Sectional Healing 8/4: Ch-Ch-Changes...
This newsletter didn't know they were vampires...
WRITE SECTION
Happy Tuesday everyone. As a reminder, for the Free Folk, this will be the last Sectional Healing you will get until September.
It will continue on in DELIRIOUS glory every week for the $5/month supporters of Sectional Healing (Sectional Healers? Supportional Healing? Subscription Healing? We’ll figure something out), so if you want to continue getting that AND everything else I write and podcast about, make sure you hit the subscribe button here…
If you missed last week’s email, I go into detail about why I made the shift and what’s next for my writing career, so you can head there and read more in depth if you so choose.
(And straight up, if you want to support and just cannot because of a financial situation or cannot because of (gestures broadly at everything happening in 2020 on planet Earth) shoot me an email and we’ll figure it out.
NOW ON TO OTHER THINGS.
I wanted to take a second and shout out my friend Kendra Adachi whose book, The Lazy Genius Way comes out in one week.
I'‘m calling attention to this for two reasons:
1) Because her book is objectively great. I honestly don’t know how Kendra does what she does. As someone who “makes” stuff, I try to always ride the line of being (hopefully) humorous while also (hopefully) heartful. I obviously don’t always pull that off but that’s the strategy going in.
Kendra though, her writing does those two things WHILE ALSO being useful and instructional, which blows my mind. I can’t ever really offer you all any tangible life advice beyond, “You should watch this movie/tv show or read this book” but Kendra over here all like, “Here’s how to organize your kitchen SO THAT YOU CAN ALSO ORGANIZE YOUR SOUL.” What? It’s insane.
On a personal note, I’ve had the great pleasure of having a distant row seat to Kendra’s progress as an author. Two years ago, she and I were trading emails about how to put a proposal together (I’d sent an early version of The Wondering Years to her thus the self-consciousness in the first sentence)…
…and later, she allowed me to give notes on some of the early chapter versions in The Lazy Genius Way.
My advice and notes (lol) obviously have NOTHING to do with The Lazy Genius Way being great because that’s all Kendra. And even though I’m clearly biased, I still think you’ll really, really enjoy her book.
2) Secondly, I bring up Kendra’s book because releasing a book right now SUCKS. I’ve done it myself and I’ve watched other friends do it (Sophie Hudson and Melanie Shankle) and the broad takeaway is that while selling a book in general is already difficult, it is triply so now.
How do you balance trying to hype up this thing you’ve worked on for multiple years while also trying to be respectful to everything going on? There are no tears to be shed for book authors and rightfully so, but regardless, I urge you to click it here to see all her preorder bonuses AND you can even read a sample chapter now.
PICTURE SECTION
PODCAST SECTION
Announcement About My Next Book(s) And This Substack…
Couple of things here:
In this episode I talk about my fiction project, Devil Town, the idea, and where I got the idea from.
It also works as a companion to what I wrote last week.
If you aren’t subscribed to this newsletter’s podcast, make sure to do so because I’m going to be releasing stuff in that space. Click this to figure out how to add the podcast to your podcatcher of choice.
This season, we’re talking disciples and we lead-off with Peter trying to walk on water. We talk about the character of Peter, his whole deal, and whether or not ghosts are real. IT’S A LOT.
GOOD DOG SECTION
READS SECTION
Joseph McCarthy and the Force of Political Falsehoods…
White Christian America Needs a Moral Awakening…***
Canceled College Sports Games Put Millions on the Line for ESPN…
When the Government Failed Us, Reddit Became America’s Food Bank…
Many Americans Are Convinced Crime Is Rising In The U.S. They’re Wrong.
I Was a Screen–Time Expert. Then the Coronavirus Happened…**
What Alternate Reality Games Teach Us About QAnon…
LISTEN SECTION
READ SECTION
This is not the kind of book I normally pick up and I’m probably not the demographic target but I couldn’t put this book down. I finished it in three days. If you like a little bit of inter-relational drama crossed with some very light sci-fi, I think you’ll really like this book.
Have you read Colin Jost's new memoir yet? I think it just came out (delayed) a few weeks ago. I had preordered it then kinda forgot about it. Anyway, I think you would enjoy it. His writing voice is similar to yours, I think. There's a few chapters in the middle that aren't my favorites but overall, solidly great book. ALSO - I wish there was more tea spilled about SNL but I get it... you still technically work there, so..............