Hi all,

Austin here with the latest Nothing.Here bonus installment. This time around I’m sending you a short essay – it was inspired by Barthes’ Mythologies, which I recently read in a weekend and found perfectly suited to my attention span and the brief little pockets of time available to me. I was aiming for a kind of Herzogian “ecstatic truth” with this essay – I can’t say I entirely believe everything I’ve written, but it certainly felt more convincing and true as I wrote it, something like hypnotising myself. I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any comments, please hit reply and let me know what’s on your mind. Have a great week, and we’ll talk to you again soon.

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CJW: Welcome to the latest edition of nothing here. We’ve shuffled things around a little bit for this issue, brining the Self-Promotion section up-top, because we’ve got some exciting stuff to share with you all.

Past that, you’ll notice the Articles section is a little briefer than usual, but we’ve made up for it by sharing some really great essays in the URL section, including one from former guest and friend of the newsletter, .

Greetings netizens and residents of the Dark Forest internet.

I, m1k3y, am beset on all sides by sounds of deadlines whistling past my head.

So here’s something else from the Archives. Or, how I guess I’m now very belatedly serialising my last great writing project, circa 2016 - the InvizMon diaries; AKA

Welcome to another issue of nothing here. We’re still experimenting a little, and this time around we’re trying to do a better job of keeping the newsletter (and the articles section in particular) a little shorter. One of the ways we’ve done this is by trimming some article links right down to just the links and a line for context, and putting this under the “Cutting Room Floor” at the bottom of the articles section.

Along with all the articles, we’ve got experiments with AI text generation, AR experiments, book and film reviews, and more.

Here in Australia we just had our Federal Election. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, Australians just voted for another 3 years of climate change denial, austerity measures damaging the lives of people with disabilities and poorer folk in general, continued racism and marginalisation against Indigenous people, cuts to health care, a continuation of our abhorrent immigration policy, and a mainstream right-wing party that is not afraid of racist dogwhistling and getting into bed with actual fascists. Basically, Australians in general, and rich boomers in particular, just voted for the economy over the actual lives of other Australians living today, as well as future generations. So we’re feeling a deep sense of dread here this morning.

As ever, if you want (and are in a position to) you can support us by and receive bonus letters (on top of these ones), the ability to comment on the posts (though anyone can hit reply if they have something to share with us). So far the bonuses to date include a recipessay on weed & fascism, essays on 4th-Generation Warfare, the multiplicity of places, and religion in video games, a live music review, and some short fiction. You’ll get access to all these (via the ) and all the rest we come up with over the coming months.

CJW: I am neck deep in novel edits and have no mental energy to spare for a bonus letter this week, but I had this recipe/essay (recipessay?) lying around, from good friend of the newsletter Hilario Bukowski, which he’s given me permission to share with you all. My original plan was to put together some sort of Drug zine/capsule for Oh Nothing Press, but this is the only piece that came through before I got distracted by something else.

Enjoy!

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CJW: Welcome to another issue of nothing here. As ever, we’ve got a lot to share with you - articles, reviews, a reader letter (thanks Ed!), and plenty more.

Hi, how are you? I’m working hard on novel edits and stressing a variety of other things, and I’ve had Love Shack by the B52s stuck in my head since last Saturday. But on the plus side, I’m past the con-crud, and in the next few hours I’ll find out if won the Aurealis Award for Best Science Fiction Novella.

MJW: I was inspired to write The Beasts and the Birthday after reading Garth Nix's Shades Children. I started thinking on books that put their characters through such brutal situations, like and , and then leave them to get on with their lives, make families. After coming across a few articles on intergenerational trauma, I decided to write a story about a family living in the aftermath of a massive, worldwide event. 

Welcome to another issue of the nothing here newsletter. The last issue went out a little earlier than usual, and that seems to have been well received, so we’re trying the same again.

The last 2 weekends, Marlee and I have been at Supanova, talking books, our books, writing, sci-fi, and other nonsense to anyone who would listen. We had an absolutely fantastic group of fellow authors on tour with us this time around, Victoria/V.E. Schwab was the big international author, and she was delightful, smart, and incredibly hardworking, was (as we Aussies like to say) good value (and she’ll be the guest on an upcoming episode of Marlee’s podcast), was a real sweetheart, was kind, intelligent, and endlessly generous with her many fans, and last of all was the absolute bastard, . I’M KIDDING. Alan is a great guy, and is also our special guest for this issue. Being the only 2 male authors of the Supanova bunch, and being the authors of some violent tales, Alan and I were scheduled together on panels, and I had the pleasure of spending a good deal of time chatting to him across both weekends.

