Subscriber Writing Roundup
Edition III
Greetings, my fellow bookworms!
Today is the first Monday of October, which means it’s time for our monthly Subscriber Writing Roundup!
But, before we get stuck into the links, last week we featured a stunning essay from Hilary Layne on Umberto Eco’s The Name of Rose — which, judging from the comments, was one of the favourite guest posts we’ve hosted so far. We also featured a genre-colliding short story from Terry Freedman - a detective noir twist on the Cinderella fairytale.
This week we are recommending:
Booklove byBenjamin Day — a newsletter about stories.
The Bacon Beacon by Laurel Cummings by Laurel 🥓 Cummings— a great newsletter from a network ex-pat writing about Television & Comedy.
Before I forget by James Ron — James’ stories from adventures, misadventures, and memories. Some of which he makes up!
Now onto the subscriber writing. What follows are 31 links to great pieces of writing from BTMU subscribers. From reflections on love and loss to what we can learn from a video game, from a vindictive toaster to elegiac poetry, there’s something for everyone.
Dive in!
Miles Kim meditates on the meaning of "Inspiration" through scenes from nature, art, and life.
david roberts shares stories of parental comments that misfire.
Caroline shares a reflection on who she’s no longer willing to be.
Andrei Atanasov shares a valuable lesson he learned while getting his butt kicked playing Dark Souls.
June Girvin discusses the reality of migraine and wonders why some people trivialise it.
Ben Monaco breaks down the first chapter of Where The Crawdads Sing and explores the author's beautiful prose.
lindsey lamar writes a fiction autobiography from the perspective of the historical Ford's Theatre building.
Kevin LaTorre writes about the pursuit of literary and Christian perfection—with a digression into the novelist Eugene Volodazkin—to find only that it is endless and regenerating.
John Halbrooks thinks that the best arguments for the importance of poetry are over two thousand years old.
Sal Randolph considers the slow paintings of new.shiver and how the experience of art transmutes into memory.
Terry Freedman is running a project in which he writes the same story in a multitude of ways, and this is one of the most recent essays.
Tom Fish encounters earthquakes, downpours, and a particularly vindictive toaster in Zagreb.
Sheila Dembowski discovers serendipity through a chance encounter with a former student in a most unlikely setting.
Natalie McGlocklin argues why there will never, ever be another The Secret History and all your dark academia reading recommendations are garbage.
In the first of a yearlong monthly series, "Talking Back to Walden," Julie Gabrielli explores a beloved classic to argue for more ecstatic immersion in the world.
Caro Henry’s elegiac poem about her mother’s death.
In his project to read and comment upon the approx. 850 works and authors of the Western canon as enumerated by Harold Bloom, Joe Steakley looks at how the rhetorical tropes of literature influence the Israelites' Canaan campaign in the Book of Joshua.
Hermann J. Diehl writes about the dreadful possibility of being influenced into creating a false memory.
Robin Reardon reflects on the inspiration that comes from the profound tragedy of Flight 93, the fourth plan on 9-11.
Edward Rooster answers the question "What do we do when we feel and can do almost anything with our minds?", through the lens of William Blake and the James Webb Space Telescope, Daguerreotypes and Da Vinci, and the Lumiere Brothers and Large Language Models.
Kameron Sanzo discusses why "energy" is so difficult to define, and explains how the classical Western concept of energy developed.
A smuggler Sasquatch fuelled by Cookie Crisp and a chain-smoking turtle must escape a trio of endangered Pacific Mottled Unicorn kids out of downtown Seattle in a heisted beer truck in 1993. By Jonathan Delp.
Narina Exelby traverses Kenya's largest national park in a battered old Land Cruiser.
Ted was certain that what he hit was prob'ly a car, or a 'frigerator. By James Ron.
Join Debs Stott and dive into this fictional road trip, centred around hand made art maps and fantasy stories.
M.M. McGuire explores Thai culture, buddhism, psychology, and the benefits of letting cats sit atop telephone booths in Chiang Mai.
jodi {fiftybeautifulthings} writes the letter she wishes she would have sent to her mother upon visiting Bruges and Belgium.
Happy october, substackers! By Laurel 🥓 Cummings.
Sutee Dee captures what it's like to eat at one of the best fish restaurants in a city that absolutely loves fresh fish.
Emily Dickinson may have died for beauty, but Zoe Carada claims that there's more to life than just one quest. If in doubt, read
and ask Zoe.
Latham Turner reflects on fatherhood and what it means to be both a son and a father.
That’s all folks!
Thank you for the inclusion, and for providing such an extensive list - looking forward to finding some new favorites!
Thank you for including me! Pleasure to be here with y'all!