rabbit hole, and Dorothy skipping down the yellow brick road. Whatever your preferred flavor of a hero’s journey, it pretty much exists in popular literature.

I am — most of the time — The Fool because beginnings aren’t rare for me.

Beginnings are a constant; starting a new writing project, a new theater project, a new partnership, a new book, a new song, a new dance, a new life… I am swimming in beginnings, but only because something before it came to an end.

All of this is to say: I’ve been away for a while. And now I’m figuring out what it means to come back anew.

Eventually, I’ll talk about what the last year or so has been like while I’ve been (and continue to be) mostly offline, but for now I want to forge ahead into this newest new —this newsletter! Or travelogue, as I’m calling it.

This travelogue has a few working purposes:

As for expectations, you’ll get a monthly bulletin — much like today’s post — with a little note from me and my upcoming events for the month. You might get more than that in a month, you might not! Who’s to say?

Right now, everything is free! I don’t have any current plans for a paywall; that’s not really what this is for. But if I do paywall something, it’ll be because it was enough labor to warrant payment for my time and expertise or because it’s something I’d like to keep a bit more private.

Beyond that, I’m kind of going to follow my whims about this space. I’ve learned that my neurodivergent brain isn’t great at the kind of consistency beloved by algorithms, so I’m going to try to let my neurons go where they want and see what happens. I obviously have a lot of thoughts and feelings about LGBTQ+ topics in kids media, but I also love women’s soccer, and queer books, and musical theater, and cooking. Maybe you want to come on my journey to become a better bread-maker this year? Forgive my main-character syndrome, but isn’t that kind of the point of starting a newsletter? To be the main character for the length of an email? To be The Fool, on purpose? To share the little joys I’m attempting to cultivate in my life in spite of the world being gestures widely.

In the end, I am The Fool, well, most of the time.

I never really know what where I’m going, or what cliff I’m stepping off, but I know I’m always up for an adventure. Thanks for coming along for the ride.

I’ll see you at storytime,

<3 Lindz

P.S. Send me your thoughts if you’ve read The Long Way To A Small Lonely Planet; I want to talk about it!

I’ve been obsessed with this Brandi Carlile cover of “Space Oddity” for months, and now you will be, too. Enjoy!