Introducing Mule Books
Hello. There will be nothing depressing in this newsletter.
If that’s what you’re looking for you’ll be able to choose from any number of things out there. But I’ve decided not to add to it, which isn’t to say that I’m advocating for sticking your head in the sand, but that maybe it’s ok to think about things that bring you some modicum of solace every once in a while.
Like watching TV.
Last night we watched the new Martha Stewart documentary on Netflix. I was fairly aware of Martha’s arc already, I will absolutely admit that it is complicated, and we can all agree she was done dirty by the Feds. But the thing that jumped out at me last night was when she talked about her need for control. At her best she wanted control over every detail because she is the only person who could do things the way she pictured them being done in her head. Duh. This is, of course, not a great trait to have when you’re working in a very large system with lots of moving parts. That type of system works best when you cede control and trust those around you. Which Martha was… not great at. (She admits as much.) Happy Martha was DIY Martha. Alone in a kitchen, or a garden, running the whole show.
These days we find ourselves in Happy Martha mode. We want to make things. We want to make those things from start to finish. We want to till the soil, weed the garden, grow the thing and then present it to you as our thing.
Benefitting from the fruit of your labor? That’s a good thing.
Which brings me to…
We’re making books
Since getting the rights to all of our books back, we’ve been busy getting all of our books under our own roof. It’s been a pain in the ass, and it’s also been a lot of fun. Here’s a rundown of where things are at:
All the books now live at mulebooks.com.
Erika’s Just Enough Research got a healthy revision. It continues to be the best research book out there. You should absolutely have multiple copies on hand because I guarantee that at some point you will decide your life will be easier if you just hand the person in front of you the book. At which point you will wish you had a second copy.
The second edition of Design Is a Job, which has been available as a zine for a while, is now also available as a trade paperback with a gorgeous cover (and a super secret variant cover which you will never find). And because all the books are distributed by Ingram, this makes international shipping costs much much cheaper. (For example, our friends in Australia will now pay local shipping.)
Also, while poking around the dark corners of Ingram, I found something called woodpulp paper, which is the shitty stuff they use when they make cheap paperbacks. So I made this abomination, which you should absolutely buy right now. I also laid the text out horribly. It’s way too tight, and you might go blind trying to read it. It’s awful. You will never read this version. But you’ll be excited to have it. I love it. Like I said, making books is fun.
Also, Ruined by Design is now printed by Ingram and not Amazon. (It took me waaaaaay to long to do this, but things were happening out there.)
There are more book surprises coming.
One workshop left this year
December 12 and 13. Come learn how to present your work confidently in front of your boss, potential new boss, co-workers, parole board, etc. We will have fun. You will learn a lot.
♥️ Take care of each other.
🏳️⚧️ And if you find yourself wishing you could do something to help somebody, may I recommend an incredibly large donation to these good people.
🙋♀️ Got a question for Mike? He answers them in his newsletter.