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Nick Mamatas's avatar

Thanks for your kind words and links! I suspect that this Substack will have an influence similar to what my Livejournal (yikes!) did in the old days. I certainly hope it will serve to shunt young literary men* off the Bernie Bro-to-cryptofash waterslide.

At the risk of being a monster, I'd also like to advertise my new book. 120 Murders: Dark Fiction Inspired by the Alternative Era is an anthology. It includes new writers such as recent workshop alum Cyan Katz (debut!) and now-prominent writers including Silvia Moreno-Garcia (who also got her English-language start as an anonymous commenter on my LJ). I called in many favors, and sold my soul to one thousand different demons, to make this book.

As an amazon-hater, I am also picky about links. For ebooks, I recommend DRM-free you-actually-own-the-book-no-foolin' Weightless Books:

https://weightlessbooks.com/120-murders-dark-fiction-inspired-by-the-alternative-era/

For paperback, please patronize my local independent store, East Bay Booksellers:

https://www.ebbooksellers.com/item/qHl97caDRCpgW7y8fTG4Pw

I don't have a story in the book, but I did write one that was bundled with certain pre-orders. Now that the book is out, you can read "Shriek of the Week" right here at Tough Magazine:

https://redneck-press.blogspot.com/2025/04/shriek-of-week-fiction-nick-mamatas.html?m=1

*A bit of advice for them. If I were a straight white male novelist just starting out in the field of realism, I would write about fatherhood. That is, the protagonist should be the father of a young child or children. Don't know anything about fatherhood? It's okay, neither does anyone else. (PS: Don't give the kid cancer.)

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Kevin's avatar

Recently I’ve been thinking about literature in terms of ideas needing writers (rather than writers needing ideas). Like you said, there are only so many book ideas that have the potential to resonate at any given time— even the best possible book about, say, Zoroastrianism, would probably not take off in 2025. And there are only so many people with the perspective to turn those ideas into books in a way that resonates.

Some of these ideas were better captured in novel form than others, but many more were never captured in great novels at all! So atm I’m thinking it’s equal parts “divine inspiration” and savvy recognition of your ability to capture a particular book idea “in search of an author”.

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