9/3/25
As today drew on, I found myself feeling the increasing draw to get out and write something with no expectations—to start typing and see where the hell I ended up. Everything I've been working on for the last two months has been soooo task-focused:
Serialize The Wheel
Record and edit narrations
Talk to Jenelle about the art
Set up and schedule the upcoming installments (it’s done now, if you missed it)
Write a long note about hitting 100 subscribers
Write a post about being on Substack for a year
Schedule and conduct interviews with Substack pals
Contribute to multiple Story tags (stay tuned!)
It's been fun, but also a lot. Getting “The Wheel” posted on time until it was finished was the main throughline of it all, and when that was all done, I felt I could breathe again.
For about a week.
Now I've got a list in my Bullet Journal (a brand new thing Jenelle and I are trying. Results TBD) that goes something like:
Rue:
Identify & read comp titles
Revise prologue
Revise Bolton section
Write query letter
Research querytracker.com
Find more agents
Submit to TSNOTYAW?
That list is probably both shorter than it should be and longer than it looks, and it's honestly scary. I think I can now identify what I did this morning before work as procrastination rather than meaningful preparation: I sifted through the feedback I've gotten on my prologue and put all the notes in one place. Again.
The feedback itself was great. Five wonderful, supportive, talented friends of mine on Substack agreed to read the thing with a critical eye. It was immensely helpful and could make a big difference in how this project gets received. I'd love to name them all and give them credit, but it strikes me that they may not want to publicize this possibly begrudgingly rendered service and risk receiving more requests. Who knows. I'm a communications guy, so I know when to play it safe and when to take a risk. Suffice it to say, you ladies know who you are and hopefully know that your help was highly appreciated.
Beneath all of this is my day job that...well, it’s a communications job, and that's where I learned that I probably shouldn't finish this paragraph.
Anyway, have you read this completely unrelated article, “The Death of the Corporate Job”? It's making the rounds lately, and damn is it interesting.
Side note: I just watched a dude that isn't even as tall as the mirrors attached to his giant truck, clean the raindrops off them with a mini squeegee the size of a Bic razor. Folks, if this is a thing, I've never heard of it. Oh, the places you will go...
Anyway, so with all that offloading done (this is basically a public journal entry, if you haven't noticed yet), I'm here at Earthen Ales with the intention to pants a Substack post. I've done this before, perhaps most notably in the post where I discussed Pantsing.
Like I said, I didn't know what I wanted to write, I just knew I needed to. I needed the freedom, the discovery, that comes with free-wheeling a thing, rather than writing to a defined goal. I debated walking to the nearby Right Brain, but it was kinda raining, and while I feel like walks in the rain are way underrated, I also wanted a calmer vibe than RB can provide. Hence, my arrival at Earthen Ales and GOLLY was I delighted when I walked up to the brewery door. You see, it was drizzling, but also kinda sunny—one of those amazing between-the-pages moments of life—and I noticed that the table next to the door was almost entirely dry thanks to the giant umbrella over it. So I went in to grab a beer and came back out to sit under it and write (and watch dudes squeegee their mirrors). The sun is now gone, and so is the rain, but I'm hopeful that one of them will come back eventually.
And now, having barely started, I find myself at the end of the ideas train. This is probably no way to write a newsletter that goes out to *checks phone* 124 people's inboxes, but as I said early on—like probably a year ago—Stephen King (there he is again!) told me to never come lightly to the page. Maybe you could define this sort of cavalier drafting as lightness—especially if I'm intending to post it mostly as-is—but I disagree. I say that I'm writing what my heart says I want and need to write, and I’m going to be brave enough to post the result. That's not light! That's ballsy, in a "are you even trying, bro?" kind of way!
So, I guess I'll wrap this up by taking a few moments to look at the near future of this Substack, now that “The Wheel” has passed:
My next "On Writers" guest needs to wait until November, which means I'm currently out of guests! I'll start knocking on doors soon, but if you want to do this with me, drop me a line! (It's a long shot, but I'm going to try and get Joe Hill before he comes to town in November. Every single finger is crossed!)
Another side note: Ahhhh, it's raining again, and this umbrella is working just fine.
I'm taking a pause from posting serialized fiction now that “The Wheel" is done. I've got another too-long short story I want to bring to you all, but I need to focus on my novel for a bit. Once I've made some progress on that, I'll see what I can do.
However, I might have some one-off fiction for you. The first will likely be a joint venture with Jay Wilcox. The second will be a writing prompt exercise from my summer writing class that grew more legs than I expected, hence why I haven’t posted it yet.
It's been way too long since I've talked to Jenelle about her art. My next "Pick a Print With Jenelle" will likely focus on one or all the lovely pieces she made for "The Wheel." I probably should do that soon.
And another: Ope. The umbrella has a hole. Guess I'm heading inside...wait, no, I'll put my empty beer glass under it and go get another! Either way, hang on just a sec...
Alright, I'm back. Once upon a time, I started this series called "Things That Make My Life Better," and I’m not sure if I’ll post in it again because I still can't decide if it's dumb or not. I can tell you that writing and/or reading in the rain makes my life better for sure, though. Boom. Print it.
I guess I'll write about life in general and tell little non-fiction stories that pop up from time to time. That's what I've always done and it's always worked, for the most part...maybe.
Otherwise, I've also got a list of tasks for this Substack in my BuJo, and one of them is to finally pick a name for the dang thing. We will see where that ends up.
If you made it through this disjointed slog of a post, thanks, as always, for keeping up on things and supporting me here.
Speaking of which, I could use your help! Did you read "The Wheel"? Did you like it? If you haven't already, I'd really, really love it if you could help promote it a bit. I'll even give you the link to the first chapter. Friends and family, please consider posting it on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever. If you have done that or restacked it on Substack, thanks sooo much! This stuff grows by word of mouth, and "The Wheel" hasn't gotten a whole lot of it. I guess that's on me and the quality of the story, at the end of the day, but truly, if it did move you even a little, I would appreciate the share so much. If not, I swear I won't hold it against you. It’s my first real story, after all, and I'm still learning. Maybe the next one will be your jam.
This is indeed the way. Man, I feel you about pantsing. I get so caught up in plotting and "perfecting," that it's easy to miss the joy. This is, of course, referring to my longer, more "serious" projects lol