So I’ve started a Substack to post all my other random essays and short stories that I spare you from here. Most of the essays languishing on my file server focus on Christianity and Zen and where they intersect. Other unrelated essays and short stories will also meander to this Substack, depending on whatever strikes me. So far, I don’t plan to push essays on a weekly schedule. I can’t sustain two weekly sites while working full-time and still writing various books. The Substack is called Nobody’s Know-Nothings because, well, I’m a nobody who writes know-nothings. Right now, I plan to post essays two times a month until my backlog of some 30 essays is exhausted. Substack has a free tier and a paid tier. I don’t have plans to paywall anything; I might in the future–such is the way of today’s writing world. I may turn on the support option for those who want to buy me a coffee or tea once a month or so.
Why Substack?
For something different. I like to play with different platforms and technologies. I also considered Medium and getting another domain name for a self-hosted site. For the self-hosted idea, I considered going old-school and flat-file HTML from the days the internet was better than it is now–uglier in design and a bit harder to find things within, but freer from all the spam, ads, and bots. Publishing on Substack doesn’t mean I may not still do that later. Substack gives me the option to allow people to read for free and monetizing at the same time if I choose. Medium, if I understand it correctly, doesn’t allow a “both” option. And, truthfully, I feel wrong putting essays about Zen Christianity behind paywalls. Kind of works against the virtues of both systems doesn’t it?
Well, anyway, I can’t promise I will keep this secondary blog–do people even use that word these days?–on a regular cadence like JP. I have a little over 15 months of essays waiting if I keep to a twice-a-month cadence. Many of these essays are 3K+ words, while several are closer to my 1.5k words or so articles I post here. Mostly, I wanted a place where I am a bit freer in subject matter–hence the open name–than JP. That doesn’t mean I still won’t post the odd off-topic (writing topics, usually) article on JP. Of course, you’ll find Japanese philosophy mixed into some essays over on Substack. At this point in my life, I find myself quoting–honestly, butcher-quoting–Bushido and Zen writers as much as Roman Stoic and Epicurean writers. I can’t separate that smoothie.
I will still be keeping my weekly cadence here, and have zero plans to change JP any time soon.
So here’s the link again: Nobody’s Know-Nothings.
