A Labor Day Appeal for Your Unpaid Labor
Plus another really important thing
Today is Labor Day, a holiday born in the late 19th century as a tribute to workers who faced abysmal employment conditions for shit pay (case in point, cops shooting striking workers in Chicago in 1886 in the above pic). In that spirit, I wish to exploit your labor for my own nefarious capitalistic gains.
I'm looking for story ideas, but please before you jump into the comments, read this entire post.
My ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY SH!T WENT DOWN books included many stories suggested by you, the followers of this page. And I repaid you with a quick mention in the Acknowledgements so it was totally a fair trade. Well, for everyone whose story I used I personally thanked them by (first) name in the online publishing of that story. You were paid in exposure bucks!
Seriously though, it was helpful. About a quarter of those stories were based on suggestions. Moving forward, however, I'm not looking for "on this day in history" format stories. I'll come back to that, so, again, please bide on your suggestions for a bit.
This is actually the really important part of the post that reveals my nefarious capitalistic machinations.
I really need you to buy my new book.
NEED. Permit me to explain why. Volume I comes out October 10. Volume II will follow in 2024. I'm working on a new book for 2025 that is titled SH!T WENT DOWN: A SWEARY HISTORY OF THE WORLD.
I believe it will be the best thing I've ever written. It won't be 366 short stories, but a "big think" world history project that I've been working on for some time, devouring every history tome I can get my hands on and planning the ever-loving shit out of while sweating the prose and wit and sarcasm in equal measure.
I dearly love my "on this day" books, but this is me moving forward, onward and upward, bigger and better etfuckingcetera.
And I REALLY want a book deal for it.
The On This Day books were first self-published, sold exceptionally well, and got me a big-ass book deal for republishing. And IF the new and improved version of Volume I sells like a mother of fuckers, then that will go a long way to securing a future book deal for my world history tome. I must prove to the publishing that I'm not just a self-publishing sensation, but a traditionally published one as well.
I mean, if I don't get a deal then I'll just self-publish the fucker, but the thing is that working with a big publisher makes things better. You get a whole team of smart and experienced people behind you. The new version of V1 is much improved, and I want my world history book to have the big publisher touch, plus the big publisher distribution.
And that won't happen unless V1 sells like a mofo. Please help it sell like a mofo by buying that mofo.
Also, please suggest short historical stories you are enamoured with that you feel would benefit from the Sweary Historian treatment. Again, no need to constrain it to a specific day in history. Tales of badass women are always appreciated.
Let's see what you got for ideas in the comments, but also please order the new V1.
The Chicago Haymarket labor riots.
Emma Goldman's trial and subsequent deportation for protesting the draft in ww1. Mother Jones and the minors of Appalachia. Or in other words, the mothers of the labor movement in the late 19th and early 20th century.
And yeah, James, I'm waiting for the redo on vol 1.
This isn't exactly what you asked for so roast me if you must. If you're doing a big-picture world history kind of thing, I hope you will consider the effect that patriarchal, angry, vindictive Sky Father bullshit has had over the millennia (something tells me you might already be doing this). In particular, the contrast between that and the Earth Mother-based cultures that were replaced/crushed/subsumed by the patriarchal bullshit. I've read exactly one history book that talks about this in depth although I'm sure that there are more. But I want some motherfucking swearing with it! PS I've got your two history books but will definitely buy the news ones 'cause PICTURES motherfucker!