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...