Cackles & Coffee Is Here, Pickety Witch Remains (and Other Updates)

It feels like an eternity since I did a good old fashioned newsletter! Over the last month, I've been so busy that I couldn't think straight, but it was all for very good reason.

First, I returned to New York Comic Con almost immediately after 9 days in Austin for Fantastic Fest. It was a whirlwind 50-or-so hours in one of my favorite cities in America, and I'm not going to lie to you and say that I slept or treated my body well. I did, however, moderate the biggest panel of my career (so far) on the Empire Stage with the Blade Runner 2099 team and work directly with ReedPop to do a bunch of interviews for their studio. I even got to help with the morning show with Perri (seen above), which was basically just us giggling and talking about what we'd loved about the show so far. Someone pay us to laugh and talk about stuff we're obsessed with more often (more on that in a bit).

It was a whirlwind, a joy, and a privilege to get the opportunity to work with so many incredibly talented people in front of and behind the cameras at NYCC. San Diego Comic-Con is my hometown show, but NYCC continues to be where my biggest career moments happen. I am endlessly grateful.

That was followed immediately by a premiere and several screenings the second I got home, along with several junkets and a hand full of reviews. I got the chance to have a long chat with Mike Flanagan for Backstage which is, to date, my favorite interview I've ever had the opportunity to be a part of. I decided that Carrie wasn't enough Flanagan for the month, so we decided to make The Haunting of Hill House the premiere episode of our podcast.

Oh yeah... I started a show?

Please don't let the casual way in which I present that information fool you. I've spent years on Cackles & Coffee. It's seen multiple forms and iterations and even more rejections, so, after our last "we love you but our focus is on influencers" I decided to team up with Perri and Rosie to just do the damn thing ourselves.

The show will be both audio and video, which is fun for me as someone with no idea how to video edit and flying by the seat of her pants. Still, I pulled it off for Episode 1. The video will be live on our YouTube (which you should subscribe to, please?) by the time most of you read this, and the audio will be available wherever you take your podcasts by the time this newsletter hits your inbox. We wanted the show to be available in whichever format people wanted to enjoy and rest assured: they are not edited the same. I'm broadly in firm agreement that podcasts are an audio art, so I pinky promise the version on podcast platforms sounds like one (even if there were a couple of audio issues). The video, too, is edited for that format. Though, please be patient with me while I learn.

We have a Patreon page to support the show as it grows (one day I would like to not be the co-host, producer, editor, marketer, and whatever-else-er). Several sneaky newsletter subscribers found it before it even went live, but please know I share that link with 0 expectation of this newsletter's paid subscribers (or even its free ones!). Pickety Witch isn't going anywhere. I love writing, and I have no intention of stopping. I am also fully cognizant that people have less and less time to read and prefer podcasts and videos for various reasons. If you love my work but have been waiting for a different way to support, there it is! You'll also be supporting Perri and Rosie, and giving our show the opportunity to grow and evolve into whatever its final form is meant to be. In return, we offer ad-free episodes, early access, craft hours and more! (A lot more, I spent forever on these tiers...)

If you want some chaos directly in your inbox, please enjoy our catastrophe of a first live stream, where Riverside betrayed me and YouTube simply laughed. (If you want to skip the technical problems and my subsequent meltdown — I was literally sweating you guys — start around the 12 minute mark.) Look at that image! It took me too long! Have a mentioned that I am a writer?! I think that's my version of "I'm just a girl."

That, I believe, is the long and short of where I've been and what I've been up to in between all the reviews you get in your inbox. I'm tired and, as is my way as a freelancer, deeply stressed that November and December aren't currently as busy.

Still, I'm excited to keep learning, growing and chasing whatever this chapter is meant to look like.

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