Time for a Ruminato Food Drive

Wherein your author hopes to tap into your good mood by begging for food

I hate competing with the neighbor’s cat for food, and so does she

As you know, writers make no money. Especially me. It doesn’t help that I give it all away, but that’s another topic.

So now it’s time to ask my wonderful readers to help me upgrade my food intake from Fancy Feast to something a little more palatable (no offense to feline food tastes).

So if you’re feeling generous, I hope you’ll hit that subscribe button and grab a year:

If you find the subscription rate appalling, you can choose your own rate here.

You can also make a one-time early holiday donation:

Remember my story on Paris, Illinois, and how I’d be watching?

I wrote a story not so long ago about a popular immigrant in rural Paris, Illinois, who was kidnapped by ICE, supposedly setting off great consternation amongst the population…

We got our blue wave, but the people of Paris failed the test. All their talk about how they were upset about a local hero/immigrant’s treatment by ICE turned out to be just that: Talk.

Here are the results of the election there:

Darren Bailey, Republican 74.06%
JB Pritzker, Democrat: 22.57%

This was typical throughout their voting. For example, the Republican running for Congress, Mary E. Miller, received 73% of the vote.

This is Deep South, Confederacy stuff. Turns out, all their talk about Jose Fiscal Belli and his “all-American life with his all-American family” and how badly they felt about ICE snatching him from their community was bullshit.

Some different topics for the end of the year

Nevertheless... We did it, right? Texas did it. Georgia did it. Even Mississippi is trying to join the resistance.

But I’m sick of Trump stories. Aren’t you?

So unless he starts burning the world down, I’m going to try to veer away from that topic, for better or worse, and add some variety. Think The New Yorker, but without all the weird, pompous spellings and silly alphabet squirgles (seriously, New Yorker, “élite?” “reëlection???????”).

As such, I’m considering adding an outside writer or two. More on that when/if it happens.

I’ll still be writing about politics. I won’t be able to stop myself. But I’ll be focusing less on Trump and more on other things. I am banking on him being at the end of his dirt road. I’ll let others cover most aspects of the disintegration as his toxic remains sink into the Eastern shores of Florida and create a Superfund waste site with a million-year half-life.

I might do fun things like cover the drones that fly near the resulting environmental disaster zone when they shoot videos of toxic steam rising from the fetid swamp of Mar-a-Lago, but otherwise, I need a break, and I bet you do, too.

I’ll also be checking in occasionally on Chuck Schumer’s memo-writing activities now that he’ll be Senate majority leader, but even there, I think the larger political Substacks will have that stuff pretty well covered.

Here’s a look at some of the kinds of stuff I’ll be writing, in addition to the usual fiction.

Speaking of Florida, this is an oldie but a goodie:

---

My most recent short story:

---

I’ll continue to include free sneak peeks into works in progress, like this one:

---

And this (which I have not moved forward on yet):

---

Sometimes, I even write about Substack. I’m sure it’s a coincidence that my subscriber engagement flatlined after I wrote this one:

---

I sometimes add a review of a movie or television series if I find it relevant to current affairs:

---

---

I’m never afraid to do a little God talk, even though it usually results in a few Unsubscribes. I’m not going to cancel myself just because some people don’t like what I write. That’s just silly.

---

Somewhat related:

---

I know myself well enough to know I won’t be able to resist some political satire like this:

---

And this:

Sometimes, I get personal:

---

There is a lot more to explore on your own. Just go to Ruminato.com and check out the menus at the top of the page.

There is a lot of fiction here, too: More than 40 short stories.

Become an Endowment member

If you made it this far, you might be interested in this:

If you have a fat wallet and you’re feeling generous about your support of the arts and the kind of writing you see here, consider becoming an Endowment member.

Yep, it’s expensive, but it’s designed for folks the Jon Hamm character might target in the Apple TV series, Your Friends & Neighbors. If you’ve got a spare Rolex, you can probably afford it. I know I can’t. And look, it’s better than Jon Hamm stealing a Rolex from your dresser drawers. Or your other drawers (childish giggle).

All of this helps me market my fiction so that more eyeballs see it.

If you’re a subscriber, paying or otherwise, please let me know if there’s a topic you’d like to see me cover more.

In the meantime, congratulations. You did it. I bet a lot of you didn’t think it would turn out the way it did.

I did. Some of you know why. But that’s a separate post.

---

Thanks for reading!

Here’s one more way you can support my writing (and thank you for those who have gone this route, it means a lot!)

You can now purchase a PDF of all my Substack Fiction. Only $4.99. That’s less than a Starbucks Venti Latte.

Enter SUBSCRIBER_SPECIAL to get a 20 percent discount.

It’s also now available on Amazon/Kindle in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats (the Kindle version is free if you have Kindle Unlimited):

If you are a paid subscriber, it’s available free as a Perk. Just go to the “Perks” page via the web page menu to find it.

You can help me reach more people by subscribing (paid or free), sharing, restacking, and commenting.

Thus ends the food drive. Live well and prosper, my friends.