I’m a bit sick, but I want to get this newsletter back on a weekly clock. I’ll start with some bullet points, then share an article I liked enough that it has me re-thinking my writing process.

• Dead Country is a Kindle Deal of the month! You can buy the ebook for $2.99 wherever fine ebooks are sold. For instance, at Bookshop.org, or B&N, or of course at Amazon itself.

• Dead Hand Rule (coming October 28) got a starred review from Library Journal! Kristi Chadwick calls Dead Hand Rule “a dizzying climb to the heights of the gods.” Feels pretty good.

For your fundraising consideration:

• The Palestine Children’s Relief Fund needs money to help the children of Gaza. Please consider donating.

• I’ve mentioned the writer FT on this channel before. I’ve found his work clarifying and invaluable and I’ve been reading him since ‘16. He’s raising funds to hire an immigration attorney right now so that he can remain in the United States. I’ve donated and if you’ve read his writing I hope you will consider doing the same.

• I was interviewed during the early Covid lockdown for a documentary about the fantasy genre called Fantasy Rising; they’re Kickstarting their physical release. At the time of my interview we had no child care & I was sort of drowning—if you want to see me grab the lifeline of adult conversation about literature with both hands and a wild look in my eye, this is your shot.

• Nisi Shawl is running a Go Fund Me to support the writing of their next project, a sort of fictional self-help dream book, a real flier. It’s hard for working writers to take risks like this outside of the (ever-more dubious) protection of an academic post. I hope they get the support they need.

I’ve only read one book by Lee Child. It’s the first one, The Killing Floor, one of those rare books by a foreigner about America that gets to the heart of the issue: the tension between the more-or-less upright lives so many of us try to live and the system of counterfeit trust and fake faith that strangles us like a vine, that takes its roots in a past and present of racism and violence; a system structurally interwoven with the society in which we live today. It’s neither a polemic nor entirely unkind. It features so much of what I love about this country: the blues of it all, the art, the space, the people doing their best to find their own way. And it does that while also being a breakneck badass adventure about a very, very large man. The edition of The Killing Floor that I read also features a great piece of writing about writing: Child talks about the how and why of Reacher, on a craft level. It’s sharp. Methodical. Reacher-like.

This interview with Child fired me up in the same way. Ignore the headline, built off what looks to me like a decent answer to a clickbait question—for some reason journalists always want to be asking authors who have achieved commercial success beyond the dreams of avarice whether they, the authors that is, would rather be, you know, good, or respected, or something. Maybe we’re just haunted by the Romantics, or by the choice of Achilles; maybe the journo hopes the author will slip up and say something really risable to generate those sweet sweet outrage clicks. I’m struck by the clarity of thought on display in this interview, and by Child’s commitment—to his own thought and decision-making, and to his writing (which is after all the process of making decisions, one after another—and by the sense of ease. Take his process, for example: drink coffee, lie on the couch,, and think about what happens next in the book. Then, when you figure it out, write it down. Four or five pages a day. (“Page” is a vague enough metric that I went hunting. It seems to translate out to 1800 words or so, sometimes more, sometimes less.) It can’t possibly be that simple. And yet: does it need to be any more complicated? I’m giving it a shot now. I’ll let you know how it goes. (I might not be able to manage the 36 cups of coffee, and I only smoke in the PRC. But the other part seems doable.)

(I stumbled on two more essays while writing that last paragraph, and both of them display that same clarity. First, this great author interview. I don’t want them all to be like that but it’s bracing to read responses only slightly longer than the questions. Second, this bit on how to create suspense, that I just printed out so I can refer to it later. Freight-train simplicity.)

That’s what I have for this week, friends. Take care of one another & work for the liberation of all sentient beings.