Stop At The Tavern #3
Listen (3 min) | Announcements, featured notes, recent posts, and this month's reading
Welcome fellow travelers,
The seasons have changed, and though it always takes a while for me to adapt to Daylight Saving Time, I’m enchanted by the growing warmth and the buds on the trees.
A family of birds has made their nest on the other side of my study wall. The brush of their wings accompanies my writing time, and they pay their rent by singing in the flowering tree outside my window.
I hope this time of year is renewing you. I hope nature is soaking into you, body and soul, and making itself known.
Announcements
As mentioned last time, starting this summer I plan to include a paid option for my Substack. Everything will still be free to read. No paywalls. But the choice will be available to support my work in this way.
All paid subscribers will have the option to share their address and receive monthly snail mail from me. You might get a handwritten note, a bookmark, a piece of microfiction, or anything else I can fit in an envelope.
For those who don’t wish to share their address, I’m coming up with ideas for digital goodies. More on this later.
I found the monthly mail idea here on Substack, but I can’t, for the life of me, find the woman who started it. If you know who she is, tell me in the comments so I can properly credit her.
Featured Notes
Recent Posts
What Lies In Darkness
Listen (18 min) | Short Story | Magical Realism | Mild language, disturbing imagery
This Month’s Reading – One Sentence Book Reviews
Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens
A short play reminiscent of a parable, which calls to mind the old proverb, don’t cast your pearls before swine.
Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus
If legalism had been tempered with mercy or even wisdom, most of the characters would’ve made it out alive.
Of Constellations and Clockwork by
A clockpunk fantasy which allows its characters to struggle with their morality and their scars, all on a quest to steal an illegal experiment.
If you’d like to see what I’m reading in real time or you’d like to share what you’re reading, you can follow me on Story Graph under username jjamesreading. Story Graph is a great way to track what you read and get recommendations, both from those you follow and from the website itself. If you’re not on Story Graph, I’d love to hear what you’re reading in the comments section below.
Thank you all for joining me on this stop at the tavern. See you next time.
Painting is Interior of a Tavern with a Blind Fiddler by Hendrik Leys (1815–1869)
Some interesting thoughts here - you always have intriguing things to say. I've been trying to figure out what to offer paid subscribers too!