CJW: Here is another bonus letter for you all from Marlee and I, but with this one we’re going to open it up to the public in a couple of days’ time and link to it in the main newsletter. I didn’t want to dump the whole thing into the main for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s a bit long for that, and for another, I’m always hesitant about talking mental health issues publicly. A voice in the back of my head warns me that talking about this might close some career doors for me in the future, but at the same time, I have to talk about this. Because it might help someone. Because we aren’t in this alone. Because every time I've brought up a big mental health issue, I've had at least one person respond to say that it helped them to better think about their own depression, or the issues of people they know. Because I would rather lose some theoretical future work than let someone suffer alone. The greatest trick depression ever pulled was convincing you you’re alone. But you’re not.

So here’s this. It’s heartfelt and true, and it hurts. If you aren’t in a place where you can read a couple of thousand words about suicide ideation, then please skip it.

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Edit: The full Creeper Issue 1 PDF is now free for download, but read below for a sneak peek.

//

Hello loyal subscribers,

AA: Welcome to another instalment of the Nothing.Here newsletter. Corey and Marlee are at Supanova Melbourne this weekend (if you’re quick and local you might still be able to catch them, which is why this is going out a bit early - just look for the "Literary Legends" section). I guess m1k3y was busy wing-suiting into the Amazon to rescue a famous tree (or something), so you’re stuck with my sleep-deprived and rambling intro instead. Sorry. Hi.

There’s a lot of fascinating reading ahead of you - AI and the nature of “intelligence”, the villainous associations of classical music, extended discussion of The OA, the gamification of civic participation, and much more besides -  so I won’t take up too much space here. Your time is valuable, and we’re glad you saw fit to spend some of it with us.

MKY: Here’s an unpublished, lightly updated piece from a couple years back I like to call Bond vs the anti-Bourne, taken from one of my classic megaposts that almost was, Lifestyle Tips for the Empire 2.0: Ghostin' in the Surveillance Marketing State

Welcome to another edition of the nothing here newsletter. This time we have special guest Damien Williams, who has graced these pages previously when I occasionally share links from his must-read Technoccult newsletter.

Damien Williams (DW) is a PhD researcher at Virginia Tech in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society. His research areas include ethics, epistemology, philosophy of technology, philosophy of mind, and the occult. @Wolven most places;

I’ve recently been playing Far Cry 4, because I am an extremely dedicated gamer who plays only the latest games (this is a joke: not only did Far Cry 5 come out last year, but a new standalone game based on FC5 recently dropped). All told, I’m enjoying the game—even 5 years later it looks gorgeous, the missions are interesting (would be better in co-op, but for some inexplicable reason only sidequests are open to co-op), and the gunplay feels good—but there’s one thing about the game that irks me. The karma system.

Welcome to issue 19 of the nothing here newsletter. This issue we’re joined by Andrew Dana Hudson, an award-winning speculative fiction writer, and part of the team that put together the upcoming Weight of Light anthology from ASU (but more about that below).

We have a whole variety of awful for you, as well as some art and some hope to help see you through.

Last week I said we'd be organising regular bonus content when we hit 20 paid subscribers, and whilst we aren't there yet, I wanted to get something out to you fine people who jumped on board immediately and supported us. Thank you.

Initially I was going to write a little something about a video game I've been playing lately (maybe next time), but after seeing the band MY DISCO last night, I decided to write about that instead. Their most recent album Environment just dropped, so track that down on spotify if that’s a thing you do, or otherwise listen to their last album Severe at bandcamp while you read on. Play it loud.

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CJW: You’ll notice things look a little different this issue. We’ve moved the newsletter away from tinyletter and onto substack for a couple of different reasons. Substack allows you to edit letters in the archive, its editor is a little simpler (which makes copying them over from gdocs easier), and hopefully our letters won’t get irregularly held up by an aggressive content-review algorithm, or get broken by Outlook.com and gmail. Substack also allows creators to charge a fee for their newsletters, sending issues for their paid subscribers, unpaid subscribers, or both.

What does this mean for you?

The core experience - these fortnightly dispatches chock full of articles and commentary - will always be free. So, beyond the changes to the design of the newsletter, the change to substack doesn’t have to change anything for you. If, however, you enjoy what we do and would like to support us monetarily, you’ll be able to sign up to become a paid subscriber.

Welcome to another edition of the nothing here newsletter. This issue, Lucy Swope of GHOST COP has come along to tell us a little about the band's latest album ONE WEIRD TRICK. As well as that, we've got an array of articles, and all the rest.

CJW: Welcome to another issue of nothing here. This time around we have a very special guest - Alison Evans, renowned Aussie YA author, and v cool person. I (CJW) had the pleasure of chatting to Alison on a panel at a convention last year (I won’t go into detail, but bants with Alison were the only good part of that particular panel), and wanted to invite them onto the newsletter to talk about their next book, Highway Bodies. Welcome, Alison, and thanks!

Welcome to the first nothing here of the year. How are you? I hope you had a refreshing break over the holidays, because we’re delivering you a large and varied selection of links. The State of the World, Millennial burn-out, bullshit jobs, war, imperialism, and plenty more.

