RIP Mermaid Café (2024-2025)
For sale: Substack newsletter, never finished
I promised I’d be back, baby. I missed you all very much. Hope you missed me.
As I wrote at the top of the year: “When the newsletter returns, it will not be a paean for the past but a song for the future.” So let’s mourn for a minute:
I loved Mermaid Café quite fiercely. It made me a better writer, thinker, and empathetic person, and the task of penning a little fashion bulletin twice a week really sharpened my reflexes. It also took a lot out of me! I run HALOSCOPE full-time, I’m writing my first book, and I have an entire life built away from screens. As life became more stressful, Substack was the absolute last thing on my mind, and when I sat down to write, I found myself resenting it (and myself). My grip was slackening. My words got pointless. I thought a break might stop my burnout — but turns out I needed to just stop, point-blank.
I don’t regret the old newsletter for a second. It taught me, a frustratingly ambitious workaholic bohemian battleaxe, when to lay my cards down. I think for a lot of people working in editorial, newsletters can feel like an encumbrance, and it can become increasingly difficult to find the demarcation line between personal and professional life.
As I thought about how to retool this newsletter, I realized I had to throw everything out. Clean break. I needed to rethink this space’s entire structure, tone, and cadence; buff up the crumbly edges; and create something that’d be actually sustainable for me both creatively and mentally.
So… RIP Mermaid Café (died 2025). Welcome back Get Me Savannah! (born 2025).
The newsletter is functionally the same, but with some key updates:
I’m going to get more casual with the tone. Of course, my capital-e Essays will still exist here, but they’re not going to be as frequent. I want to do some more playlists, fashion news comms, and even little blasts of things I’ve been blithely enjoying.
Everything from the old Mermaid Café exists in the archives. I don’t plan on deleting any of it, so you’re free to explore the old stuff.
I want to do a lot more Q+A’s. Like, a lot. If you’re looking for a horse print neckerchief or want to dress like a Gibson Girl, I want to help you out. Email me always.
The newsletter price is now $5/month, down from $7. Seems only fair, since…
I’ll be publishing at a cadence that can only be described as “vibes-based.” My goal is once a week, but I’m not holding myself to as rigid a framework. I’ve realized almost all of my favorite newsletters publish when it feels right, versus at a rigorous pace, and I think the former is nicer for everybody involved.
OK! That is all from me. Until then, email me your questions at savannahedenbradley@gmail.com (or by replying to this email). And now, a final goodbye to Mermaid Café, gone but never forgotten…