Housekeeping Notes
Fall 2023 Edition
This will be my first official post since… goddamn, July. A big thanks once again to
for keeping an eye on things while I’ve been away, and for sharing her original work. If you missed the beginning of her short story, “Seely,” you can find the introductory post here.In the meantime, I’ve picked up quite a few new subscribers, many of whom arrived by way of
and his wonderful post series. Huge thanks to Dougald for publicizing my work on his ‘Stack. I hope I’m able to do justice to his generosity.Firstly, I wanted to give a warm welcome to all the newcomers. Thanks for taking a chance on my little project. Here are a few quick notes about what to expect in the months to come:
Later today, I’ll be publishing the first in what will be a series of posts about the concept of “phasmatopia.” It started out as an interesting name for my SubStack; it has since evolved into the motive force behind my work. I’m looking forward to getting into the details of the concept, and what I think sets it apart from the other available options.
Next week, I’ll be sharing a cross-posting series with
on different approaches to utopian fiction. Elle has written extensively about utopian fiction and its adjacent ideologies; I’m not convinced that my work qualifies as either utopian or dystopian, but nevertheless has something to say about how we might think about the future. It’s been a really interesting dialogue, and I’m excited to share it with both of our respective audiences.Towards the end of the month, I’ll start posting installments of my second short story, “All Green.” It’s longer than “The Sea Witch,” so completion of that should take us right through Halloween and maybe past Thanksgiving. After that, I’ll be away on winter break and posting infrequently until January 2024.
We had some unpleasant surprises with childcare this year. As a result, I’ve been called up to full-time dad duty for the foreseeable future, taking care of Thing 2 until we figure something else out. I’ll be fitting in writing on nights and weekends for the rest of this year; still, I think I can maintain something close to my current output for the remainder of 2023. (If you haven’t already, please do consider a paid subscription, so that I can continue doing this work.)
Thank you all for hanging in there with me. It’s been a wild year. Wishing everyone an enjoyable shift in the weather as the seasons change, wherever you are.
Ok see, in a utopian society, we should be better able to support parents and fund childcare initiatives!! Providing that support at a societal level is in a country’s best interest for the child and the adult, and is something that isn’t as easily supplied by the grassroots community.
I was recently visiting my sister, and she and her husband both work. Trying to line up summer camps all month was extremely expensive and they didn’t make the waitlist into all of them, so there were days thing 1 had to sit in their bedroom and watch tv all day while they worked. And this is for a couple who is relatively well off!
In this case, it’s definitely up to the government to install universal childcare (a top down approach!) and many countries have done so with fantastic results. Leaving it up to the community to figure out isn’t as easy. But I’d be very curious to know how you think about that!
So glad you are able to provide dad duty!!!! Hardest job there is!
Welcome back! Hope your break was nice. I feel you on childcare—our Thing 1 is also between daycares right now but I’m trying to view it as a nice break from the daily rush to get out of the house.
Looking forward to the fall posts!