#Featured newsletters from Substack

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Featured Newsletters by Substack Mastery Boost Pilot: Episode 18

Curated Newsletters Community nominated newsletters of writers contributing to the Substack Mastery Boost, Curated Newsletters, and Magnetic Newsletter Pro publications on Medium and Substack to create synergy Non-members can read this story on our community blogs. Dear Writers and Readers, Happy Weekend, As the volunteer curation team of ILLUMINATION, we are excited to curate and feature…

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

my friend dave has an ongoing newsletter project where he surveys songs from what is to me an unfathomably broad set of genres & regional scenes and compiles a weekly CD-length mix of the stuff that sticks. one of my loose 2024 resolutions - and the only one of the "fun" ones i kept - was to listen to more new-to-me music, and keeping up (mostly) with the mixes here wound up being the main way i did that, so i thought i'd link it here in this pre-new year's window for anyone looking for a low-stakes fun resolution, or anyone who wants to diversify their listening in 2025.

it's genuinely hard for me to imagine the casual music listener for whom this project would not offer at least some broadening of perspective; any given mix is as likely to include chart-toppers from the US or korea or brazil or quite literally wherever else as it is to include experimental jazz or indie rock from the perpetual 2004 of the montreal scene; a single mix opened with "espresso" as it was rising and went on to include a four-track run of icelandic electro, polish hyperpop, francophone synth-pop, and disco-infused farsi pop, all with youtube counts in the triple digits or lower (along with "fuh spite," a raunchy trinidadian dancehall banger that was one of my favorites of the year).

you can get a taste for the breadth on display by starting with the best of 2024 post, which features, among other things, brazilian funk, alt-country, alt-pop reggaeton, mellow russian rock by an erstwhile rapper, amapiano (a south african dance genre i am passingly familiar with basically entirely thanks to this newsletter), spunky irish tween rap, pop in thai, iralian, & other languages, kesha, and, of course, slut me out 3, which, like the rap banger that made it into my spotify top 10 from a band whose name i don't know because i can't read japanese, i first encountered through dave's mixes. give it a try! it's fun!

[diaryoku]

The Writer's Toolkit

#1. Notion/Milanote

One of the most important tools for a writer is being able to stay organized. There are tons of apps for this, but I’ve found that either Milanote or Notion works best.

My recommendation:

Use Notion if: you’re writing a serial, like to keep chapters in separate documents, like spreadsheets, or complete organizational customization

Use Milanote if: you’re very visual/moodboard-based, like drag-and-drop features, and you’re not keeping a whole lot of your actual text in the app

#2. A Dictionary

Perhaps the most tried-and-true tool for a writer is the dictionary! I’m constantly using a dictionary app to double-check word meanings or to look for synonyms when I’m writing.

My personal favorite is the Dictionary.com app. Whatever app you choose, you want it to be as convenient as possible, so you can research words/definitions without disturbing the flow of your writing. I like Dictionary.com because you can easily switch between dictionary and thesaurus mode.

#3 Pinterest

Sometimes the creative well runs dry. And when that happens, I turn to my reliable old pal, Pinterest.

I keep several boards for each story:

Characters: faces, similar characters, outfits, traits

Inspiration: anything that has an intriguing element

Aesthetic: VIBES; images that match the tone of the story

World: streets, architecture, maps, important settings

Fill these boards up throughout your scrolling. Then, when you need some inspiration, you can turn back to what you’ve pinned and go from there!

#4 Google Docs

So you’ve got all the tools you need to stay organized and inspired. Time to write! Obviously any Word processor works, but my platform of choice is the infamous Google Doc. Some people hate it, but I find it very useful for writers who often write on the go or switch devices often. You can access drafts on your phone, iPad, or any laptop and pick up exactly where you left off.

I also like Google Docs’ accessibility, price (free), and the outlining features!

In case you don’t want to use Google Docs, here are a few others I’ve heard commonly used:

Microsoft Word ($140)

Scrivener ($49)

Atticus ($147)

World Anvil ($7/month)

#5 Timer App

In Haruki Murakami’s collection of essays, Novelist as a Vocation, he talks about how a “formula” to your writing routine is “absolutely crucial” to finishing a novel. For him, he breaks it up into ten pages a day. For author Anthony Trollope, he is known for his 250-words-in-15-minutes routine, which also corresponds to roughly ten pages a day.

How you choose to structure your routine is up to you, but I’ve found Trollope’s timed method really helpful in reducing perfectionism and forcing myself to just write.

So, I use a timer app (the standard Apple one is fine) to write for 15-minute chunks, aiming for 250 words. Surprisingly, I usually end up with more than that. Breaking my writing into sprints like this has become a bit of a cheat code for jumpstarting my writing process and getting the creative juices flowing.

