[FRIDAY THREAD] How are you, really?

You really went deep last week and opened up about how you were doing. I felt connected to you in a more personal way than I have since starting this Substack, so I thought I would try it again to see if there’s enough interest to make this a weekly thing. Like last week, there are two ways to interact with this post.

1 - If you don’t want to say anything, or bristle at identifying yourself, then you can reply with this nifty poll.

2 - If you’re feeling very brave, then reply below and tell us how you are doing right now on a scale from 1-5.

Last week 60% of people said they were either a 1 or a 2, which makes me want to wrap y’all in a big hug and tell you it’s going to be okay, even if I am uncertain if I believe it or not.

Right now, I’m a 2, so I relate very deeply to the struggle most of you are having. I’m a little better than last week, but not nearly by enough. The thing with chronic illnesses is that they are chronic, and illnesses, so they never go away, and they make you feel terrible. Even when you’re on an upswing, there will always be a downswing lurking to take you down again.

Still, I’m motoring on and writing a lot. I’m in the middle of a huge 6,000+ word post next week about how to live a successful creative life while trapped in a hypercapitalist hellscape that may be relevant to some of you.

Here is a preview:

That one should be out next week assuming I can lock down the narrative thread that I’ve been struggling with the last few days. I need to find a way to reign in my thoughts because my articles keep getting longer and longer. If that sounds interesting and you haven’t subscribed yet, you could do that if you want to, or not if you don’t.

If you haven’t had a chance to read either of this week’s posts, then then you can read all about how to find more readers for your books and get stacked with subs on Substack and spinning a great idea into book marketing gold more effectively by looking at the history of indie record label Casablancas Records and the new movie Spinning Gold.

Here are some of my favorite Substacks from the week that you might like to read this weekend.

• Judy Blume, One of the Most Banned Authors of the 20th Century by

• Are You Building Your Reservoir? by

• When our scars make us a quilt by

• When We Sense Something's Wrong by

• Publishing and Persistence by

I hope you have a nice weekend where you can recover all the spoons and do something that lights you up inside. This weekend I am recovering from LA Festival of Books by hanging out with my wife and dogs, which is definitely a light for me.