Last week, I wrote about religion and war. This week: money time.

Usually at the end of each year I send a breakdown of how much I made, and how I made it. I've written before about why I do this; previous editions include 2018, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In case you don't want to click on all of those links, they will tell you that in 2017 I made $41,000, and in 2018 it was up to $65,000. 2019 was a down year, $50,000, and in 2020 I was thrilled to reel in $55,000. 2021 was $49,000. Then, 2022, boom! $80,000. I was able to stay right around that number in 2023: $76,000 all told.

What happened between to vault me up that much? Oh, any number of things. I got a very lucrative gig writing for Descript's Creator HQ. I'm extra-lucky that's it's interesting to do, especially since they let me start my series of interviews with independent podcasters, which allows me to explore some of my eternal questions about how other people navigate the tangle of work, money, and creative practice. I also started writing for the podcast Scamfluencers, which has allowed me to do deep dives on figures as diverse as Lou Pearlman, JT LeRoy, and George Santos. Plus I did all of that romance ghostwriting, and at some point this year, I will have semi-related news... that I can actually tell you about this time! No NDA!!

The flipside of all of that is that I do less freelance journalism. Almost none, now that basically all of my editors have been laid off, and many of those publications have shuttered.