“That which can be imagined can be achieved. That you must dare to dream but that there is no substitute for perseverance and hard work and team work, because no one gets there alone.” - Dana Scully
My name is Terra. I’m a strategist, researcher, Virgo, professor, cat-lover, sometimes journalist, and perpetual nerd. This is my corner of the internet, and you’re all invited. The Etc. Files are where I reconcile these seemingly different threads. Underneath are some common truths; information is power and community is everything. Here is some of what you can expect from this newsletter:
The Imagination. Stories, art, genre, and what they teach us about organizing, power, leadership, and the world we're trying to build. This is the evolution of Summer of Sci-Fi writing some of you already know, with the volume turned up. Lots of sci-fi as future building discussions. But fantasy, horror, romance – they all provide different frames of solving problems.
The Tools. The actual how-to. How to file an FOI for the first time. How to read a municipal budget without a finance degree. How to build a mobilization funnel that doesn't treat your supporters like an extraction site. The doable, right now — not the pep talk, the steps.
The Read. Political and budget commentary. Following the money. Decoding the thing the press release was designed to keep you from noticing. The present, made legible.
The Work. The honest behind-the-scenes of real work — campaigns, tools, projects — including the parts that didn't go to plan. Because the gap between the case study and the actual mess is where all the useful knowledge lives, and almost nobody shows it to you. The work itself, with the seams showing.
All of this is to try and make the important work we all do a little more sustainable, a little less siloed, and a lot more rooted. You are not alone in finding this stuff hard. It's hard because it was made hard. The whole project of this letter is to make it a little less so, together.
More soon.
Yours in the collective,
Terra
