Welcome! I’m LJ, a writer and creative worker exploring how we survive and thrive in systems that weren’t built for us.

This newsletter is about two things:

• Building a sustainable working life, especially if you're neurodivergent, creative, or navigating global job markets.

• Writing a novel about capitalism, inequality, and identity — and learning to do it while managing work, burnout, and reality.

Each issue blends real-world career tools with cultural analysis and fiction insights. Whether you're applying to UK jobs from abroad, writing your first book, or just trying to stay afloat while doing meaningful work, you're in the right place.

I also offer a course on job applications and interviews to help international and non-traditional candidates land the work they deserve, without compromising their values. More on this soon.

If you like the free writing, please consider becoming a paid member…

As a paid member, you’ll get:

• Intimate essays on work-justice, rising inequality, neurodivergence, identity, personal routines, and creative projects

• Practical how-tos for balancing creative energy with a day job and exhaustion

• Toolkits & resources (e.g., reasonable adjustments, microaggressions, burnout recovery)

• Voice-note reflections and posts that live only behind the paywall

• Thoughts on what I'm reading (I read all kinds of books, but mostly here I explore more Marxist non-fiction to explore ideas for a more mixed economy, and an assortment of fiction)

• My novel journey (How I apply what I’ve learned to my coming-of-age, dystopian, thriller fiction and ironing out bumps along the way)

All the best,

LJ x