Join me on Karen Marie Shelton's Love Stack video Wednesday, June 11 at 2 p.m. EST
That's today unless it's not
If you don’t see this post until after June 11, then, well, the video isn’t today, but you can still see a recording of it. I’ll be talking with
as part of her Love Stack video series today, Wednesday, June 11, at 2 p.m. CST.What’s on the agenda?
I’m glad you didn’t ask, because I have no idea. One possible item of discussion will be life after a stroke. Been there, done that. How does it affect my writing? Does it at all? I covered it here:
I’m sure I’ll be talking about it during my chat with Karen.
I’m sure I’ll also be discussing things like the attack on L.A. and the mental state of the current occupant of the Oval Office (spoiler alert: it’s quite bad).
To get an idea of other stuff I might talk about, here’s a quick rundown of just a few of the things I’ve written about on Ruminato during my brief time on Substack:
My most recent article is a rant of misunderstanding: I don’t understand why the media doesn’t cover the mad king’s mental state or why it buries the lede with every story:
I may talk some about the regime’s progress on the destruction of the United States through Project 2025. I created the ultimate listicle on this, with a comprehensive listing of programs and agencies that have been obliterated under the Trump regime, resulting, already, in the deaths of thousands worldwide:
Or maybe you’ll thrill to the origin story of Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller:
Or his boss, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the quiet death queen of the regime:
But it’s not all about politics for me.
I love me some fiction, too. You may also see me discuss my favorite types of fiction and share my own origin story as a writer.
I might discuss my first foray into the world of Lit Magazines, too. I’ll have a short story coming out soon in a lit mag called Twin Bill, which I believe is the world’s only lit mag devoted to baseball.
I don’t know if other writers have favorites of their own when it comes to short stories, but I do. Mine is this one, an absurdist tale (hopefully) about a government-issued phone alert directing citizens to commit suicide within 30 minutes:
But, hey, aside from about 30,000 others ahead of me, I’m my favorite writer, so there is lots more. Like this one about a man who is incarcerated in advance for a crime he can't commit:
And this one, about a man who rediscovers his wife after she returns to him as a man:
I’m not a fan of AI (to put it mildly). Hijacked covers that, too.
I may talk a bit about my debut novel, MagicLand, too. Or the many short stories associated with its timeline:
https://www.ruminato.com/s/magicland
Stories like The Fires of Easterly:
and The Death of Charlie Hollywood:
Speaking of origin stories, how about the origin story of my hedgehog friend in the Restack images that show up at the end of all my Ruminato articles?
Yep, there is one. It’s here:
There is also more earnest, every day life fiction available at Ruminato, such as this short story about a man rediscovering his daughter in the wake of Covid:
If you prefer real life, real life stuff, I may dive a bit into my experiences surviving ageism in the tech business:
Or how I felt when I discovered the first woman I fell in love with committed suicide long after the unrequited love first hit me in college:
Do you like stories about food? Who doesn’t? Here’s one on jackfruit:
Or maybe Waffle House fighting is your thing:
I talk a lot about racism on Ruminato, too. Sometimes in subtle ways through my fiction, such as this novella:
It’s an alternative history murder mystery set in a world where slaves were emancipated in the late 1700s. What a different world this would be!
Sometimes the anti-racism fiction isn’t so subtle:
Sometimes, I just rant and go for the jugular:
And, of course, there’s my warning about what we’re experiencing today. It’s fiction until it isn’t, and suddenly, it’s not:
I doubt I’ll be able to resist talking about how many of us warned that our current state of affairs was bound to transpire. I’ve been told that The Neighbors Beyond the Yard is chilling. I humbly submit that it isn’t as chilling as what is happening in Washington, D.C., L.A., and soon, the rest of the country.
There’s a lot more here on Ruminato. I urge you to explore as much as you can before and after my chat with Karen.
If you think this variety, which I’ve barely touched upon, is worth paying for, here’s your last chance before the scroll ends:
Or, better yet, get a gift subscription for your small village of favorite people:
If you can’t afford it, hey, I get it, no problem. I can’t either! I love all my subscribers!
Thanks for reading! I’ll leave you with this, which coindentally, is one of my favorite songs of all time:
