I really love that you're enjoying this space so much AND that you don't really know how to define it. Great! Your voice always comes through so nicely, even when it's fiction. Congrats on your first six months. Thanks for the shoutout as well! I really do love footnotes. Not sure why I haven't been using them here. Very DFW of you.
Good starting point. Then all his fiction and experiments make more sense! I’ll also be talking about the lobster one in a couple weeks and the Federer one is easy to find. Terry and I are NOT obsessed hahaha
Came here to ensnare more fragmented readers, offering free defrag service! See? I did it again. Fragmentation is all around us, you can feel it in your fingers, feel it in your toes... ;)
Gratulations for your journey thus far and heartfelt thanks for the mention, my friend. I have thoroughly enjoyed our exchange and the yarns and looking forward to many more, maybe even with centred text dinkus!
What a lovely reflection! Six months is such a fun amount of time...long enough for things to feel solid, the beginning to feel a little hazy, rhythms to be established. But also vanishing short, a handful of months, barely two seasons. It's been super fun for me watching you explore and try new things that are Untryable in other formats. And getting to enjoy your writing too! V glad you took the plunge, excited to read more, and thank you thank you for the shoutout! 💖
Congratulations on your six-month Stackiversary, Nathan! Wonderful post and I love the graph of your ‘n’ subscribers and commentary! And as Elizabeth Gilbert would say, “Onward!”
Nathan there is only one thing about this post that I don't like, and that is the fact that you've featured so many 'stacks I hadn't heard of that I now have even MORE exploration and reading to do 🤬
Seriously though, great post. Like someone else here I thought you'd been here longer. Sorry for being late to the social gathering but somehow I missed this post. I think that week was particularly busy or something. Anyway, thanks very much for the mention.
I loved the reflected words. I thought you were writing 8n Anglo Saxon at first Hwaet!
I especially liked the graph it reminded me that I used to incorporate daft graphs into my other blogs. Must reinstate that here
Like you, I was delighted when people actually commented. It can be very dispiriting when the comments section of a blog post has tumbleweed blowing through it. The Substack team and the community as a whole are very good in this respect, in that commenting and connection are built in and encouraged.
Re-affirming you clarify the essence and joy of this platform or whatever it is so well and love you reprise the Renn and Brae stuff which first riveted, so deeply felt and written. Also what resonates so clearly here is the power of just several encouraging voices we cherish, respect, to gird up the doubt, the fear which keeps us from realising our best expression. No man is an island indeed but damnnnn at times its tempting to think so.
You're a wonderful Substack comrade, Nathan - thank you enormously for your kind words and link. I'll just be over here sipping my coffee waiting for you to come to your senses... ;)
Nathan I do so love the way you write. And I, too, sometimes drink matcha while wishing it were coffee.
Thank you for including the wonderful image of your perilous subscriber climb! And thank you for saving me the trouble of checking when the full moon fell that month 🙏
I especially enjoyed the line: “So what is SLAKE? Beats me”
Well, you know me and the full moon! Once we know when that is we can work backwards and make sense of pretty much everything ;)
I think we should have her back in ten days or so 🤞
I was thinking of you this morning as an acquaintance had asked about Death & Birds, "So, what is it, exactly?" and your statement came to mind... I'm going to try to use it as a practice around releasing some of the grip of the very rigid 'Need To Know' part of me. And to start responding "I don't know!" with a smile :)
Oh Nathan, what a heartwarming milestone post. I had no idea that you wanted to ditch ‘Brae’s Meteorite’. Why would you ever want to do that?
I’ve said (wrote) it many times, so happy you’re here, what a joy reading from you, finding you in my inbox week after week. It’s amazing that you wrote so many newsletters this year… I only wrote 7 and I’m always scribbling at them but slow thinker. 🤣 I’m about to reach the ‘n’ subscribers as well. We’re in synch! Sending you lots of hugs and some shrimp 🦐 tea from Vienna to help you get over your coffee withdrawal.
🙏 Thank you Claudia, so lovely. Shrimp tea still to be tasted, but I have been enjoying matcha a lot.
RE: Brae, well, perhaps slight newsletter-induced hyperbole. A deep uncertainty over it though, which you greatly helped de-uncertainty-ify (err, yes that's a word, maybe, haha).
The fact that you're always scribbling away is what counts. (I refresh my inbox every day for that new piece of fiction, hehe.)
