Relaunching: Friendly ghosts, goodbye Substack, and where I’ve been

alice f.z.

alice f.z.

— 2 min read
A vintage TV with flowers around the CRT screen with the words “faith2fleurs! by alice f.z.” printed on the screen.

Dear friends and readers,

I think it is safe to say that I had absolutely no interest in writing Substacks after the inauguration last year. I was caught up in the existential swirl that many of us found ourselves in (or still find ourselves in). Protests, organizing, emails, burnout, rinse, repeat. Independent and corporate news alike awash in heart racing clickbait make screens so very stressful. On top of that, I had been hearing more and more about Substack’s complicity with far right voices and I just had to draw a fucking line somewhere. There’s no one comprehensive article I can find but if you want a deep dive maybe start here. But honestly, seeing Andrew Tate as their “#1 new bestseller” today April 13th, 2026, I was done. I had been contemplating the move to Ghost for awhile, and now I’m here. I want to breathe some life into the faith2fleurs blog and newsletter with some stuff off my plate. If you have a Substack, consider leaving.

I did manage though to get writing done in other avenues. I wrote enough poetry that I had a record number of publications in terms of individual poems being published, for one. Check out my linktr.ee to see what you may have missed! I also worked on conference papers, speeches, homilies, and my own academic research in medieval literature. I read a lot (though not always closely) and fell in love with some masterful audiobook productions. My favorite novel of 2025 was Michael Clune’s Pan – I was reminded of so many weird and mundane adolescent experiences. I tried my best to capture those sorts of memories in my poetry debut Faunalia, in many ways my own love letter to Pan.

As for where I’ve been – just hanging on the central coast of California for the most part! I got married last year and my wife and I spent our honeymoon in British Columbia. Also I finally got to travel out to the east coast, NYC and Boston specifically. Although I had an awful haircut at the time, I’ll still share a cute picture my friend managed to take of me with the original Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals at the New York Public Library’s museum.

Gay woman standing in orange hoodie and leggings, showing off a tattoo of E.H. Shepard illustrations of Winnie the Pooh characters in front of the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed animals behind glass.

I'm shopping around a new chapbook manuscript, about to be featured in an academic anthology on Marie de France, and working on my dissertation and a new book project: a novel in verse. Stay tuned on faith2fleurs! That’s all for now.

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