Hey there, Connectors (and everyone else who is joining us here)! I hope you're having a wonderful day. 

Welcome to a new thing I'm starting. Or at least a new version of an old thing.

For anyone who is new to me and my work, I’m Kris. Hi!

I write about tech, video games and other topics, usually at Forbes and Engadget. I’m a born and bred Scot who has been living in Canada for over a decade, and I like to think of myself as a friendly fella. That’s a very abbreviated bio, but this is going to be pretty long so I’ll stop there.

Since the summer of 2023, I’ve been writing a daily hints and answers column about the New York Times game Connections over at Forbes. I started it because I loved the game, enjoyed writing about it and (to be frank) saw it as an opportunity to reach a wider audience and increase my income — Forbes writers are paid based on traffic, newsletter signups (ironically enough) and whether anyone becomes a paid subscriber while visiting that person’s blog.

I never could have imagined that the column would change my life in several ways. Yes, I’ve been making a good living because of it. Perhaps more importantly, it’s been some of the most personally meaningful work I’ve ever done. I’ve been blown away by the response and am humbled every time someone tells me how much they enjoy the column.

But things are changing, which is the main reason why I'm starting this newsletter now. 

The more things change…

As of May, I'll no longer be doing the Connections hints column on Forbes at weekends. Two of my colleagues will be handling it on Saturdays and Sundays. I’ll still be writing it on weekdays.

But I want to keep writing about the game every day. So, for the foreseeable future, my weekend editions of the column will appear here instead. The format and the timing will be largely the same. The intro and recommendations will still be there, of course, but I’ll leave out all of the stuff about how to play the game.

The other main difference is that after you sign up, the column will land in your inbox in the early afternoon Eastern Time on Fridays and Saturdays. 

I truly adore writing the column every day. I love the wonderful community that's come together around it. I want to minimize disruption on both fronts. 

I’m aware that many people read my Connections columns because they like my format, the intro, the breakdown of how I solved (or didn't) each game and the daily recommendation(s). I appreciate the hell out of each and every one of you. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll stick with me on weekends as well.

I’ve been meaning to start this newsletter for a while for other reasons. Pastimes is also going to be an outlet for me to dig into things I want to write about but don't necessarily have the scope to do at Forbes and Engadget. I'm generally happy at both places and don't plan to leave either any time soon. I'm fortunate enough to have relatively stable gigs where I don't have to go back and forth on freelance pitches to editors. So when there’s anything else I want to write about, I’ll do that here.

My initial concept for Pastimes over at Substack was to explore the ways we spend our time. I'm injecting some of that DNA here, but with a less rigid structure. Choosing to read this newsletter is one way that you've opted to spend your time, and I want to make sure that it’s worth your precious minutes.

I've been writing for a living long enough to have the confidence that if I'm interested in something and can write about it in a compelling, empathetic way, others will be into it as well. Sure, games and tech are endlessly fascinating to me, but regular readers of the Connections column know that I have a vast range of interests beyond those.

Film was my first true love. There will likely be some movie discussion here, along with dives into TV and music. We might dig into language, science, space, politics, personal relationships, food… The list of possibilities is endless, which is exciting (and a little daunting).

If there’s anything I want to dig into or a weird nugget of information I want to share, I'll do that here. If enough of you want me to weigh in on something and I feel like I have something interesting to say, I will.

I own the copyright to everything I publish at Forbes, and I may republish some of that work here, but not news articles or any of the daily hints columns. Reviews, interviews and so on are fair game.

Basically, I’m giving myself an excuse to write about anything that interests me, anchored by a central tenet.

I have some other ideas, but I'd rather keep my cards close to my chest for now. Better to start small and overdeliver than promise too much and fail to live up to that.

Organized chaos

Whenever I'm writing something — the Connections column, a news story, anything really — it's always in a disordered fashion. I bounce back and forth between sections and paragraphs, shift things around and keep things in flux. But I trust myself to pull everything together in a way that makes sense and is enjoyable to read.

I'm taking the same approach to Pastimes. It'll be an ongoing experiment. I'll try some things that don't work at all, while others may take off and become recurring features. It'll be a case of organized chaos.

Admittedly, things are a little messy right now. Things look very basic — for one thing, I have to find a designer to help me with a logo! Please bear with me while I figure all of this out.

My goal here is to build a community of people who are curious about culture, entertainment and everything else. I hope to do that by writing about things that interest and entertain you, shine a light on things you may not have heard of and maybe even inspire you to try something new.

I need to be careful about managing my workload and making sure I don’t overburden myself. For now, the aim is to send you one piece of original writing every two weeks in addition to the weekend Connections columns. In the long run, I hope to expand Pastimes and maybe even bring in other writers.

Okay, let’s talk about the financial side of this

I want to be as transparent as possible. I do plan on monetizing this newsletter. Not doing the Connections column at Forbes on weekends will reduce my income quite a bit, though I don’t know for sure by much.

I'm not under any illusions that income from Pastimes will replace what I earn from my work at Engadget and Forbes anytime soon, if ever. But the media industry has been crumbling for decades. It makes sense to try to diversify my streams of income and try to knit together a safety net.

Looking toward that is one reason why I decided to use Beehiiv as my newsletter platform rather than Substack or Patreon. I'm not comfortable with the idea of a revenue-sharing model, where the platform takes a cut of any subscription payments. That would put me in a financial relationship with a company I might end up writing about in my regular gigs, which would be a conflict of interest. 

If (and that’s a big if) I were to turn on paid subscriptions, I'd move to a paid Beehiiv plan so I could monetize Pastimes. All subscription payments (minus processing fees) would go directly to me. 

However, I’m very aware that we’re dealing with a cost of living crisis and even at the best of times I’d bristle at the idea of asking anyone for money. So I don’t have any intention of switching to paid subscriptions anytime soon.

If I do start offering paid subscriptions eventually, I will say that I don't believe in asking anyone to pay for something that was previously free. Subscriptions should be additive, rather than subtractive.

(If you are interested in that though, please let me know! It would be helpful to have a sense of what people might be willing to pay for my work, and how much.)

The Connections column will always be free for everyone. It makes no sense to ask anyone to pay for that, especially when they can go anywhere else on the internet for Connections hints and answers. I'm trying to get the paywall lifted on my Forbes work for the same reason.

As for ads and sponsorships, I'm potentially open to those as long as they respect your time, don't create a conflict of interest for me and align with my values. There’s zero chance of you seeing an ad for a generative AI chatbot here as long as I have anything to say about it.

For now, I have a tip jar. I’d deeply appreciate anything you might be willing to drop in there, but there’s absolutely no pressure to do so.

Tell a friend!

In the meantime, the only way that I'll be able to keep this newsletter going is for it to make sure it's something enough people want to read. 

So, if you enjoy something you read in Pastimes and think a friend, or colleague, or family member. or enemy would enjoy it, please forward it to them.  

And hey, if someone sent this to you and you like what you’re reading, you can sign up here.

Please, do send me your thoughts and opinions about Pastimes. You can do that by simply hitting the reply button on the email version of the newsletter. You can also email me at my first name at my full name dot net.

I promise to keep actually an eye on the Pastimes comments and respond there as well. You can also hop into our Connections-focused Discord and send me feedback there. 

If you have ideas for things you'd like me to write about, please send those over too. Let's build something cool together. 

Thanks for joining me on this new thing. I like calling things "a thing."

Your pal,

Kris xoxo

P.S. Have a great day! Stay hydrated! Call someone you love! :)