Hear Me Live in New York March 10 and May 3 and on the Freelance Writing Direct Podcast

Where to find me in person and in your ears, and a discounted link to the last 8 tickets for personal storytelling summit Open Secrets Live, with Jane Pratt, Minda Honey, Deesha Philyaw, and dozens mo

I won’t belabor this post with all the things I wish I’d had time to write about and hope to write about, because mom life is busy and hectic and I’m pretty much at the point of overwhelm most days that I make to-do lists, in my head or on paper, that sometimes include things like “wash hair” and “pee.” More on my life below but first, the three places to listen to me now and in the next days and months:

If this image shows up gigantic in your inbox, it’s because for the life of me I can’t figure out how to resize Substack images

Freelance Writing Direct podcast hosted by

Estelle Erasmus

- listen wherever you listen to podcasts or watch on YouTube

Monday, March 10, 7:30 pm, free, Jake’s Dilemma, 430 Amsterdam Avenue (between 80th and 81st), NYC

Must Love Memoir reading series hosted by

Krystal Marie Orwig

and Hope Elizabeth Kidd, with readings by me, Jenny Higgins, Toby Millstein, Sarah Gormley, Ruthie Ackerman, and Paulette Perhach. I’ll be talking about my time living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and being a very active hoarder, so bad I could barely open the door to my apartment. I’m especially eager to hear Paulette read because her work around money and ADHD (separately and together) has been so helpful to me.

Saturday, May 3, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., $35, Upper East Side, NYC

Open Secrets Live personal storytelling summit - I’ll be interviewing

Jane Pratt

, former editor of Sassy, Jane, and xoJane, and current editor of

Another Jane Pratt Thing

. I’ll also be moderating the relationships and editors panels, and speaking on the mental health panel. There are only 8 tickets left as of me sending this email and once those go, I don’t have any more space unless someone on my guest list can’t make it. Here’s a link to discounted tickets ($28.52 with fees).

There’s SO MUCH happening at Open Secrets Live, with over 40 speakers, a raffle with amazing prizes, books by our speakers for sale, and most likely some custom cookies as treats afterwards at an informal after party (I’m working on the location now and will send that to all attendees). It’s thrilling and also a little nerve-wracking because there’s way more to do than I expected, between lighting and sound and photography and logistics. But it’s also amazing to go from the equivalent of a blank page to a completed manuscript, or in this case, a vague idea to an actual venue and lineup and people flying in from across the country and across the pond.

Things should calm down a little bit this week with some extra babysitting, and altering my schedule somewhat, but on the whole, I feel lucky if I feel good about what I’ve accomplished in a given day when my head hits the pillow.

I’ll be writing more about this in upcoming installments of my The ADHD Diaries column at

Open Secrets

Magazine, and welcome questions and suggestions for what to cover there. One thing will be my shame, embarrassment, and horror to learn that I had had people sign up for an essay writing class I was going to teach in February (which I then decided to cancel because deadlines and parenting were keeping me so busy I knew I couldn’t give my all to the class) that I didn’t realize had signed up.

I take full responsibility for the error; I’d used an online service to run ticketing that I’d never used for ticketing before, and had assumed I’d be notified via email when people signed up. I wasn’t, and while I did receive the payments, they were from the same processor I use for Open Secrets, and I didn’t realize they were for the class.

I apologized when I found out and refunded the people who’d paid, but I feel very angry with myself that I let that happen. However, whenever I get that mad at myself, it’s usually a sign that I need to make changes within myself and in my work processes. I’ve done that, and if I teach my essay writing class again (if I do, it would probably be in the fall), I will use a service like Eventbrite, which is how I’m handling tickets for Open Secrets Live. They’ve been wonderful so far.

Hope to see some of you in New York tomorrow (Monday, March 10) at Must Love Memoir and/or at Open Secrets Live on May 3! And if you can’t make it but know someone in the NYC area who might appreciate these events, please let them know.

I’m hoping to record audio for some or all of Open Secrets Live for a future Open Secrets podcast, and if that happens, subscribers will be notified. If you want to support my work, I’d love if you became a free or paid subscriber to Open Secrets.