Hello Friends!
It’s another beautiful Friday morning up here in northern Wisconsin. We’re past peak color change, and the leaves are falling fast. This is perfect weather for grilling, football games, and cross-country meets.
Both of my girls had sporting events yesterday. My elder daughter did a swimming event an hour away, and my youngest had a cross-country meet. Fortunately, the cross-country meet was on the way to the swimming meet so I was able to see them both. But we got back home at midnight, so I’m tired.
As I was laying in bed it occurred to me that when I was growing up, my senior year of high school felt like the end of a chapter. What I didn’t realize then and what I’ve come to understand now is that it isn’t an end for the student, it’s an end for the parent. A high school senior has his/her entire life ahead. Graduation is the beginning of their adult lives. For the parents it means you’re not going to be spending as much time driving your kids to swimming and cross-country meets.
Fortunately, my eldest is only a Freshman. Though these precious moments go by so, so fast.
Anyway… on to the topics of the day!
How to unsubscribe from sections of a newsletter
I’ve got a lot going on and a lot of articles and recordings that I’m ready to share with all of you. I finished off the other novel I’d been writing, so I’ve been working on The Princess and the Zebra Unicorn. Writing those stories is how I blow off steam. It’s a way of emphasizing the ludicrous nature of the problems we have to deal with.
My kids think the episodes are funny, but a couple of readers have mentioned they thought they were “too violent.” I completely understand and accept that all my readers aren’t going to enjoy everything I have to say. Unfortunately, we live in a world where disagreement usually means cutting somebody out of your life forever.
I’d like to avoid that, and offer my readers the opportunity to opt out of the sections of my newsletter that don’t interest them. This is the way I’ve been told to set up my newsletter (by the experts). But it was only this week that I created a new substack account with an alternate email so I could subscribe to my newsletter and get a glimpse of what it looks like from a reader’s perspective.
At first I thought I could unsubscribe readers from sections myself, but it turns out only the reader has that power. I wanted to spare you that trouble, but since I can’t do that, providing detailed instructions is the next best thing. So here goes.
From the landing page to my newsletter, click on the profile icon (reference the above image). When the drop down menu appears, click on “manage subscription.” That brings you to this:
Actually, seeing this page was an eye-opener for me. I didn’t realize there were SO MANY sections! But the good news is that this allows you a lot of control in how you interact with my newsletter. I’m going to start from the bottom up to explain all those options.
New chat threads: I don’t really use this feature so you might as well leave it on for the time being. Frankly, I have enough to keep me busy with straight article writing and the podcast (which I’ll get to last). But, in the future, if I start to use the chat threads and you find it annoying, come back here and shut it off.
Empowering Progressive Writers: My plan is to place a greater emphasis on this after the election. I’m very interested in helping other writers share their stories, and my status as a Boost nominator allows me to help provide new writers with some career momentum. This section is for “craft of writing” type content.
Fiction: This is where you’ll find the Zebra Unicorn and other stories. I expect I’ll be doing 2-3 chapters of one book or another for the foreseeable future. Perhaps I’ll start doing daily chapters. I’ve been looking for a place to publish the fantasy books I’ve written for my kids, and this feels like the right place (the ones I wrote for them 4 years ago aren’t as violent). These are stories with fairies and dragons and speaking animals mostly (they’re funny).
Politics: If everything goes to plan, there will be DRAMATICALLY less content in this section after November 5th. If things don’t go to plan, I’ll probably be sitting in a detention camp somewhere with my immigrant family (or I’ll be dead). Either way, there’s likely to be a lot less politics in a couple of weeks.
I’d Rather Be Writing: I’ve been trying to decide which category best describes this newsletter and I think it’s a combination of culture and education. Anything I write that doesn’t exactly fit in the other sections will go here. I’m using it more lately. This newsletter is evolving.
Podcast: I told you I’d save this one for last. I’m having a lot of fun with the podcast. The truth is, I really enjoy reading to you. For my entire life as a daddy, I’ve spent an hour reading to my kids at night. As I said at the beginning of this newsletter, there will come a day when my girls graduate and begin their lives (holding back tears). When that happens, I plan on turning the full power of my paternal affection to you my dear readers/listeners. If any of you need a spare dad, I would consider it a privilege if you think of me that way. I don’t care if you’re 10 or 100, we all need a spare dad :).
Beyond Birkie Fever
Lately I’ve been offering chapters from my book about cross-country skiing that was published by Rhemalda Press in 2011. It’s a travel book/memoir/sports book. About a third of the chapters were stories I sold to the local sporting magazine. I’m going to read the whole thing. It is a nice distraction for me, and I hope it will be a nice distraction for you.
I expect I’ll do about 3 chapters of this per week. I’ve been alternating that with older voiceovers that some of you might have missed. The podcast is going to be a catch all. Again, the political content will be heavy until November 5th, but when this no good, very bad, awful election season is over, we’ll start to have more fun (unless, as I said before, those of us in immigrant households are sitting in concentration camps—or are dead).
It makes me very happy to read books to people. I’ve been astonished by how well the podcast is doing. It’s trending up (the right side of the graph is low because the numbers haven’t been tallied for today).
I’ve also been getting new subscribers through the podcast which is very welcome. This newsletter is crowdfunded, and your support keeps me in the game.
The last bit of housekeeping I have to mention is about unsubscribes. I completely understand that supporting newsletters like mine is a financial burden. I hope that through my content I can offer information and entertainment that helps you earn back more than what you provide in a pledge. However, I also completely understand that the unexpected may happen and you might not be able to continue to sponsor me.
Please, if you should need to unsubscribe, do so through the Substack portal. Please don’t challenge a credit charge through your card provider. When you challenge a charge, it creates an additional $15 fee.
Perhaps we’ll win the election and more of the money that’s currently going to dishonest news sources that only spread misinformation will be diverted to me. Until that happens, I’ll be on the outside looking in and in need of your support. I hope, though, that through the things I’ve learned, I can help more of you lift up your voice so that the true stories of our time get the attention they deserve.
We’ll keep chipping away at it. We’re going to win.
I hope you found this helpful!
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Thanks for reading everyone! As always, leave your questions or comments below!
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I love your writing .. as a wannabe writer I find your creativity fascinating ..
Thanks for that tip, I didn't know that!