061: Developments
First, Tha NEWS.
Big news! Like actual big news! Big enough that I'm crossposting this bit here between both the newsletter and the Patreon (if you're on one but not the other, click-a da links!)
THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT IS NOW AN EBOOK. YOU CAN ORDER IT RIGHT NOW. ORDER IT RIGHT NOW.
I understand there are reservations about using Amazon, but unfortunately the ebook world still plays by their rules. I've read reports from many independent writers that other markets make up something like 10% of their total ebook sales. It's all Kindle all the time. Also, on my end, the process is unfortunately just easier than trying to go through a bunch of other sites or services and hoping the listing ends up correct. Enshittification, no ethical consumption, etc.
But! It is DRM-free once you buy it, so you can fling the file anywhere you want. You could even share it, which honestly I would love for you to do. OR share the link! OR BOTH!
The print format is still my intended format that will give you the best experience. But this will be pretty close, and it has the benefit of hyperlinks (just for the Notes and other back matter.) And you don't get a tactile version of zoem's incredible art, which I think it a net loss.
In any case. G'wan! Git it!
Second, INTERLUDE.
I was going to put lyrics to some new Taylor Swift here, as a joke, but then you would have been subjected to some of the worst writing about a football player’s dick than I have ever seen.
Or any dick, for that matter. Even songs by dudes writing about their own dicks.
Third, CONSUMPTION.
Another Florence song. This is a bit of a slow burner, and from what I understand it was largely a mix of notes (lyrical, not musical) she'd written down and improv, so I'm pretty impressed with the level of polish it ended up with in the end.
I've gone back to the original Final Fantasy playthrough that I started... last year? Something like. It's my comfort food video game, the one I always come back to because I know exactly how it tastes. I'm currently to the point of the game where the second act really kicks in, with the Elemental Fiends and whatnot. This might be the time I finally try to take down WarMech. Every other playthrough I've gotten bored going back and forth on the bridge to get to him. (It?) I've taken down most other superbosses in the series games I've played, might as well go for the OG guy.
I used a word above that you might not be familiar with: enshittification. Here's a relatively recent essay by the guy that coined the word, Cory Doctorow, about what it is and how it works. I won't say I necessarily agree with his ideas on what to do about it--not in the least because he wildly misunderstands Audre Lorde--but the concept is sound. It's a good word, and it describes a very specific process in this hellscape we find ourselves in.
Look at this terrible pun. Why do I follow this man, who inflicts such damage to my brainmeats?
Fourth, HUSTLE.
The new hotness is THE FAILURE EXPERIMENT, which you can get here. It’s a serial poem based in Philip K. Dick, JG Ballard, 20th Century cyberpunk, Jack Spicer, and, well, me.
confessions from a drainage ditch was released in late 2023 through Amazon, and is available in ebook and paperback formats. If you haven't picked it up, it's a great introduction to my more concrete and mainstream work.
There’s my chapbook, A Void and Cloudless Sky. By being a subscriber to this newsletter, you're also entitled to a free PDF version, which you can get here. If you want a hard copy, it’s available here.
If you're liking this whole project and want to support it directly, here is my Patreon. There are lots of little benefits you can get there, from poems written to your specifications to subscriber-only limited-edition chapbooks.
Finally, THE OUTRO.
The president is trying to start a civil war, and I still have to do my emails.
There are plenty of videos going around of Chicagoans bravely standing up to aggression by the Jan 6. rioters posing as trained agents of the US government to kidnap brown people, and this truly makes my heart a little lighter. Fuck them guys (and they're always guys.) It's important to remember that every single part of this trash-ass government is deeply unpopular. It's also important to remember that the guy nominally in charge of it is effectively at death's door, and everyone possibly in line to follow him hates everyone else in that line. I have largely lost faith in the ability of people to stop this, but death comes, like it must for all men, to Charles Foster Kane. That won't be the end of it, but it will largely stem the tide and likely erode the little support there is for this shit.
Hug your peeps. Let them know what they mean to you. Because in the meantime, it's gonna be rough.
And their emails will still be there, too.