She's Come Undone—And You Should Too!
Plus, a Galley Sneak Peek, Your VIP Dinner with Didion, and Music for Midlife Mess
✨ A vibrant space for midlife women, The Empress now reaches over two million readers through our networks of networks. ✨ From bestselling author Alisa Kennedy Jones. ✨ If you enjoy content about midlife, humor, and agency, I’d love to welcome you as part of our community. ✨ For only $50/year ($4.17 a month!) or $5/month, you’ll gain access to all my articles, Monday columns, book clubs, and virtual events.
Fellow Empresses,
I’m so Type A, it’s practically genetic. A relic of my Gen X upbringing where the gold standard was: get perfect grades, land a fulfilling career, cultivate a rich emotional life with happy children, and do it all in heels—with a smile, no less.
I’m a person who likes her ducks in a row. My cardinals in a conclave. My pickles in a peck. But lately? I’ve been coming gloriously undone. And there’s a strange kind of power in it.
Case in point: I recently had a full technicolor menopause anxiety dream where I was sprinting around our old Vermont house, mid-divorce, bleeding like an extra in Carrie, frantically searching for a Stay-Free maxi pad—or failing that, a roll of Brawny paper towels—while realtors tried to show the place. "I'll be right with you!" I kept yelling as the carnations of toilet paper turned scarlet and I hunted for a bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles to clean up the crime scene.
I woke up in a tangle of sweat-soaked sheets and realized… Hallelujah—it’s been four years since I’ve dealt with that particular horror show! The messiness of midlife, the rebalancing of HRT, the glorious undoing of it all… and not having to care is so weirdly empowering! It’s the decrease in mental load that frees up so much generative creativity.
Speaking of reclaiming power: Another unexpected discovery has been that concierge healthcare (like a gym plan) has actually become more affordable than my traditional insurance. Plus, no more Kafkaesque phone trees. No more co-pay bait-and-switch exclusions. No deductibles. Just real, informed specialists like TIA Health or Menopause Rocks who pick up the phone when your hormones don’t.
All the more reason to love your Empress Age.
Next… Behind-the-Scenes at Empress Editions
We’re eight weeks out from the launch of Quickies on June 24—a day that (blessedly) follows National Vagina Appreciation Day. Coincidence? We think not.
This collection of bold, brilliant, and wildly entertaining little sex lessons for midlife women is the literary equivalent of a perfectly timed orgasm: unexpected, overdue, and absolutely worth the wait. Here’s a sneak peek of what the galleys look like!
If you haven’t already, you can preorder Quickies practically everywhere here—and this is after being banned for almost six months! Huzzah!
And just in time for this season of desire and undoing, we’re also wicked thrilled to announce our third title: Come to Dinner: Fifty Years of Friendship with Joan Didion by New York Times bestselling author and dear friend, Sara Davidson. In bookstores everywhere, January 6, 2026.
This is not just a biography. It’s a love letter. A living archive. A seat at the table with Joan.
✨ Preorder an autographed copy before they’re gone! ✨ We’re offering free shipping. Just use the code: JZ7N4IA
Introducing our Emprints:
We believe midlife women’s voices are necessary and vital to healing the world right now. We’ve talked about how to create author-owned imprints but honestly, we don’t know how to do it without making a Fyre Festival of the brand.
When you finish reading an Empress book, you should feel like a f*cking queen… Uplifted, lit up, agentic, and ready to engage with ideas and the world.
For now, expanding to four imprints, or Emprints (as we call them) feels like what we can do. So here they are:
Empress Voices – Memoir & Literary Nonfiction
Empress Vices – Romance, Rebellion & Desire
Empress Virtues – Literary Fiction with Teeth
Empress Visionaries – Bold Business & Thought Leadership
Publishing Workarounds, Global Edition
One of our advisors indirectly asked/implied the very smart question: What are you going to do if Trump decides in the wee hours of the night on Truth Social to reverse his exemption on publishing tariffs? I wasn’t quite happy with my initial answer. The quality of US production is a solid B+, but China is a stellar A+. Add to that, the unit costs can’t be beat, which means we can pay our midlife women authors more.
And I realized today… the solution was with me all along. (Ga-lynda!) During my detainment in China last year, my detainers helped me figure out a strategy to enter China and then return to the US through a nearby third-party country. The ticket cost nothing. (They even helped me book it.) We can do the same thing with our books. We can print them in China, ship them to a no/low-tariff country in Southeast Asia for a nominal fee, and then they are officially no longer from China and can enter the States without penalty. Apparel manufacturers are already doing this. And it can work for indie publishers too! Don’t you love it when you figure out something like this?
More Deliciousness
A must-read on midlife undoing:
’s brave and beautiful post made me teary in a good way.Substack Live replay:
, author of The Change, joins this fangirl and for rage, laughter, and some serious midlife magic. Watch the replay here:
Indie Inspiration:
talks to trailblazing women who are rewriting the rulebook, and yes, I show up too (bad hair, better intentions, plus a word salad).
Heroine’s Journey:
teaches midlife transformation with dragons, structure, and sparkle.
Ayurvedic Wisdom:
Kumar-Singh, MD’s The Longevity Formula is an essential toolkit for navigating menopause with grace and grit. I LOVE this book!
And for your soundtrack to midlife messiness…
This track slaps! Please do dance!
Yours in Grandeur & Deep… Sh*t,
p.s. If you are so inclined, follow us on IG for flash content & upcoming giveaways. We’re at @the.empress.age and we’d love to see you there!
Thanks for including Midlife Musings and for all the ways you're spreading the midlife love! xx
Eeeeeee!!!! Everything looks so freaking amazing (from one Type A to another, I bow.)
Can I puuulease join the post-scarlet TP mania soon? My body is working overtime to slough off every last egg, and then some!