Glad you're also at the 'n' subscriber point 😉 Your milestone Note post inspired me the other day to think more on writing this post.
Have you considered wrapping Brae up, like a satisfyingly final season of a cancelled show? If there are other creative places you'd rather be heading.
Heh, I like the notion of that, but I think (hope!) that it's all mapped out OK and it'll end up getting to where I want it to be. There's just a few tricky things to iron out in some later chapters, but I'm sure it'll get there.
Thanks Garrett, so kind, and thanks for the cafe-induced reading spree. Cafe reading is the best. Maybe a pic of the location in your own next post, or sometime in the future. I always enjoy seeing other places, especially when they're connected to other people.
I shall be engaging in my own reading spree of "And in the dark..." this weekend, hopefully also within a cafe!
I really love that you're enjoying this space so much AND that you don't really know how to define it. Great! Your voice always comes through so nicely, even when it's fiction. Congrats on your first six months. Thanks for the shoutout as well! I really do love footnotes. Not sure why I haven't been using them here. Very DFW of you.
Thanks Kate, and thanks for all the great discussions.
Get using those footnotes ;)
I LOVE DFW and his footnotes!
OK FINE I'M GOING TO READ SOME DFW FINALLY! I HOPE YOU'RE ALL HAPPY. 😆
Lol just try an essay. The one on the dictionary is a good starting point
👍 thanks!
https://web.ics.purdue.edu/~drkelly/DFWAuthorityAndAmericanUsage2005.pdf
Good starting point. Then all his fiction and experiments make more sense! I’ll also be talking about the lobster one in a couple weeks and the Federer one is easy to find. Terry and I are NOT obsessed hahaha
Lovely, thanks.
(The obsession is great ;) )
Speak for yourself, Kathleen 😂
edit: hmm, that link doesn't work for me.
You mean the review on American usage? Definitely excellent;. Also, search for Harper's article: a supposedly fun thing I will never do again.
Amazing writing and visuals as always. You’re such a gift to this community! Thank you for the mention also 😎
Thank you my friend!
Came here to ensnare more fragmented readers, offering free defrag service! See? I did it again. Fragmentation is all around us, you can feel it in your fingers, feel it in your toes... ;)
Gratulations for your journey thus far and heartfelt thanks for the mention, my friend. I have thoroughly enjoyed our exchange and the yarns and looking forward to many more, maybe even with centred text dinkus!
Thank you, and to you too, very much enjoyed/enjoying all of the exchanges. Someday there will be a centred dinkus that doesn't rely on an image.
What a lovely reflection! Six months is such a fun amount of time...long enough for things to feel solid, the beginning to feel a little hazy, rhythms to be established. But also vanishing short, a handful of months, barely two seasons. It's been super fun for me watching you explore and try new things that are Untryable in other formats. And getting to enjoy your writing too! V glad you took the plunge, excited to read more, and thank you thank you for the shoutout! 💖
So much yes to all of this 🤗
Congratulations on your six-month Stackiversary, Nathan! Wonderful post and I love the graph of your ‘n’ subscribers and commentary! And as Elizabeth Gilbert would say, “Onward!”
Many thanks Jolene! Onward indeed 😀
Nathan there is only one thing about this post that I don't like, and that is the fact that you've featured so many 'stacks I hadn't heard of that I now have even MORE exploration and reading to do 🤬
Seriously though, great post. Like someone else here I thought you'd been here longer. Sorry for being late to the social gathering but somehow I missed this post. I think that week was particularly busy or something. Anyway, thanks very much for the mention.
I loved the reflected words. I thought you were writing 8n Anglo Saxon at first Hwaet!
I especially liked the graph it reminded me that I used to incorporate daft graphs into my other blogs. Must reinstate that here
Like you, I was delighted when people actually commented. It can be very dispiriting when the comments section of a blog post has tumbleweed blowing through it. The Substack team and the community as a whole are very good in this respect, in that commenting and connection are built in and encouraged.
Here's to another 6 months, Nathan
Thanks Terry! Glad to have generously added to your likely already-long reading list :P
Yes, do go getting those graphs (re)instated into your posts.
Here's to a lack of tumbleweeds!
