🌴🍎 The Trend Report™ comes to America 🌴🍎

At the end of a too-big-to-handle year, some housekeeping and a few exciting announcements from this little writer to the world.

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As the title suggests, I have some exciting news to share about the end of 2025 and the start of 2026: I’m headed to Los Angeles and New York City for a few weeks! And I want to meet all of you!! Or, as many of you who are local as possible. But first: some housekeeping items 🤭

Note that next week will be the last week of publishing this year, meaning we’ll get two TR.BIZ dispatches on Tuesday and Thursday before the final Sunday edition of the year. I’m going to do my annual year in review of music, writing, and content plus my 2026 forecast after that, to arrive at the top of 2026, as I’m hoping to take a solid three weeks away from all this given how exhausting the year has been.

I started the year talking a big game about working less and writing less and — Well. — that did not happen, leaving both you and I a bit red-eyed in the process. This is me now! To make my job and your experience better, a humble request: I’d love to hear your thoughts on how this newsletter is going by filling out the 2025 Reader Poll™, an intentionally brief, open review of what we’re doing here.

I love writing The Trend Report™, which entered its fifth year this year. It has introduced me to so many fantastic people and continues to open up to opportunities. How great is that? The catch is: I’m very unsure if this is paying off, literally and metaphorically. Thus, I want to ~meditate~ on your suggestions in the coming weeks so that 1.) I don’t die next year from over-work because I almost died this year from over-work and 2.) so I truly am working smarter not harder, as this economy has had me lip syncing for my damn life and I need to know who to lip sync for.

To recap: one more week of posts! End of year items coming soon! Share your thoughts on the newsletter in general!

▶️▶️▶️ Fill out the 2025 Reader Poll™ here ◀️◀️◀️

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Moving on: in the past month, we had two How To Be Creative™: Conversations™, which were both fabulous and I was very fortunate to see many of you at. I wanted to share those posts for anyone looking for some writing inspiration. Catch the below video podcasts!

First, Rax Ishida Will and I had a meeting of the minds in late November to talk about queer writing, largely as it goes in and out of the biographical. Rax is at work on a memoir that is shifting in and out of fiction (Potentially!) and we discussed how such moves and inclinations to question forms and formats and even truth ties to queerness. It was a very interesting conversation, that not only maps the literary world but also the journalistic world in that we reflect on how Rax is able to apply such thinking to subjects like queerness in hospitality (Which he got a James Beard nomination for!) and exploring the relationship to eating and bottoming. All great stuff, certainly something to tune into for any queer writers, but also biracial writers too as we share our experiences in that world too. Bonus: we reflect on queer writing trends, which inspired a very thoughtful question from the audience.

🌈🌈🌈 Watch Rax’s full conversation here 🌈🌈🌈

Second, Sarah Labrie and I dove into a discussion on memoir and beyond last week, which was a really insightful look not only into how a memoir is crafted but how the influences of fiction, screenwriting, and more tie into the work. I knew a lot about Sarah’s book journey (given my convo with her last year) but so much of the nuts-and-bolts of the writing of the book I didn’t know, in that the work started off as fiction and was retooled into nonfiction in the process. Who knew? Moreover, releasing a book upended her writing practice completely and she’s had a bit of a struggle getting pen-to-paper post-book. That was very insightful for me, as someone who has gotten very close to publishing a book, thinking that life would continue in the same way — but clearly things shift, as you have to parent the child that is born while making specific time to nurture future children. It’s a juggle! Especially given work, personal life, the happenings of the world, etc. Super informative chat, for anyone hoping to get into memoir or who is very experienced in the format. Bonus: we talk the book trends of 2025, which was very juicy.

📚📚📚 Watch Sarah’s full conversation here 📚📚📚

I’m hoping to continue this series in the new year, but let me know: did you attend them? Did you care? What subjects are you interested in? I’d love to hear, as I start on figuring out an approach for the new year.

