Dear Internet,

In April of 2024, I introduced Ms Scarlet publicly as my pen name for some of my work. She got her own everything (website, newsletter, social media) but the thing was, I wasn’t keeping up with it. Trying to manage my legal name persona and Ms Scarlet was time consuming. How other authors do this is beyond me.

But! It gets better! I had not one pen name but two! The second pen name had a website but no newsletter and no social media. The conceit of the separation was that each name (legal and two pen names) would write in their own genres. Studies have shown readers get confused when an author writes in multiple genres under the same name. Having three pen names would solve that problem. (Lisa as contemporary and historical romance, Scarlet as cozy mysteries and paranormals, and the third pen name as erotica.)

After writing Ms Scarlet’s newsletter for a bit, I realised it was almost verbatim what I was shilling in Lisa Writes a Lot of Stuff. Why am I doing the double work? With announcing Ms Scarlet is me and I am Ms Scarlet, why not combine the two back at Lisa Writes a Lot of Stuff, which I did a few months later.

Life goes on, I’m writing a (semi) regular basis for Lisa Writes a Lot of Stuff about my writing and non-writing adjacent adventures. There was no reason to split off again. Open rates with my newsletters is higher than industry standards so I knew people were at least opening the newsletter which indicates some interest in my words.

A week or two ago, I was doing something not writerly related when my brain said, “Hey. You know, I think you should:

• Keep your legal name as author for essays, reviews, and opinion pieces (which I’m doing anyway)

• Ms Scarlet should be the face for all romance (contemporary and historical which is what I’m working on now)

• Put cozy mysteries and paranormal romances stories on hold

• Place second pen name on back burner

It just all clicked in my head that this made perfect sense. No part of my brain argued with this.

So:

• I removed links to second pen name from lisarabeywritesstuff.com

• I updated Ms Scarlet’s website (along with new author photo)

• I moved all fiction works-in-progress from lisarabeywritesstuff.com to Ms Scarlet's site

• I updated Ms Scarlet’s Facebook and Bluesky accounts and started posting on Bluesky

• I created her a newsletter (which you can find linked at the bottom of her website)

This is great an all, but what does it mean?

Glad you asked!

tl;dr: You won’t be receiving Lisa Writes a Lot of Stuff every other Wednesday anymore as it has been deprecated.

If you’ve enjoyed the writing-ish content, I do recommend meandering over to msscarletwrites.online and sign up for those bi-weekly newsletters!

That’s it!

To sum you will be recieving:

• Every other Sunday A Most Unreliable Narrator

• Every other Thursday, Dispatch Blotter

If you are into the side-hustle that is Nerd Girl Industries, I have Nerd Girl Industries Presents which comes out every other Tuesday!

(PS: I’ve taken a deep swerve into researching Mary Frith (aka Moll Cutpurse). Frith was a 17th C English woman who was a notorious pickpocket and fence in London. She’s also considered the first woman stand-up comedian and the first documented woman to smoke in England. She liked wearing men’s clothes. She’s pretty amazing!)

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Fundraiser

I’m fundraising for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention for a walk on September 14. As most of you know, a very beloved person in my life, the selfish bastard Brendan McAdams, killed himself on January 10, 2025. He would have been 46 this year.

My goal is to raise $1000 USD. I've got under $500 more to go. Go to AFSP’s website to donate. I'll be posting an announcement in every issue of my newsletters and regularly on my social media until the day of the walk. If you can donate even $5 or share this link (https://bit.ly/AFSPWalk2025), you will be an amazing human being and doing me a huge solid.

Thank you.