one lunar cycle to go
an important announcement
I had planned to announce that I was taking a leave of absence from this newsletter for the rest of the year beginning on October 1st, but as I still haven’t written yesterday’s New Moon newsletter (exhausted from a week of interviews which culminated in a 4-hour interview for a particularly prominent radio hour some of y’all may listen to), I am taking this as a sign that leave starts now.
Which is fitting. As of yesterday’s New Moon in Libra, I am exactly one month and one lunar cycle to publication. A time of preparation if ever there was one. (Also fitting: that the Libra house of my chart has to do with all things publishing.)
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous about losing subscribers (especially paid subscribers) during this time. The brief pause earlier this year due to a medical crisis was an anomaly, and hitherto now the only one of its kind in the four years (!) I have been doing Astrology for Writers. Though the newsletter has been running for what is, in newsletter years, a very long time, it doesn’t have the kind of numbers that the big guns at Substack have. Not by a long shot. So, we’ll see.
But I’ve got a book coming out, and I have long known that, in these final weeks, it will need the kind of attention that I can’t afford to split. Especially as a debut author. Especially, in this climate, as a debut queer author. Those of you who have published books, launched podcasts and apps, and released other creative endeavors into the world know this tension intimately: the truly enormous chasm between publicity and a paycheck, the uncertainty in whether promoting your work means it will actually be seen — and seen by the people who will then hire or commission you for the next one. Especially when your community is seen as a risk.
It’s weird, yeah? Joyful. Deeply joyful, to be able to have the work out there in the first place. And also weird, all these strange attachments that end up coming with it.
Which is just to say that right now, I plan for Astrology for Writers to be on hiatus through the end of the year, returning in January 2023. Thank you for your understanding and support.
Some things you can do to support me and the book, if you feel so moved
Pre-order Heretic, & share the link on social media!
Request Heretic from your local library
Come see me at events in NYC, Boston, virtually, and upcoming in Iowa and TBD elsewhere! NYC: book launch is at Books Are Magic (with Maud Newton) on October 25th, but you can come even earlier this Friday, September 30th to the Brooklyn Book Festival (for free)!
As always, for the price of a Starbucks latte you can become a paid monthly subscriber to the newsletter to continue to support the work here:
If you aren’t familiar with Heretic, the book I’ve been working on, here’s a little bit about it
A memoir of leaving the evangelical church and the search for radical new ways to build community.
Jeanna Kadlec knew what it meant to be faithful--in her marriage to a pastor’s son, in the comfortable life ahead of her, in her God--but there was no denying the truth that lived under that conviction: she was queer and, if she wanted to survive, she would need to leave behind the church and every foundational building block she knew.
Heretic is a memoir of rebirth. Within, Kadlec reckons with religious trauma and Midwestern values, as a means of unveiling how evangelicalism directly impacts every American--religious or not--and has been a major force in driving our democracy towards fascism. From the story of Lilith to celebrity purity rings, Kadlec interrogates how her indoctrination and years of piety intersects with her Midwest working-class upbringing. As she navigated graduate school, a new home on the East Coast, and a new marriage, another insidious truth began to reveal itself --that conservative Christianity has both built and undermined our political power structures, poisoned our pop culture, and infected how we interact with one another in ways that the secular population couldn’t see.
Weaving the personal with powerful critique, Heretic explores how we can radically abandon these painful systems by taking a sledgehammer to the comfortable. Whether searching for community in the face of millennial loneliness or wanting to reclaim a secular form of fellowship in everyday life, Kadlec envisions the brilliant possibilities that come with not only daring to want a different way but actually striking out and claiming it for ourselves.
"Bless this brave, thoughtful, funny, aggravating, nearly triggering book. It made me wish I still believed in the God I knew in my youth so that I could pick a fight with Him. Kadlec provides an astute picture of what it feels like to be born into the maze of a rigid faith and the twists and turns it takes to find yourself. I wish I had this book when I was a teenager. . . . This will hit very close to home for a lot of people." — Lucy Dacus
"Heretic is full of intellect and ferocious emotion with language so taut that every thread of her narrative—an evangelical upbringing, religious trauma, violence, and queer love—forms a shimmering braid. Kadlec's analysis of fundamentalist belief, placed right up against tales of cartoons, Dungeons & Dragons, and the art of tarot, moved me to tears with its vibrant celebration of hard-won joy." — Esmé Weijun Wang, author of The Collected Schizophrenias
“Heretic is an intelligent and highly entertaining memoir. Part cultural history, part personal history, Jeanna Kadlec writes with perspective and poignancy. Her writing excavates the ideal of a good Christian woman and reveals it for all it ever truly was, a myth. Kadlec is a captivating storyteller and cultural historian. Heretic is both an insight into America's regressive politics and a memoir of astonishing honesty and beautiful complexity. From her life as a good Christian girl to her emergence as a queer woman, Kadlec writes with voice and conviction. Heretic is a memoir that employs a coming of sexuality and a coming of womanhood with a prose that is empowering and beautiful." — Lyz Lenz, author of Godland and Belabored
"An anthropological exploration of power, self-discovery, and the communities we both desire and dismantle; Kadlec…graciously offers a new way forward, a hand to hold, an unforgettable and edifying reading experience you won’t want to miss." — T Kira Madden, author of Long Live The Tribe of Fatherless Girls
"I can't tell you how happy I am that Kadlec's work exists in the world. Heretic is the guidebook I needed for my life. Learning how to overcome harmful systems and find joy and community on our own terms is essential for queer survival, and Kadlec has provided an elegant and astute account." — Garrard Conley, author of Boy Erased
"In this outstanding debut, clear, elegant, and precise as etched glass, Jeanna Kadlec recounts a detachment from her own heart and desires so profound and carefully inculcated that desire for anyone other than God felt like transgression. Her prose is wise and erudite, undergirded by plain speech and an open heart. Heretic is a light unto the path of every former evangelical who longs for communion beyond the condemnation and spiritual abuse of the church, and a crucial window for outsiders into what it's like to grow up handed a birthright of original sin." — Maud Newton, author of Ancestor Trouble
“Brilliant and well-read, Kadlec braved the emotional tides of religious trauma, divorce, and coming out as queer all before her thirtieth birthday. … Giving a voice to past and present evangelicals Kadlec invites readers to hold a mirror to the evangelical-political hydra that threatens to overthrow true American freedom.” — Booklist (starred review)
"Both memoir and thesis, this book highlights a cultural, social, and spiritual journey that will resonate with many." — Kirkus Reviews
"A woman reckons with the religious trauma of her upbringing and embarks on a process of self-discovery in this searing debut. . . . As she recounts her disentanglement from religion, Kadlec weaves a deeply personal narrative with excoriating criticism to unpack the ways in which religious belief is sewn into the fabric of American society. The result provides a poignant story of being born again in a secular world." — Publishers Weekly
take your time, love. grateful for you!