I love seeing so many good writers here highlighting their fellow writers. You’ve got a point about restacking reviews (plus I feel less self conscious about my own restacking of the stories that I love and admire.) I agree, self promotion can feel kinda icky and not fun, but your 2 caveats make sense to me. Btw thank you for mentioning All who Wander, bc I’m in full agreement that the horror stories by EJ/Sean are exceptional and soar high above the norm. their recent collaboration is a testament to the strength of collective storytelling. As someone prone to an anxious nature, at 1st I thought the horror fiction genre might be too much for me. Instead their horror writing has changed my mind. Seriously I can’t read enough good stories for this lifetime. through the creation of fictional scary stories, maybe the horror reading experience can help people understand and survive real life fears. Readers can follow closely/relate to a character, and they can empathize with the adrenaline fueled, heart-rate racing, life threatening fear depicted on the page. Yet when the tale of woe reaches a haunting ending, readers remain safe in the awareness that they’re are still breathing and alive in the world. As you wrote, reading fiction writing here has had a big impact on me; at times I’ll have to stop reading once I finish a hell of a story in order to gather my senses and get it together. So good to see the fiction community hold up and cheer for fellow writers. Thank you!
Thanks Jessica! I just checked out your 'stack and wow -- your art is amazing! Glad to have you as a reader in fiction here. Their horror writing has changed my mind as well! It's made me braver!
Of course! I feel lucky to be reading so many good fiction stories. Thanks for liking my artwork! It means the world to me to know good folks are enjoying my art. Yes substack horror has helped me to be braver too. I’m grateful to cross paths with so many talented, funny, and kind people here in the fiction community.
Thank you! This not quite two weeks has been a revelation to me, such a good place to post work where it can be read. Not in a mutual praise-swapping fest, just read. I'm honoured to have this recommendation. Cherry on the cake!
Thank you Jane, glad you like it here! The fiction community here is pretty great. I like to try and avoid a 'praise-swapping' fest as well, that's why I do these posts. Keep writing!
Aren't you just the nicest, Clancy. Thanks so much for the inclusion here, but also:
a) thanks for pushing and advocating for promotion and its power. It certainly feels icky and not at all natural for me to self-promote, but you're right with everything you say about why and what it can achieve. So, thanks for the nudge.
b) I love these summaries and the nods to other writers. I kinda ignore a lot of round-up posts because they often don't say enough about *why* a writer appeals to the author of the round-up-like post, but not these. You say why and that's really special. I'm sort of at saturation point in terms of subs and my inbox at the moment, but I always take the time to go look and read what you share in here.
1) You are welcome, sir. I hope you keep self promoting where you can.
2) I hear you about saturation and that's why I think the little blurbs are important (if I do say so myself). You can look at this post and pick out the ones you think you might connect with more before you even click them, which I think helps parse what you want to add to your subscriptions better. It also gives you something to read without necessarily having to subscribe to them.
Yeah, definitely. I've started using the Follow button a bit more and trying to be a bit more mindful of looking at Notes to help me not miss things, but I do occasionally (often) suffer with overwhelm due to work overwhelm competing for general overwhelm in my brain ;)
Thanks for shoutout, Clancy! Your words mean more than you know! ❤️
Thank YOU, Sean.
This.
Wow — thank you so much for this! Grateful to be included with writers whose work I’ve really loved (including yours). It’s hugely encouraging!
And re: my name, my parents didn’t realize what they’d done until it was too late...
That is great, re: your name. It worked out well. Keep writing!
I love seeing so many good writers here highlighting their fellow writers. You’ve got a point about restacking reviews (plus I feel less self conscious about my own restacking of the stories that I love and admire.) I agree, self promotion can feel kinda icky and not fun, but your 2 caveats make sense to me. Btw thank you for mentioning All who Wander, bc I’m in full agreement that the horror stories by EJ/Sean are exceptional and soar high above the norm. their recent collaboration is a testament to the strength of collective storytelling. As someone prone to an anxious nature, at 1st I thought the horror fiction genre might be too much for me. Instead their horror writing has changed my mind. Seriously I can’t read enough good stories for this lifetime. through the creation of fictional scary stories, maybe the horror reading experience can help people understand and survive real life fears. Readers can follow closely/relate to a character, and they can empathize with the adrenaline fueled, heart-rate racing, life threatening fear depicted on the page. Yet when the tale of woe reaches a haunting ending, readers remain safe in the awareness that they’re are still breathing and alive in the world. As you wrote, reading fiction writing here has had a big impact on me; at times I’ll have to stop reading once I finish a hell of a story in order to gather my senses and get it together. So good to see the fiction community hold up and cheer for fellow writers. Thank you!
Thanks Jessica! I just checked out your 'stack and wow -- your art is amazing! Glad to have you as a reader in fiction here. Their horror writing has changed my mind as well! It's made me braver!
Of course! I feel lucky to be reading so many good fiction stories. Thanks for liking my artwork! It means the world to me to know good folks are enjoying my art. Yes substack horror has helped me to be braver too. I’m grateful to cross paths with so many talented, funny, and kind people here in the fiction community.
So many great recommendations. Thank you for celebrating the fiction writers.
Thanks for reading F & F! Hope you found someone new.
Loved the @faithamenn. Fabulous writer I hadn’t read before 🙏
That is great to hear!!
Thank you! This not quite two weeks has been a revelation to me, such a good place to post work where it can be read. Not in a mutual praise-swapping fest, just read. I'm honoured to have this recommendation. Cherry on the cake!
Thank you Jane, glad you like it here! The fiction community here is pretty great. I like to try and avoid a 'praise-swapping' fest as well, that's why I do these posts. Keep writing!
I had no idea what to expect at all. It feel much more alive than straight social media and much more interesting.
Aren't you just the nicest, Clancy. Thanks so much for the inclusion here, but also:
a) thanks for pushing and advocating for promotion and its power. It certainly feels icky and not at all natural for me to self-promote, but you're right with everything you say about why and what it can achieve. So, thanks for the nudge.
b) I love these summaries and the nods to other writers. I kinda ignore a lot of round-up posts because they often don't say enough about *why* a writer appeals to the author of the round-up-like post, but not these. You say why and that's really special. I'm sort of at saturation point in terms of subs and my inbox at the moment, but I always take the time to go look and read what you share in here.
1) You are welcome, sir. I hope you keep self promoting where you can.
2) I hear you about saturation and that's why I think the little blurbs are important (if I do say so myself). You can look at this post and pick out the ones you think you might connect with more before you even click them, which I think helps parse what you want to add to your subscriptions better. It also gives you something to read without necessarily having to subscribe to them.
Yeah, definitely. I've started using the Follow button a bit more and trying to be a bit more mindful of looking at Notes to help me not miss things, but I do occasionally (often) suffer with overwhelm due to work overwhelm competing for general overwhelm in my brain ;)