Welcome to I Would Prefer Not To
Plain, Simple, Free
You have subscribed to I Would Prefer Not To, a quarterly newsletter by author Richard Dooling. My goal is to send one short email every three months about my writing and where you can read it. No paywalls, no ads, no subscription fees, no invitations to download an app, sign up for a service, or join a social media platform. If my scintillating prose moves you, feel free to buy one of my books, or forward this newsletter to anybody you think might enjoy my work.
This email is the longest one you will ever get from me, only because it's the first one, and I want to tell you what to expect, so you can unsubscribe if you aren't interested.
Commentary, Opinion, Book Reviews
When I publish in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, for example, I will do my best to "gift" or "share" unlocked articles so you won't encounter a paywall. These "gift" links are sometimes perishable, so if you can't open the article, just reply to my email and complain by using the word "paywall" at least once in the body of your email, and it will be routed to me. I will try to send a new link.
Even if we can't avoid a publication's paywall, the publisher usually has exclusive rights to my essay for only 30 days. After that I can post or republish the entire text of my article, so you will have access to it.
Two recent examples will illustrate.
A Brush With Death and a First Novel
On January 13th, 2025, I published a short opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal about my first novel Critical Care and how it came to be. This link should open the piece. I prefer "exposed" links, so you can easily see where I am sending you before you click on it:
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/a-brush-with-death-and-a-first-novel-cancer-writing-a477b461?st=epCvUW&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkIf you click on that link and get a paywall, then the gift of the unlocked article may have expired, and I might have to issue another. Either way, the Wall Street Journal has the exclusive right to publish this essay for 30 days, until about February 13th, after which I can post the article in its entirety at my website, dooling.com.
Critical Care, my first novel, participates in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited Program.
https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Care-Novel-Richard-Dooling-ebook/dp/B0CJ7RQYS4/Indeed, the cancer scare happened as described, but in those days there was no treatment for melanoma, so I received no chemotherapy or radiation. They simply scalped me and told me that if the cancer came back it would kill me. Thanks for that.
The Baby Boomers Are Arriving In Montana
On June 20th, 2024, I published another short opinion piece in the Journal about moving to Montana. This link should work:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-baby-boomers-are-arriving-in-montana-cde2f16d?st=1qLRce&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkBut even if the link raised a paywall, you can read the same article on my website, because we are well outside of the Wall Street Journal's 30-day exclusivity period.
https://dooling.com/index.php/2025/01/20/the-baby-boomers-are-arriving-in-montana/This article is living proof that we opinion and commentary writers do not get to pick the title of our articles. I called this essay, "The Mountain Life." I have published over a hundred opinion pieces in various publications over the years. Not once did an editor or publisher use the title I gave the piece, and not once was I consulted about what to call it. We commentary writers must wait until publication day to learn what clickable headline the editorial minions came up with.
My Books
Later in 2025 I will publish a novella called Send The Dead, a Caribbean horror story, which will also include some short stories I've published over the years.
I'll also be publishing my sixth novel, The Acolyte, about an altar boy who must help a federal prosecutor and the FBI bust a Catholic priest's child exploitation ring.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Why is the newsletter called I Would Prefer Not To?
A: In the 19th century, before typewriters, copy machines, and computers, lawyers hired scriveners to make copies of documents in longhand. Herman Melville's short story, Bartleby, the Scrivener, perfectly captures the drudgery of a day job, especially the drudgery of working in a law office. Bartleby starts out as a diligent reliable employee, but one day the lawyer-boss tells Bartleby to copy a document. Bartleby refuses by saying, "I would prefer not to." Indeed, Bartleby thereafter refuses all instructions from his employer by saying, "I would prefer not to." This refrain runs throughout the story and eventually drives Bartleby's boss to take extreme measures. "Well if you won't make copies, then you'll have to leave!" Bartleby says, "I would prefer not to." I named this newsletter in honor of Melville and Bartleby, who was perhaps the first not-so-quiet quitter. By the end of Melville's tale, Bartleby's "I would prefer not to" speaks to us all.
Q: What is this Buttondown service and will they sell my email address to spammers?
A: Buttondown is a platform for sending email newsletters. I like its spare simplicity. It lets you sign up to receive a quarterly email from me. Period. Unlike many other newsletter services, Buttondown will not nudge you to pay for content or try to sell you anything with ads.
The General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR) is a set of strict European laws that govern how companies can collect, store, and use personal data. Buttondown is based in the United States, but Buttondown is GDPR-compliant, specifically for our purposes:
- No data is ever sold to third parties.
- No data is ever used for advertising purposes.