The Weekly Digest is a weekly (no shit?) update that captures highlights from the week that was. At the end of each week, I share a collection of thoughts, recommendations, and links. Like everything else I write, it's awesome, but it may be too long for email so make sure you click through.
⛱️Beach Reads
On the Return of Substack Summer
If you’re not on Notes, you may have missed this bit of news:
Yes, Substack Summer returns for a second consecutive year! I will be dedicating a large portion of my summer reading to books by authors whose presence is largely based on Substack. I am still building out my List for this year but expect the first one to be Holiest of Cities by Tom Schecter which launches on Monday June 8. More about which in the Book Bits section.
My goal is 10 reviews over the course of the Summer, starting next week. If you’ve already sent me an ARC of your work (or if I bought it myself), you are already on “the List.” How many titles will go from “the List” into full blown reviews remains to be seen. If you are an author with completed work you’d like reviewed, you can find out how I manage that via the Review Requests page.
Oh yeah and #2 is probably self-explanatory, but just in case… I generally avoid conflict on the Internet because 1. I don’t care and 2. it’s not worth my time. However, I’ve noticed some people catching heat they don’t deserve on here, so I regret to inform the assholes on this platform that 1. I now care and 2. I will make the time.
📚Book Bits
THE SHIELDBREAKER SAGA Book Two: Holiest of Cities by Tom Schecter. (Finished)
I finished Cities last week after breezing through it. It is a jaunty read and a much different story than Book One (Last of the Etela). You can find a link to my interview with author Tom Schecter below, and look for a full review next week.
The Good Enough Job by Simone Stolzoff (Audiobook)
Apparently I read this book a few years ago and it didn’t stick with me. It’s short so giving it another crack whenever I’m in the car to give me a short break from Dungeon Crawler Carl’s antics. Always good to remind yourself that capitalism is trash and we should all be working less.
Hell’s Half-Acre by will christopher baer (Phineas Poe trilogy, #3)
Just started on this yesterday. I read Kiss Me Judas and Penny Dreadful (parts 1 and 2) last year and got distracted/sidetracked/busy/something that kept me from closing out the trilogy. I’m excited to dive in and finish this one so I can read through WCB’s backlog of Jude Evers and Sometimes Rachael stories here on Substack.
Recent Book Haul:
The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling - Never underestimate the power of a good cover design and compelling name.
Midwestern Death Trip by Meaghan Garvey - Excited for this one, which arrived early this week. Hoping to add this to the roster of reviews for Substack Summer.
DIE: Loaded by Kieron Gillen - The original DIE is probably my favorite comic series ever. It’s been described as “goth Jumanji;” kids are sucked into a tabletop RPG (a la Dungeons & Dragons) and they don’t all make it back, so they have to go back as adults with all their baggage in tow. Excited for what Gillen does with this sequel and for the amazing art by Stephanie Hans.
📺Screen Time 🖥️
The world’s worst kept secret is that I’m a big pro wrestling nerd, and I was thoroughly entertained by AAA’s Noche de Los Grandes which was headlined by a Máscara contra Máscara (mask vs. mask) match between El Grande Americano and “the Original” El Grande Americano. I also skimmed MLW’s 3-hour Fusion event and it gave pretty cool ECW TV vibes for any old schoolers out there. Both shows are available for free on YouTube. NWA’s Powerrr is coming to Comet TV, joining TNA, AEW, and (of course) WWE on terrestrial television.
Our Deadwood rewatch draws to a close as I soldier through Season 3. I’ll probably finish next week and maybe watch the follow-up movie, which I’ve never seen.
On the video game front, Sony had their State of Play event on Monday and there are some bonkers looking games coming out. I’m most excited about the (surprisingly gory) Marvel’s Wolverine and the Debra Ann Woll1-led God of War: Laufey.
💡Substack Spotlight:
The Yellow Coat Raffle, hosted by Laura Teodorescu, is a fundraiser for Substack fiction community pillar, Nikki | Nocturnal Narrator. Nikki has medical bills to pay, and (because she lives in the only wealthy, industrialized nation in the developed world that does not have a system of universal health coverage for its citizens) those bills are expensive. Pitch in what you can; there are also some great prizes that are being raffled off as well.
I had this newsletter basically finalized and then M.P. Fitzgerald went on Live last night and read his new work, Till Death Do Us Partition. Do yourself a favor and drop whatever the fuck you’re doing and read this story. It blew me away.
Alex Shifman released his new novel The Pale earlier this week. My copy is en route from Uncle Jeffrey’s Internet Emporium arrived this morning. You can find out more about it at the link below:
Two big returns to Substack this week. From his self-imposed exile returns the conquering Clancy Steadwell and if you try to drive him away again, I will gut you how I gut a fish: sloppily and with a dull blade. The Big C’s first story back is available here:
The Emil Ottoman Empire is also back in the swing. Emil returns with his reintroduction here:
Tom Schecter and I hopped on Substack Live last Saturday to talk Shieldbreaker Saga, the upcoming release of Book Two (Holiest of Cities), Deadwood, Shakespeare and a bunch of other nonsense. You can watch the full recording below:
My shirt says, “Sometimes Antisocial, Always Antifascist.”
Tom’s shirt says, “V.”
🖋️Writing
On Using Procrastination to Fight Perfectionism, or Tricking Myself
I have an issue with perfectionism. I didn’t think I had an issue with perfectionism because I never thought “perfection” was achievable. What I’ve come to realize is that I have a problem with “good-ism;” not wanting to start or invest time in something unless I know it is going to be (at least) good. Naturally, you can’t really know if something is going to be good unless you actually start on it. Catch-22. Turtles all the way down. Et cetera.
If it has not been made painfully obvious, I am a nerd. I don’t feel a compulsion to write fantasy, but I do enjoy some worldbuilding. Usually when I worldbuild for a TTRPG, I run into the same problem of needing things to be perfect and eventually burn out, BUT that part comes after actual creation. So, my latest attempt to trick myself is to create a completely derivative fantasy world. Samurais to the East, Vikings in the North, standard pseudo-Medieval Europe in the middle, and so on.
This will never see the light of day because I’m purposefully keeping the framework unoriginal. Because it never leaves my hard drive, I don’t need to do any research for accuracy. I can just build on stereotypes, gloss over details, and change things willy-nilly.
Sounds terrible. Why would I do that? My hope is that by creating this sort of low stakes universe in which I can “play” and use a strategy similar to morning pages to gradually build and create. In time this (hopefully!) will build the impulse to create without the need to be so damn anal about everything.
It probably won’t work and it’ll be back to the drawing board.
🌸Fleeting Thoughts
Another week in the books and half the year gone. Where does the time go? As the days start to stretch a little longer, I’m hoping to find the time and space to enjoy the Spring/Summer weather, spend a little more time outdoors, and slow time down a little. Still waiting on this season’s first tee time, first creemee, first trip to the lake, first trip to the Cape… and you run and you run chasing the sun but it’s sinking...
🍻+🤙,
— V
If you don’t want or can’t afford to become a paid subscriber, but would still like to support the newsletter, you can do so through ko-fi. The ko-fi money mostly goes towards beer and video games, while the subscription money mostly gets reinvested into the Substack community.
Debra Ann Woll is the coolest. Here’s a clip of her and Jon “The Punisher” Bernthal talking about Dungeons & Dragons.
Can I add to that raffle? I'll do a 2,500-word line edit of someone's writing if that's something that might garner donations.
Always happy to derail something, doubly happy to get a mention here 😁