New 'Baby', New Name, Memoir Support, and... Shit, It's Cancer.
Substack Journey: Growth, Changes, and Other Happenings
Read the Instructions is growing! The growth is slow, but the benefit of that is that it truly does make me thankful for every single reader.
You know what else is cool? I started writing here in May 2024 and this is my 29th post!
With growth, and time, comes change.
Extra, extra, read all about it… Here’s the scoop!
A New Baby!! Please Subscribe!
The most exciting news is that Read the Instructions is no longer an only child. Please share in our joy and welcome the new baby sister, How to Make Money in Real Estate, Short & Mid-Term Rentals! 🐣🎉🥳🪅🎈🍼
Is the title too cheesy? Too car-salesman-esque?
All I can say is that this nerdy engineer is doing her best to put herself out there and try something new! But if you have some better title ideas, let me know. Or if you’d like to laugh at me, I will understand. (I’ll probably already be laughing though.)
But laugh all you want, you still won’t want to miss it!
It will be fun, educational, encouraging, and in addition to deep diving into the basics of short (vacation) and mid-term rentals, we will explore various topics related to real estate: business, our personal attitudes about money, how to use real estate to help your community, ways to make money that don’t even involve buying houses, and more!
Please check out the new About Page! First post coming soon 🥳
If you missed the RTI post about some of my real estate adventures, you may enjoy learning a bit more here.
Paid Access to RTI Archives
Next bit of news: I’ve started putting a few of the archived Read the Instructions posts behind a paywall.
Here’s why → this is purely to protect my privacy.
I assume that with the start of the Real Estate focused publication, I may gain some readers that otherwise wouldn’t have found themselves drawn to Read the Instructions.
While of course I would LOVE to have readers who are interested and invested in both publications, somehow I couldn’t quite get comfortable with having so many details of my life hanging out there as I branch out in adding this new more business and education oriented publication.
I’ve reasoned with myself that if someone goes through the trouble of sending me a few bucks through a paid subscription, then there is a better chance they’ve found a personal connection with my stories, or they care and are choosing to support me vs purely want to peep the teacher’s life🕵🏼♀️ 👀 …
This isn’t a perfect solution, but stories matter… and in my head, this story is making me feel a bit better about tying all of these pieces of my life together.
So I’m going with it.
As of now, I’m not planning to put a paywall on any posts when I first publish. So you will still have access to everything as a free reader!
I’d like to add that while paid subscriptions mean the world to me (that is an understatement, it is like the biggest hug ever!), and are instrumental in helping me continue on this journey, I feel quite committed to keeping this specific publication accessible.
With that, whether you are a brand new subscriber or have been around awhile - if anyone would like a free temp gift subscription to catch up on all the old posts - all you need to do is send me a quick message and ask for it! (Seriously, don’t hesitate.) No explanation required!
It is Time: Profile Name Change
When I first started this newsletter, I really valued the ability to write anonymously as Rose G.
I’ve always loved my middle name, Rose. It came from my Jewish grandmother, Rose Greenberg, who died of cancer less than a year before I was born.
But I’m at the point where being consistent across newsletters and platforms seems more important than anonymity (for this introvert, that is a big step!).
So, now you’ll see me going by
.Pro tip: If you’ll always think of me by Rose, or are like me and old habits die hard, note that my new full name will still pop up when you start typing @ Rose …
Sooooo… hi friends, nice to meet you. I’m… Amanda. Or Amanda Rose. Or Rose.
(See, you don’t even have to change what you’re used to calling me. And if you are new here, you have options!)
Arrrgh. Cancer.
Last week I learned that I have malignant melanoma… skin cancer.
I’ve spent the majority of my adult life in Florida and daily sunscreen application here is as routine as sandy flipflops. That wasn’t enough.
But also, I never stressed too much about sunscreen on the backs of my calves, which is where the lump was found. Face, yes. Shoulders, yes. Legs got a little messy slap of sunscreen but surely leg-skin is tough like our big strong quadriceps, right?
Apparently not.
As it turns out, (pay attention, ladies) the most likely location for women to get melanoma is on their legs. Specifically, on the backs of their calves. Durghhh.
I saw the look on my doctors face when she initially told me we needed to biopsy the thing. I have light skin and lots of freckles and marks - I’ve been getting annual dermatology skin-checks for years. I’m no newbie to biopsies ordered just-to-be-on-the-safe-side. But I could tell this one was different, so I wasn’t expecting great news when the lab results came in.
Still, I thought they’d tell me I needed another visit to cut out a little more and that we’d keep an eye on it. I wasn’t expecting an order to go get my lymph nodes checked to be sure it hadn’t spread or that they wouldn’t do the leg procedure in the office because they’re gonna need to take out a big ass chunk.
Sigh.
It seems likely that we will find this to be a localized instance and that it will be fairly straightforward to remove, but I’m here to tell you that finding out you have some cancerous cells hanging out in your body doesn’t bring on the warm-fuzzies, no matter how small the spot is.
I won’t call them out by name, but huge shout-out to my Dr. friends who didn’t even make me feel bad for being ‘that person’ when I reached out in a slight panic, and have generously provided some additional counsel to help me make quick, informed decisions about my near term travel plans in light of this news.
Memoir, and A New Way to Give!
I haven’t done much memoir writing in the past week or two as I’ve been settling in, so I’m still sitting just under 60k words.
Instead I’ve been consuming tons of great memoir-centric educational content while I get caught up on house projects. My current focus is trying to get some ideas about which direction to go next with the manuscript in terms of theme, voice, structure, etc.
Huge shout out to
& my mother 😘 who have offered to read this first messy draft to provide some fresh perspective.I’m expecting to need customized support/services from someone in the memoir or publishing business soon - so I’m busy researching options for that as well. (If you have recommendations, do share!)
On money and memoir - I have a new way for folks to contribute if you are feeling gift-y and would like to support me on this journey. Committing to an entire subscription can feel too committed-ish sometimes, I get it.
So lookee, I have a button!! Pick your own amount to contribute a one time gift if you feel so inclined. 😀
Traveling, But Seeya Soon!
Finally, I’ll be traveling internationally over the next two weeks (more on that later!) and will jump right into treatment to get that mess cut out of me when I return. So if my presence is a bit more spotty, you know why!
Seeya soon!
With love,
~ Amanda Rose
Hello Amanda Rose, This will take some getting use to—your full name—I love it. What news to find you have a cancer of sorts. I wish you the very best with this. Sending you Love. I'm following your journey because I love all that you present and represent. Thank you and Congrats on the steady growth.