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Now…onto the main event: I’m coming to America!!! USA! USA! USA! 🇺🇸🦅🏈🥧🍔🇺🇸

It has been three years since I’ve been back, which has been a very long gap largely due to it costing a lot to return during times of not getting-that-bread. Hence why — despite the circumstances — I miss America and I really miss Americans. I do! I’m not ashamed to admit that as an immigrant abroad: warts and all, America and Americans are built different — and it’s an energy and charisma and a diversity you miss, especially after thirtysomething years participating in and witnessing such a culture generator. Especially via a city like Los Angeles! I’m super excited to return for an extended period of time, to see family, friends, and hopefully many of you. (I’m also…equally excited to share my thoughts on the state of things, after being away for so long. That will likely come throughout the trip: stay tuned.)

Here’s the overview: I’ll be in Los Angeles from December 18 through January 17 and then will be in New York City from January 18 through January 30. The latter half of December is largely dedicated to seeing friends and family but, if anyone would like to meet up at any point, drop a line and we’ll see what we can work out. I’ll be staying in Melrose Hill too! From there, I’ll be headed to New York to see some family and friends as well, where I’ll mostly be in Brooklyn. Drop a line too if you want to meet up! I’m also bringing my little goblin Oliver too: be on the lookout for us, which I’ll hopefully log on Instagram, in case we’re in the same place at the same time.

Beyond meeting you all and seeing loved ones…why will I be in America? I’m trying to kick up Trend Report™ work, which plays into some of the aforementioned items. I’m taking meetings and doing some press and maybe even meeting with editors, to talk about potential collaborations and see what “work” can pop up. I’m going to do lots of cold outreach soon, all to pitch a suite of services I’ve developed: industry-specific TR.BIZ dispatches, building out the daily trend dispatch, pitching creative talks, and procuring advertisers. The idea is to apply what I do to brands and persons looking for human-first collaboration. Send me an email at hello@thetrend.report or reply to this email if you’d like to get something going! That’s a big point of the trip!!

Now that the work is out of the way, I’ll be hosting a few events where I’d love to meet you all, a few more formal but most very informal.

🌴 Los Angeles: save the date for these happenings!!

• December 28 from 5PM - 8PM: A casual Trend Report™ meet-up at Tabula Rasa in East Hollywood. This is a laid back, drop-in thing, but RSVP here in case I need to reserve a table(s).

• January 11 at 7:30PM - ??: Trend Report Live™ at Whammy in East Hollywood, which is one of the main events of the trip, which I hope everyone comes to as I have the space paid for and rented already. Come one, come all! RSVP here!! We may start at Whammy and wander elsewhere after, pending how the night goes. For the unfamiliar, this is an interactive “game” where we review recent news and culture happenings, to build a time capsule of the present. Read more about it here! This event is free too, along with drinks and snacks provided by moi 😉

• January 15 from 6PM - 9PM: Another casual Trend Report™ meet-up at Tabula Rasa in East Hollywood! RSVP here!

If you cannot make these or want to meet up separately or want to book a meeting or want to collaborate, etc., hit me up! If enough people have a better idea for a meet up (A mid-day coffee? An afternoon park hang?), make your voice known! As I don’t want to exclude anyone, etc.

🍎 New York City: save the date for these happenings!!

• January 21 at ~6PM: Ben Dietz and I along with a ~ forthcoming guest ~ are hosting a LIVE podcast recording and meet-up. The location is being sorted now, but consider this your save-the-date!! It’ll be very cute and very fun. RSVP here! It’s free as well!!

• January 22 from 6PM - 9PM: A casual post-work Trend Report™ meet-up, at a TBD location!! If you have any thoughts, recommendations, etc. as far as location, drop a line. We can also shift this to Sunday, if that’s better for people! RSVP here!

• January 28 at ~6PM: Ditto to the first item, as Ben Dietz and I along with a ~ forthcoming guest ~ will be doing another LIVE podcast recording and meet-up. Location is still TBD too, but this is your save the date: RSVP here! It’s free!!

Similarly: if you can’t make it to these or have another alternative or want to collaborate on something, drop me a line: I’m all ears! I want to see and meet as many of you as possible! You all are my people and I AM COMING TO SEE YOU ALL!!!!!

And now, after writing all of this, I am prematurely exhausted thinking about it — but that’s also what’s so thrilling about it. I can’t wait! Looking forward to wrapping this year up and kicking off 2026 in a big way. Cheers!

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