good morning
Since my friend died a month ago, I haven’t had much to say around here. Instead, I’ve mostly been reading about totalitarianism, as one does, and playing around with sword and sorcery and thinking about writing a Castlevania novel. In lieu of writing new things here, I’ve just been publishing or republishing some short stories.
But I’m back now. Expect an essay later this week and then we’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. I liked publishing stories here so I may also continue doing that. Maybe an every other week kind of schedule.
Anyway, for those who tuned out a bit, here’s a rundown of what happened here while we were all looking the other way.
Podcast Episodes
These were mostly recorded beforehand, which made life a bit easier.
We spoke with Kyle Seibel about his story Roller Coaster House. Kyle was a great guest and we had a great time chatting about his story and really diving into the meat of it. It’s quite short but it led to about an hour and a half of conversation! Check out his debut collection.
I spoke with
, an artist, illustrator, gamemaker, comicbook writer, and professor about creativity, among other things. Really enjoyed this conversation, which veered from history to the creative process to art as a gift and so much else. Check out his comic about Theseus and then consider buying a copy!We spoke with Ai Jiang about her recent short story Shadows Below Seaway Trains. Because of the nature of this story, parenthood came up quite a bit. Check out her new novel!
This is the episode and ongoing investigation that I’m honestly most excited about. My good friend Bart and I are going through the discography of The Beatles album by album. We’ve gotten to a point where it feels like the Beatles have not only become underrated but unremarked upon. So we’re diving in to see just how good the Beatles were, not from only a historical perspective, but from the experience of someone in 2025 listening to some of these songs for the first time.
Just as importantly, this is an exercise in focused listening. I feel that music has largely become background noise for many people, so this is an attempt to combat that. This will be a monthly series so expect a new episode in a few weeks!
Finally, we spoke with Kij Johnson about her story Noah’s Raven! This episode is exactly what I hoped this podcast would become. If you’re an aspiring writer or an experienced writer, consider this a seminar on POV and narration by one of the very best. I’d like to say that I made this episode so good, but it really was all Kij. We spoke for nearly two hours and could easily have spoken for three or four just about some of these topics.
Tomorrow, there will be a new episode with Johan Nohr, the artist behind Mork Borg. We’ll be discussing his story The Goblin, but also art more generally and the creative process specifically. This was a great conversation and I’m excited for everyone to hear it.
If you haven’t yet, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Also give the show a rating and write a review!
Short Stories
I republished a sword and sorcery story that was originally published in Old Moon Quarterly, which introduces my sword wielding protagonist, Vinshya. Revisiting this story really made me want to dive back into the genre of sword and sorcery. Since then, I’ve written a few new stories, including another story with this character.
This was published on Earth Day to go along with
and ’s The Future of Nature project here on substack. It’s a story about trying to rebuild the world after ecological collapse, one tree at a time. It’s a small and humble story. You won’t find terraforming technologies. Instead, you’ll find hands in the dirt, fighting back desertification.
This is another story starring Vinshya.
was kind enough to review it in his Dread Reviews 17. This is a story that’s about a decade old but I’ve always loved it for its strangeness, its unknowability, for its central monster, the Keeper.
Another very old story but one I’ve long loved, though no one has ever wanted to publish it. It’s a far future space colonization story that deals with the reality of colonizing a planet with sentient life, but also with the cultural clashes between people who lived through terror and massacres and those who have only seen and heard about it as a historical event.
Originally published in an anthology, this is an alternate history about the fall of the Soviet Union and a boy discovering a genre of music that would change his life.
Anyway, I hope you’ve all been well and I hope you check these out.
More to come soon.
Condolences about your friend
I’m so sorry about your friend.