Greetings, citizens of Substack! Welcome to Take This and Live. Here you’ll get news about everything I publish, including my debut novel SOMEONE YOU CAN BUILD A NEST IN (DAW Books, 2024). You’ll get profound insights, and you’ll get jokes. And TODAY ONLY you’ll get the dizzying satisfaction of being in on the ground floor. This is the first newsletter I’ve ever written. We’re living out a new creation myth.
Thank you so much for sharing your origin story. It made me think of my own time parenting. We ended up having to homeschool my child for reasons. Their thinking level was way above their reading level, so I spent a lot of time reading aloud to them, including my own childhood favorites. They were an insatiable consumer of books - I described it as them having a thirst for narrative. Once when they were sick, I ended up reading a whole book of Greek myths in one day. Reading aloud and sharing books are some of my happiest moments of my now-adult kid's childhood, and gave us an unbreakable bond. We still share books and I hope we always will.
I can only imagine those long painful days and nights, that must have been beyond hard. I have never had to endure that, but understand all about losing oneself wholly in another world to forget, for a while. You're so right about readers and writers, is it the story, the reader or the author in the wedge of the seesaw, that constant shifting balance of need. Take this and Live is such a perfect title. Congrats John and looking forward to seeing more in due course 🙂
I wish your origin story had less pain, but YES LIBRARIES!!!
Thank you so much for sharing your origin story. It made me think of my own time parenting. We ended up having to homeschool my child for reasons. Their thinking level was way above their reading level, so I spent a lot of time reading aloud to them, including my own childhood favorites. They were an insatiable consumer of books - I described it as them having a thirst for narrative. Once when they were sick, I ended up reading a whole book of Greek myths in one day. Reading aloud and sharing books are some of my happiest moments of my now-adult kid's childhood, and gave us an unbreakable bond. We still share books and I hope we always will.
What a wonderful newsletter, thank you so much! May you enjoy writing your book as much as I look forward to reading it.
Yes, all of it! Something that came out that week or a book you read in 1992. I just like seeing what other book "addicts" like
I can only imagine those long painful days and nights, that must have been beyond hard. I have never had to endure that, but understand all about losing oneself wholly in another world to forget, for a while. You're so right about readers and writers, is it the story, the reader or the author in the wedge of the seesaw, that constant shifting balance of need. Take this and Live is such a perfect title. Congrats John and looking forward to seeing more in due course 🙂
Hi John! Glad to get you in my inbox now! (Well, in the Substack app inbox.)
Here for the stories *and* the jokes.
Thank you for writing! I'd love to see some mini-reviews of some of the stories you mention