Checking in...

good riddance, 2025!

I’m in a writing group that has been meeting once a month for over a decade. (A decade!) While we sit down for our feast, we like to go around the table doing a “check in”. That’s sorta what this is.

The big news: I’ve decided to step down as the manager for After Dinner Conversation’s Substack. It has been an amazing learning experience for me, working with editor, Kolby Granville, and podcast narrators Drew Rhodes & T. Jack Dansen, with whom I narrated my ADC story—my first time recording with someone else.

Unfortunately, though, my husband ended up in the hospital over Christmas—he’s at home now and doing okay—but I’m afraid I’m too distracted these days to run a professional newsletter. I’ll continue chugging along right here on my own little Substack, though, whenever I can.

I’m beginning to dread years that end in 0 and 5. My father passed away in 2010, my mother in 2015, and this year it was my sweet Geordie Bear back in March. (I haven’t had the heart to take down the photo you see on each of my posts.) Christmastime was really Geordie-time as far as I’m concerned, since he loved everything about it. Not just the bounty of presents Santa always left under the tree for him, but also the tree itself, the decorating, the baking, and especially the Christmas lights dog walk—a neighborhood tradition he started and which continues to this day.

Anyway…I hope your holidays were waaaaay better than mine. :)

Happy New Year! May 2026 be…relatively boring.

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Thanks for supporting my niche literary endeavors and off-beat philosophical speculations. Cheers!

—Tina Lee Forsee