Re-affirming you clarify the essence and joy of this platform or whatever it is so well and love you reprise the Renn and Brae stuff which first riveted, so deeply felt and written. Also what resonates so clearly here is the power of just several encouraging voices we cherish, respect, to gird up the doubt, the fear which keeps us from realising our best expression. No man is an island indeed but damnnnn at times its tempting to think so.
Love all your comments and thoughts, Appleton. Thank you!
You're a wonderful Substack comrade, Nathan - thank you enormously for your kind words and link. I'll just be over here sipping my coffee waiting for you to come to your senses... ;)
I very much look forward to joining you in that coffee soon!
And you're quite welcome my friend.
Thank you so much for the kind mention, Nathan! Proud to be your pen friend :)
Aw thanks Hannah :)
Time is always strange. Only six months? It seems longer. I've become accustomed to the comforts of your newsletters.
Aw, thanks!
Happy to know I was your first comment. 😁
🙌 Yep :D
I love everything about this! Especially the perilous climb to “n” subscribers! I’m so, very glad you made your way to Substack!
Thanks, Jillian. I quite possibly couldn't have done it without your inspiration and kindness :)
I had a lot of support from fellow substackers when I started so I’m just paying it forward:)
Nathan I do so love the way you write. And I, too, sometimes drink matcha while wishing it were coffee.
Thank you for including the wonderful image of your perilous subscriber climb! And thank you for saving me the trouble of checking when the full moon fell that month 🙏
I especially enjoyed the line: “So what is SLAKE? Beats me”
Also, I miss Nadia...
Hey Chloe, thanks so much.
The full moon, yes, I was thinking of you when I put that in as I was worried you may not have been aware when it fell ;)
We all miss Nadia. When is she back? Soon, surely...
Well, you know me and the full moon! Once we know when that is we can work backwards and make sense of pretty much everything ;)
I think we should have her back in ten days or so 🤞
I was thinking of you this morning as an acquaintance had asked about Death & Birds, "So, what is it, exactly?" and your statement came to mind... I'm going to try to use it as a practice around releasing some of the grip of the very rigid 'Need To Know' part of me. And to start responding "I don't know!" with a smile :)
Of course, of course. Well, come August, the Sturgeon Moon will no doubt inform us as to the precise date when Nadia returned...
That makes me most happy if you can embrace the powerful and shrug-filled "I don't know" statement. 😊
Oh Nathan, what a heartwarming milestone post. I had no idea that you wanted to ditch ‘Brae’s Meteorite’. Why would you ever want to do that?
I’ve said (wrote) it many times, so happy you’re here, what a joy reading from you, finding you in my inbox week after week. It’s amazing that you wrote so many newsletters this year… I only wrote 7 and I’m always scribbling at them but slow thinker. 🤣 I’m about to reach the ‘n’ subscribers as well. We’re in synch! Sending you lots of hugs and some shrimp 🦐 tea from Vienna to help you get over your coffee withdrawal.
🙏 Thank you Claudia, so lovely. Shrimp tea still to be tasted, but I have been enjoying matcha a lot.
RE: Brae, well, perhaps slight newsletter-induced hyperbole. A deep uncertainty over it though, which you greatly helped de-uncertainty-ify (err, yes that's a word, maybe, haha).
The fact that you're always scribbling away is what counts. (I refresh my inbox every day for that new piece of fiction, hehe.)
Glad you're also at the 'n' subscriber point 😉 Your milestone Note post inspired me the other day to think more on writing this post.
I hope all is great over in Vienna! 🤗
Have you considered wrapping Brae up, like a satisfyingly final season of a cancelled show? If there are other creative places you'd rather be heading.
Heh, I like the notion of that, but I think (hope!) that it's all mapped out OK and it'll end up getting to where I want it to be. There's just a few tricky things to iron out in some later chapters, but I'm sure it'll get there.
👏👍
And yes, novella seems outdated.
If Camus or Kafka were writing today, traditional publishing would reject them. That's to name only two. Let that sink in and try not to weep.
Yeah, that's crazy to think of. What a shame.
Thanks Garrett, so kind, and thanks for the cafe-induced reading spree. Cafe reading is the best. Maybe a pic of the location in your own next post, or sometime in the future. I always enjoy seeing other places, especially when they're connected to other people.
I shall be engaging in my own reading spree of "And in the dark..." this weekend, hopefully also within a cafe!
Thank you Barbara, those are some special and lovely words! 🙏