A newsletter of sorts

It’s been a while since I sat down and thought about how I feel about – well, everything, I suppose. Now seems like as good a time as any to check in with myself, my writing peers, and any fans I might have picked up or disenfranchised along the way. I figured a newsletter would be the best way to go.

I don’t know if I’ll limit the scope of this thing to my writing projects in the works, or if I’ll meander off the beaten path the way my mind does naturally tend to wander. If I do end up meandering – and in case you haven’t noticed, I’m already in the field and a quarter-turn around the blackberry bush – I trust that most of you will give me grace. Hell, some of you are here precisely for the offroad ruminating, and to this I say, thank you, and you’re welcome.

Where the heck have I been for so long?

If you’re reading me on Substack, then you should know that I’ve spent most of my summer repairing, cleaning, and prepping my home for sale. It’s been an all-consuming labor that left little bandwidth for anything other than eating, sleeping, and being present for myself and loved ones. I tried sneaking off to Substack as often as I could, but eventually I just had to let it go for a while.

If you’re reading me on Medium, then you probably have a good idea of what lead to my knee-jerk jump over to Substack. Like many of us upstart small-fry accounts with 1K followers or less, my revenue dried up after Medium leadership tweaked the rules to the money stream for premium members. I went from being cautiously optimistic at possibly earning a living from writing to having to DoorDash while looking for another day-job. This was cemented by the fact that my Substack posting has yet to earn me one red cent, even as I enjoy contributing to that community far more than any of my online presences.

TL:DR: Writing on Substack for free often feels slightly better than writing on Medium for peanuts, and both must be sidelined whenever reality’s foibles (and bills) come a-knocking. Weird, I know, but these are the facts as I know them.

If you’re reading me on WordPress, I am so very sorry for abandoning you for so long. Is anyone even still reading this thing? I must have about three subscribers left by now. I honestly don’t know what came over me. Medium waved a couple lousy, funky-ass dollars at me and off I went. I don’t know what a soul is worth, but Medium offered me bus fare, and I’ve been chasing those wooden nickels ever since. I guess the seduction of wave-riding to become a “real” professional writer is real as hell. I will do my best to do better.

When will you get back to posting normally?

The short answer is I don’t know. The long answer is – bruh, have you seen what’s going on in the world? What even is normal anymore? Every day my newsfeeds read like Mad Libs: Catastrophe Edition. Everyone and everything seems to be drag-racing to become catalyst for our Extinction Level Event. I don’t know where I’ll be living next month or if our great society will even make it that far. It seems weird as hell talking about any sense of normalcy with democracy crumbling all around me.

Plus I gotta figure out how to better market my chapbook. You see? See how weird that sounds in context with <gestures wildly> all of this? Did you know that Smoke is now the Pacific Northwest’s unofficial fifth season? And everyone just shrugs it off like, “Oh yeah, I remember fresh air. Wasn’t that rad?” The fuck?!?

I must sound like a sociopath trying to promote a poetry book during the End Times. But yeah, like I said; I will do my best to do better.

So what’s the deal with that chapbook anyway? I thought you were publishing it way back in June! What gives, man?

Okay, here’s the thing; I am an idiot. Just an absolute bumbling, stumbling buffoon. Hear me out; I’ve worked hard to become a pretty good writer. I’ve studied, practiced, and perfected my craft to become the kind of poet who makes my readers gasp at the depth of feeling pouring from my words, and I know that as amazing as I’ve become, I still have much to say and plenty to do to get even better… but when it comes to self-publishing, I’m just another spider monkey with an assault rifle.

My chapbook is available for purchase on Lulu in paperback and eBook, and I’ve been fighting the good fight of trying to make it eligible for global distribution – meaning, you could buy it on Amazon, Barnes n Noble, Apple Books, etc – you know, anywhere globally.

But here’s the thing; it keeps getting rejected. The ISBN on the back cover is missing, or it’s too small to register, or it’s not in the right place, or the spine title is too big, or it’s a fraction of a centimeter too far or too near, or fuck you man, I just don’t like your tone, or whatever.

I’m taking my sixth bite at this apple, and I feel pretty good about this one, so maybe October I say – not as a statement, but as a question with both fingers crossed and my tongue tucked in the right corner of my mouth for luck?

It might happen. But hey, I’ve been wrong before, so have your grain of salt handy.

What will you be working on next?

I plan on making my chapbooks a series, with each one as its own theme. I plan to publish the second of this series a year after my first one actually gets its global distribution. So if my spider monkeys pull all the right triggers this October, you can expect a new collection the following October of 2026 (Assuming all the AI’s don’t do a Terminator 3 Skynet thing by then.)

I’m also cross-posting from Medium to Substack and vice versa. My Substack posts are free for the first sixty days. After that, they go behind a paywall for the enjoyment of absolutely no one, as I have no paid subscribers right now, but I’m not trippin’ or whatever. I decided to cross-post these poems over at Medium after the sixty-day mark. So far that’s been going well.

I also decided to cross-post select Medium posts over at Substack after ninety days. I haven’t encountered any issues so far, so I’ll continue to monitor and adjust as needed.

I’ve not yet come up with a strategy for my WordPress vertical yet, but this newsletter is a step in the right direction. I don’t know how frequently I’ll write the newsletter, but if I write one, all three verticals will have access to it immediately. This is me doing my best to do better. 🙂

(Addendum: I’m not too keen on writing on WordPress anymore, as the new interface sucks ass. Or maybe I’m just old now. Either way, I don’t expect to be dealing with this nonsense too often, so if you dig me, maybe try out the other two channels?)

Care to share any final thoughts? Anything more on the state of the world? On our pending World War 3? On any of the ongoing genocides? On any of the other horrors that make us shrug helplessly or cry in the shower? On any random smug bigots meeting ironic ends?

Nah. I’m good. After all, I’m just some guy on the internet trying to sell you poetry at the end of Smoke season. What the hell do I know about such things?

© BJ Dawson — 2025

Barry’s new chapbook, jagged remnants of you, is available on Lulu in paperback and eBook, and will be available for global distribution someday soon, we can only hope.

Tips are always welcome.