Shameless Milestones #2

And something new for you

Something new and strange happened a few weeks ago at The Racket News™. Seemingly out of nowhere, we got a whole bunch of new subscribers. And since then, the subscriber count has continued to soar. As Freddie Mercury sang, “You’ve brought me fame and fortune and everything that goes with it. I thank you all!” Except for the fame and fortune and everything that goes with it part, this is true.

Seriously, I know I speak for David and Jay when I say how grateful we all are for everyone who reads this site, and some read it pretty religiously (and by that I mean it both ways: regularly, and that you pray to God I’ll end soon).

So today, I am not going to write about the news of the world, or the latest antics of our federal government. Be thankful, because there’s a mine in Pennsylvania where Elon Musk is about to replace the Keebler elves who process VA retirement paperwork, who still use quills and iron gall ink with blotters, who perform arithmetic with the venerable Friden STW10 mechanical calculator (the one that is capable of ending the universe if you try to divide by zero). He will replace them all with an AI named Mike, who may or may not develop a sense of humor.

Instead, I’m going to reflect on the last time I wrote about “Shameless Milestones” in August 2023. Since then, our subscriber count has increased 212 percent. And our revenue from those subscribers has multiplied infinitely, because multiplying infinity by zero gives you the same result. This site is still free (for you). And let’s talk about that.

No, we haven’t decided to erect a big beautiful paywall. Not yet. But there’s something in writing every day, or multiple times a week that creates expectations. There’s an audience waiting for another post from me, or from David, and it does have a mental pull on both of us. Any content creator experiences this. Columnists alternately scream at editors about deadlines and pressure, and at the same time question their own existence when they don’t get all the plum assignments that come with deadlines and pressure. A very strange neurosis, writing is.

So I’m going to kill two birds with…an AR-15. No, sorry. I don’t kill birds, or anything else living. I suppose if I was starving it would be a different situation, but with Publix right down the road…anyway that paragraph deserves to be struck, but I wanted you to see the effects of not having an editor on this site, which you’ve all seen before. Typically I read, proofread, and read aloud to my weary family many of my posts. Then approximately 10 seconds after I hit “publish” I notice three or four typos, repeated “the the” or that I spelled some famous name wrong. And I fix it, but the email has already been sent. Oh bother!

Where I’m going is that I want to monetize something, because I gotta tell you, it’s good to get paid for my neurosis, and paid writing gigs are very hard to get. This, plus I need to write about other topics than putting a Trump hairdo on just about every possible background, from Jesus to mushroom clouds.

So I’m introducing a new Substack called “Risky Tales.” And it’s going to be a paid subscription model. Risky Tales is going to be filled with mostly short stories about stuff that might have happened, or might not have. Things that involve flirtations with risky situations, occasionally failed companies, inventions that should never have been tried, some true. And, for the first installment, nuclear war.

I read a book titled “Nuclear War: A Scenario” by Annie Jacobsen. After finishing it, I felt there was a story worth writing, which would convey my feelings about the book. So I put it out there as the first, free, story on Risky Tales. Please read it. And if you like it, consider subscribing as a paid member of the site. No pressure here.

The pricing is simple: $5/month, $50/year (that’s $10 off), or become a Founding Member and earn my eternal gratitude for $200 (or whatever you feel like paying, within limits). And, since you’re a subscriber to The Racket News™, I’ll give you a 20% discount if you subscribe by March 17th. Click here for the discount: https://riskstories.substack.com/theracketnews

At Risky Tales, I plan to publish something once a week, for paid subscribers. And maybe once a month or so for free, but that depends on a lot of things. I am working on a serial book, and have pages and pages of outlines and background, so I might draw on that to put some stories out. Or I might write about certain events in history (or alt-history). But I will generally avoid politics or religion, or polemics. That doesn’t mean I won’t have opinions. I might do stories based on someone else’s book, which is a great way to do a book review (wouldn’t it be great to have Romeo and Juliet review Shakespeare’s plays?).

In any case, I want Risky Tales to be a site where people enjoy the same things I enjoy, except I get to write, and you get to read it. If you sign up as a Founding Member, I will be pleased to write about your own story ideas. Founders get influence. Consider it a collaboration. But it’s not about the money.

Well, yeah, it is about the money, who am I kidding? But it’s not about purely making money. There’s plenty of ways to do that, that don’t involve indulging a neurosis and obsessing over subscriber counts, and reading comments that are not so kind at times. But I do enjoy writing, and it’s time to write about things that are not The Racket News™ items.

That being said, this site is still the main place I write, because it’s important to have opinions on weighty matters, and to show that though the writers on this site don’t always agree on what needs to be done, we do agree that friendship and civility, and rational arguments, are the only way to discuss important issues. And I hope you read this site because you also agree (and for the most part, I think you do).

One day, we might do the paywall thing here. I expect it will happen, if our subscriber count keeps surging at the rate it has been lately. But for now, I’d be pleased if you’d give Risky Tales a try, and if you choose to subscribe, thank you all the more.

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