Fem Friday to Have a New Home!

TLDR Version: Fem Friday will have a new home at Tawnlandia so it can have it’s own identity and grow. It will reach a broader audience of women and offer audio renderings and new voices! This makes books based on the Fem Friday Features possible!

Fem Friday is Bigger than Gen X Watch!

Fem Friday came as an experiment as I was finding my groove in Gen X Watch. One day I became livid at something racist a reader said and something sexist another reader said after I wrote a Tina Turner piece. I was reminded of some of the women in my youth that were called horrible things even though, like Tina Turner, they were remarkable and amazing.

So I let it all go and wrote about the most in your face woman I could think of, Joan Jett. But I transitioned it into a woman I met at a Joan Jett concert at a mall in Ohio in ’91. It was a screw you to every sexist jag off I could think of. And then something unexpected happened. You fell in love with Sarah. So I told you about a girl who dressed like Madonna. Heather. You fell in love with her.

Something amazing happened. Something important. Stories were told by women reading these stories. People wrote letters to me about things they were changing in their lives because of Fem Friday and telling stories in social media or in the comments inspiring others.

Fem Friday needs a bigger audience. More women and friends beyond the binary need to see these stories. Gen X Watch is not called Fem Friday. It deserves it’s own space. Xena, The Facts of Life, Daria, and many other amazing “spin offs” lasted longer and reached more people than from whence it came and I believe that Fem Friday can do that. It matters. Women matter.

Where Should Fem Friday Exist?

I have limited resources and only 24 AMAZING Patreons. Fem Friday needed a larger “network”. I contacted an agent of sorts and asked her to shop around for me. I got offers, but those offers came with sponsors and a loss of creative oversight that could take what is most special away.

In the wings was a friend from high school named Tawn who runs Tawlandia. Is Tawlandia as big as Huffpost? No. But what it has is someone at the helm who is business and publishing savvy. It has a passionate woman in charge who shares my values and knows how precious this is and how precious the readers are.

For the last few months we talked about how to do this and what it could look like and we finally hammered out a contract that is good for us, but more importantly, good for you because you are what matters most. The reader, the women, the friends beyond the binary.

What Will Change?

I will still be the principal creator of content. Tawnlandia and Barnstorm Publishing will find innovative ways to get these stories a broader audience and seek out ways to tangibly support women.

We both know that ever since I interviewed a woman with a disability that there is a significant readership of women with disabilities. In it’s new home it will have improved accessibility ensuring everyone who wants to access this content will experience it as richly as possible is important.

This will even include audio! Professionally recorded audio of Fem Friday Features.

As a woman and a minority, Tawn knows how important diversity and diverse voices are. We are going to coordinate to have more segments like my interviews with a woman named Heather and Jenny, a profoundly deaf woman. Jenny tapped into the experiences of so many woman with disabilities in ways that nothing I could write could.

Instead of the comments section, there will be a discussion forum for members only. This will empower readers to continue having important discussion in a dedicated space not under the watchful eyes of toxic people and yacht owning billionaires who have somehow evaded the Orcas!

The focus will shift a little. We live in a world where powerful and amazing celebrities have inspired so many and changed so much. But there is something Joan Jett said that sticks with me and has for a long time. She believes that in every town in America there is a girl with a guitar and a dream hitting a stage somewhere.

People connect with the stories I tell of teen and young adult women more than the articles solely about celebrities. The numbers are not even close! You see yourself in Sarah, Jenny, Cassie, and Heather because you ARE Sarah, Jenny, Cassie, and Heather. So we need to talk about these real women who live in Everytown off Main Street and Smash the Patriarchy Avenue!

To kick off the new home for Fem Friday we are doing Remixes of the most popular Fem Fridays so they can be rediscovered. More importantly, the focus is on the women in Everytown like you.

Hearts of Glass Trilogy and the Mall-verse!

Fem Friday has led to a publishing contract for a Young Adult trilogy! Coming Spring or Summer of 2025 Book 1 of the Hearts of Glass Trilogy will release. “Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World” is the title. In the first book, set in the 80’s, Ford and Cassie meet at the mall they work at. They will face problems with a violent stalker ex boyfriend, an overprotective aunt, and the trauma and shame Cassie carries of a rape when she was 16. When Ford learns the identity of the man who hurt her, it will test his resolve…and hers.

This trilogy, another book, and a series of short stories based on the amazing women I knew in the 80s and 90s will create a new world that will affect this one. When I was invited to write these stories, I knew it was the right thing.

Fem Friday and its new home will tie into those novels and help those wondrous stories reach an even broader audience.

Just as I have assembled a new team for Fem Friday to make an even greater difference, I’ve assembled an amazing team of editors, merch designers, artists, and a publisher to help important and entertaining stories find an audience. Fem Friday and Tawnlandia are a part of that.

What About Gen X Watch?

Gen X Watch will take a “ratings” hit no longer being the home of Fem Friday. But that allows it to be my creative playground where I am free to write my heart and feature writers who need an editor who encourages their creativity. When I have a guest writer, the readers almost always make it a hit and welcome the writer like a superstar! For the readers it is a space of escape and inspiration and play. It will be that for writers as well. We can just jam in our club and you can always see our sets for free, but we do hope you will also become a patreon.

Next Friday?

This will be a gentle transition. For the next few Fridays we will steer the traffic to Fem Friday’s new dedicated channel. The links are established, but will not be announced yet until a little housekeeping is done so as not to encourage you to go to dead space, but Tawn and I will be announcing the new space loudly and proudly next Friday! Maybe even Thursday!

Thank You!

Without you, the reader, there would be no Fem Friday Feature and there would be no Hearts of Glass YA trilogy. I wrote my heart, it touched your heart, and together we created two beautiful things. More to come!

We rely on readers like you to continue our work. A few moments and you can make a difference:

1. Share this story with a friend and leave a comment.

2.  Tip me! I need your support!

3. Become a Members Only Patreon! In the Patreon we have a members only podcast and other goodies.

Thank you for your support and taking the time to read this.

Stay Totally Awesome! Stay true to you!