[John Mulaney voice] You ever seen a ghost?????
If I started every one of these that came after an abrupt hiatus of unknown length with an apology for said hiatus of unknown length, that would literally constitute a third of my lifetime wordcount, so instead I’ll start with this sentence that takes up fully four times as much space and then get to the point.
I’m migrating this little project over to Buttondown for a few reasons:
- It seems like a cool service
- I have had positive interactions on that subject with its creator
- It reminds me of Pinboard, and perhaps I am dating myself here but I will never forget the day when we all woke up to find out that Yahoo had sold Delicious to AVOS Systems (NEVER forgive) who then promptly destroyed literally all of its functionality, cueing a mass user exodus (of fandom. We all know I mean fandom) to Pinboard, which I will forever regard fondly as a result
- In general I’m a fan of small passion projects where it seems very unlikely that the person running them will ever end up in the sentence “appeared today with Parler CEO John Matze on the Megyn Kelly Show,” prompting an influx to that platform of self-styled “free-speech warriors,” i.e. fascists looking for a place to build an audience, and thus make money, without editorial oversight or censure
What does this mean for you?
- If you’re already subscribed, nothing. You will continue to receive this newsletter as (haphazardly as) usual.
- If you’d like to unsubscribe, please do that in the next day or two so I don’t accidentally port you into continued subscription!
- If you’d like to read this newsletter’s archives, I’ve ported those over to Buttondown as well, but will be leaving them up here indefinitely to avoid breaking links.
Obviously I have spent the last few months in the hell zone:
The quarantine state of mind is having 3 solid days where you feel pretty well adjusted, followed by a sudden, unexpected dip into what we call "the hell zone"
— Dan Sheehan (@ItsDanSheehan) April 18, 2020
The hell zone is an anxious, semi-agitated state where you’re just sorta “off” for the whole day and time flows like you’re wading through chili and your hell zone will NEVER sync up with other peoples hell zones and that’ll always make you feel weird and stressed out
— Dan Sheehan (@ItsDanSheehan) April 18, 2020
I’d like to promise I’ll be back and writing again soon, but given that I am getting top surgery in a little more than a week, it seems safer to say that I think about this project (and you!) often and do not plan to leave it languishing much longer. In the meantime, if you’ve missed my work and would like to know what I’ve been doing offline:
- khōréō’s first issue is out! If you missed the Kickstarter, no fear: you can pick up a digital copy in our shop. We’re also publishing the stories it includes online at two-week intervals. If you prefer audio, we have a podcast that you can follow on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The first story from this issue is already up and free to read — “The Frankly Impossible Weight of Han” by Maria Dong. I still can’t believe that I was lucky enough to work with Maria on this piece, or that we got to publish it.
- My website now actually kind of functions as a website.
- I am currently in the rewrites process on a novella that may never see the light of day; it might turn out to be one of those stories that I have to get written and out of the way so that I can file it as “handled for now” and move on with a clean slate. On the other hand, it does have a cover (by Hax Shannon, an incredible artist and tattooer) which makes me feel like I should probably go ahead and finish it at some point, if for no other reason than to get his work out in the world! However: time will tell.
How do people sign off conversations these days? Do we even bother? Please imagine a little hand popping up from my hell zone and waving to you in yours, wherever and whatever that might be. That seems about right.