I've been pretty quiet lately, dedicating almost all of my writing time to working on Pennhollow. That's been fruitful labor. Since January 20, I've written about 20,000 words – about half of what was left to complete the shitty first draft. I set the goal of June 5 to finish the SFD, and it's looking like I'm on target to make that deadline. This all makes me very happy, even if the book itself still has a lot of work coming in the editing and revision stage.
But hey, I suspect that's every book? (Please don't tell me about books that were brilliant and ready to publish without editing!)
Anyway, this is a short note to let you know I've decided to move the publishing side of my house from Ghost over to Substack. There are a few reasons for this.
While I prefer Ghost as a straight publishing platform, it is isolated. Substack has more social network effects and I am looking to grow my list as I gear up toward seeking an agent and a publisher. There's no getting around the fact that it's easier to get to market if you have even a small phalanx of people behind you.
The other thing is I plan on diversifying a bit on the topics I write about. Until now, I've stayed mostly in the arts/business/life lane. It's where I'm most comfortable. Against, perhaps, my better judgment am compelled to write some more political things given the state of the world – and Substack offers easier segmentation of lists. Meaning: if you don't want to hear my political thoughts but do want to continue to receive my more traditional writing, it will be easier for you to opt-in or opt-out, as the case may be.
So, if you see something from Substack appear in your inbox bearing my name or the names of any of OTR/Bitter Buffaloes/Sonder Union, please know it did indeed come from me.
As always, I will continue to make everything available for free. There will be an optional subscription for a small fee to get commenting privileges, but that's more to create a moat for spam and trolls.
Thank you for being on this journey with me so far. It may not mean anything to you, but it means very much to me.
I hope to see you all over at the new place when I get it up and running 🤍