Here we are at the end of the year. As promised last time, this issue is a short one, 'cause I didn't want to add newsletter stress to all the other stresses of this time of the year. But if you want more Nothing Here, check out the archive.

Alright, enough of that. On with the show.

Welcome to the latest edition of the Nothing Here newsletter. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas - the oppressively hot sun, the summer storms, the busy shopping centre carparks, and the slowly-filling social calendar. Well, set all that aside for now, and have a look below; there's sure to be something of interest in this luckiest of issues. This will likely be our last full issue of the year. I'm planning a hiatus issue for December 30th (yes, I realise "hiatus issue" is an oxymoron), which will be a recap of the year of the Nothing Here team, but who knows what will actually make it in! There's a good chance we'll have some more new things to share with you.

This issue we say goodbye to John, who's sadly too busy building his freelance business to keep working on the newsletter. The last thing I want is for this newsletter to feel stressful for any member of the team, but it’s still sad to see John go. I adore his photography, and am really excited by his comic work with Jon Weber, so with any luck we'll have links to more of John's work in the future.

For now though, strap in for issue 12, in this twelfth month of 2018. Can you believe it’s almost over? Can you believe it will ever end?

Welcome to Issue 11 of the nothing here newsletter. I’ll keep this brief because I’m quickly running out of time before I need to run out the door to a very important meeting (trivia at the pub) with some very important clients (beer, also friends).

Welcome to issue 10 of the nothing here newsletter. We’ve officially reached double digits. That went fast. Hi, how are you? We’ve got a wide variety of stuff to share with you this time around - dense philosophical essays, lost pop-culture artifacts, a heavy dose of Australian content, and plenty more.

Welcome to another installment of the nothing here newsletter. John is busy working his fingers to the bone, making the transition from full-time work to full-time freelance, but the rest of us are here, with a browser-busting selection of links.

Hi, how are you? Can you believe it's been less than two weeks since that report? Me neither.

Hello again from the nothing here team. How are you? How have the past two weeks treated you? Pretty horrifying out there, huh? Well don’t worry, there’s nothing too heavy in this issue - in fact, we’re a little light on articles in general this time around (your browsers will thank us). Join us this issue for space cops, AI, cyborgs vs tryborgs, pop-culture for the end of the world, and plenty more...

CJW: Welcome to another issue of the nothing here newsletter. Marlee and I have been on a roadtrip down the Great Ocean Road this weekend, with a friend visiting from the States. This morning we saw the Sow and Piglets, it was beautiful, but chilly.

(Alright, alright, I'm talking about the . But seeing as there have only ever been 9 of the rock formations for as long as Christianity has been here in this old, red land, I say we go back to the original sailor's name.)

CJW: Whether you’ve been with us since the start, or you’re joining us for the first time, welcome!

This issue you’ll notice we’re experimenting with the layout. Normally we open with a salvo of articles, but with the combination of a looming climate apocalypse and our late-capitalist dystopian reality this can be a pretty grim way to start things off. So, this time around we’re opening with some pop culture chatter just to lull you into a false sense of security before whacking you with the rough stuff.

You’re welcome.

CJW: There's nothing here, but welcome anyway!

This issue coincidentally goes out on Austin's birthday. Austin and I first met at university 15 or 16 years ago, became fast friends, and have collaborated on an online counter-culture mag, a couple of short stories, a psychedelic, darkly comic (and sadly unpublished) spy novel, and now a company (see more below). It's been a helluva ride so far - Happy Birthday, man!

Marlee's been away for most of this fortnight, but she's back, hurriedly delivering some notes on her time in the US, and the World Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention.

CJW: This issue, with Marlee off galavanting around North America, it’s my great pleasure to introduce Ganzeer as our very first newsletter guest.

Welcome to the latest installment of the nothing here newsletter.

Only about a third of subscribers opened the last email, and a lot of people had to fish it out of their spam folder, so to ensure you’ll get each issue of nothing here straight into your inbox, please add us to your contact list, whitelist us, or do whatever it is you need to do. We’ll make it worth your while.

The Team

CJW: I joked that the nothinghere team should take a photo in the Friends fountain to use as the background image on the newsletter subscription page, and now the song is stuck in my head. It’s probably stuck in your head too. Let us all suffer together.

You’re probably here because you heard about us via Warren Ellis, Ganzeer, or Ryan K. Lindsay.

The Team

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the nothing here newsletter. I have long been a fan of the newsletter as a form and wanted to throw my hat into the ring. But, writing an entire newsletter alone seemed like too much work and too much stress. Do I have enough interesting opinions? Even if I did, would anyone care?

So, I decided to rope in some friends/colleagues/lovers to help build something that is (AFAIK) new in the newsletter space - the usual collection of links and recommendations, but from a group of people, with a conversational back and forth whenever we have differing viewpoints to offer.

Now that that’s out of the way, let me introduce...