What the F is Slow Learner?

Aside from a title plagiarized from Thomas Pynchon, it’s an irregularly published letter from me to you about various things that have caught my interest. There is no concrete theme or timeline to this; it’s more like a journal entry that contains prose, poetry, letters, essays, and articles. And comics.

And this is interesting…why?

You have me there. I have garnered attention before for things I wrote, be they comics or columns or short stories, but never enough for me to consider taking it seriously. I want to see if it’s possible. This substack is an attempt to lure a potential audience and demonstrate that this is interesting enough to keep people coming back. This leads us to…

Really? Why bother?

I want to focus my efforts on getting my novels and stories published. I need to start with self-publishing the first one, at least. The publishing world has shrunk to the point where nobody is willing to take chances. It’s a lot like the music business in that. Their priority is making money, and unless you’re already a celebrity of some sort it’s very hard to get anyone in publishing to look at you.

What’s in it for the audience?

As George Carlin would say, stuff. Essays and short stories, exclusive content like unpublished comics and vignettes, stuff from the archives of various projects I’ve curated over the years. As publishing ramps up, there will be giveaways and other fun stuff.

Will you have to pay for it?

In short, no. Not for a long time, anyway. I want to build an audience and a mailing list. I want to discuss stuff in the threaded conversations Substack affords.

I just hope that it’s entertaining and interesting enough to read.