A Hiatus from History

Another one of those Important Announcement things

EDIT: I’m pinning this post to the top because I will still be posting non-history stories for my paid subscribers. I will return to writing free history posts soon.

I wish for all my free subscribers to read this to reassure you that I have not yet died. (If you were a paid subscriber you’d have known this was coming.)

I am taking a wee break from writing free posts, which seems a bit of a dick move considering about 8,000 of you are new subscribers coming here via a recent Fuckfacebook ad campaign I ran a couple of weeks ago, but please hear me out.

First off, I intended to send this message in February, but then I got that second Facebook warning that my page was at risk and said well shit ima make lemonade outa this Zuckfuckery and ran the ad campaign and it worked a treat. Thank you and welcome to all the new folks. And then I thought well shit I can’t just bail on them immediately, so I motivated myself to do a few more posts about stuff like anti-masturbation cereal magnates and spousal Number 2s and the murdering of slavery-supporting shitnuggets and why you’re a trouper not a trooper.

You new subscribers have had a few new posts from me, and now it will be a while before you get another. Because holy shit I am Sofa King tired. Don’t fret. I am a bit of a workaholic, so I expect this sabbatical will be a brief one.

The last four years have been challenging. Career change, Covid, American insurrection, writing two very long books and self-publishing and promoting the shit out of them, a big-ass book deal and rewriting the shit out of one of those books for a major publisher, running this Substack, agonizing pain and a hospital visit and a significant surgery to correct the problem while going through a book launch … I have been burning it at both ends to the point that I’m on fire somewhere in the region of my duodenum.

I’m not taking a break, I am cutting back, and the free history posts are the only place where I can possibly ease off right now. I am spread too thin to do anything to the best of my ability, so I’m taking this break from writing free posts to focus on three important things:

1.     Researching my new book. This is a far more ambitious project than anything I’ve yet done. I’ve already spent a year up to my eyeballs in research, and have much more to go through before I even think to begin writing this next book. All I can say at this juncture is that my publisher is most excited about the project, and so am I. The first draft should be finished eleven months from now, and then it will be a long-ass time before it’s published, but it’s gonna be great. I hope.

2.     Getting back in shape. The surgery meant no exercise for two months, and I’ve been struggling the last two months to return to it, still experiencing some pain. I’m 55 years old, and people lose their conditioning quickly the older they get. Right before the health crisis I ran a half marathon in 1:54 and I wasn’t even pushing that hard. Right now, I can barely do 8K. I need to focus on my physical and mental health for a bit.

3.     Writing for my paid subscribers. I have a lot of them, and this generates a substantial income for me. I’m dedicated to keep writing for them because they pay me, duh. But I also love writing those stories, as they are personal in nature. They’re a lot of fun and I don’t have to dig through research and formulate arguments and whatnot. It’s like going to therapy except I am the one getting paid. Nice, right? If you’re interested to learn what’s happening with point #1, the new book, just yesterday I wrote a paid subscriber post on that subject regarding writing style.

And so, for a month or two, I will not be writing free history posts unless something comes up that everyone is talking about and I see an opportunity to jump on it, like when those Titanic tourists climbed into a carbon-fiber idiot squisher and I wrote about when the wreck was first discovered in 1985. That was a fun piece, and it went quite viral. Otherwise, the only new posts are gonna be of the paid subscriber variety for a bit. And like I said, they’re more autobiographical in nature.

But I will return to writing lots of free stuff before too long. I expect it will be with a bang. I have an idea I’d like to take some time with that is related to the new book, so don’t go unsubscribing on me, please.

If you’d like to upgrade to paid, I highly recommend it because I like money and those who do become paid subscribers seem to stick around. You get immediate access to ALL of the old paid posts too. Hell, I’ll even let you do a free trial:

Click here for a 7-Day Free Trial giving you access to all Paid Posts.

And please also buy my sweary fucking history book On This Day in History Sh!t Went Down.