#6 Substack

A bit of a shameless self-plug here (seeing as I write on Substack, as well), but the amount of talented writers on there that are actively sharing their writing expertise is frankly obscene. There is so much knowledge to be found on Substack, beyond your standard tech newsletters and political ramblings. There’s also FICTION (usually free!) on Substack, and writers talking about writing! All the time!

Here are a few of my favorite newsletters:

A Mug of Insights

Tales from the Triverse (Write More with Simon K Jones)

Beyond the Bookshelf

Chuck Palahniuk’s Plot Spoiler

You can also check out my Substack, where I post installments of my gothic fantasy Monster Monster every Friday!

[papenathys]

SUBSTACK ALERT!

On today's newsletter essay, I speak about nostalgia: its advantages and pitfalls, about memory-making and historical archiving, and about writing inspirations gleaned from my Bengali childhood in Kankurgachi, North Kolkata. Features an old apartment, a baby photo, a grandfather, a mad bull named Gondogol and the titular lake from my 2024 trans sapphic poetry collection, There Used to Be a Lake Here Once.

[cambriancrew]

So by the end of the year - stretch goal being by summer - we plan to have a bimonthly newsletter, tentatively titled System Scribbles, and are probably going to be doing it through substack. It will be a plurality focused writing newsletter, about our fiction and nonfiction, that of others in the community, reviews of fiction and nonfiction that features plurality, and with excerpts from the how to write a memoir as a plural system book that we're working on, and how to write plurals in fiction. Probably also interviews with other systems and maybe even researchers, if we can get any.

We plan to have one newsletter each month be free, with a small paid subscription for the second newsletter of each month that will be significantly longer and more in depth. We're thinking very cheap, like a dollar a month. No more than three. What do you all think?

[collapsedsquid]

According to Jessica Read Kraus, an “independent” journalist and self-described friend of Kennedy, the self proclaimed “Make America Healthy Again” candidate first cut contact with Nuzzi after she allegedly made a flirtatious remark two weeks after her November 2023 feature on him was published in New York. “A few weeks later, Nuzzi emailed him, asking to be unblocked, claiming she had urgent information about a hit piece being prepared against him,” Kraus alleged in a Substack newsletter to her nearly 400,000 subscribers. “He unblocked her for that conversation, but later that night, she sent him a provocative picture, prompting him to block her again.” Kraus said that for eight months, Kennedy kept Nuzzi blocked, except for when she would allegedly contact him from different email addresses and phone numbers, “insisting” they speak about “an imminent hit piece.” “Once unblocked, she bombarded him with increasingly pornographic photos and videos that he found difficult to resist,” she continued.

This woman harassed a man by continually sending him explicit pictures, a breaker of gender norms and symbol of equality between the genders. And astonishingly it worked too, truly this Says Something about society.

Or possibly the whole story was made up by a friend of RFK's to cover his ass I guess.

[mushycrouton]

TERFs Announce New Partnership with 4chan

By mushycrouton, Investigative Reporter for the Department of Unholy Alliances

In a development that has both baffled sociologists and sent irony spiraling into a coma, prominent trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) have announced a formal strategic partnership with notorious internet cesspool and meme factory, 4chan.

The alliance, unveiled at a press conference held on a blank Discord server and immediately doxxed by everyone in attendance, is being hailed by critics as “the ideological equivalent of a vegan marrying a chainsaw.”

“We may disagree on literally everything,” said self-described TERF spokesperson Judith Daggerstone, sporting a scarf made of J.K. Rowling tweets. “But we found common ground in our deep commitment to bullying transgender people and making the internet as uninhabitable as possible.”

Representatives from 4chan, many of whom prefer to speak in ASCII art and riddles, issued a joint statement via a photoshopped image of a frog screaming at a Starbucks cup.

A Collision of Contempt

Experts are calling the alliance a “catastrophic synergy” of two movements that, until recently, shared nothing but mutual disdain and an overuse of the word “biological.” TERFs, long associated with second-wave feminism, artisanal substack newsletters, and a near-religious obsession with chromosomes, had previously denounced 4chan as “a toxic male playground for anime-obsessed crypto-incels.”

Meanwhile, 4chan users had historically referred to TERFs as “the final boss of feminism,” “Karen Palpatines,” and “people who make Reddit look emotionally stable.

But according to insiders, years of shared hatred forged an unlikely détente.

“It was beautiful,” said one anonymous 4chan user who goes by the screen name CisH3ll_Rider. “They posted a badly cropped infographic about how ‘gender isn’t real’ and we were like, ‘Damn. Same.’”

Rebranding Hate with Retro Fonts

To commemorate the merger, the two groups unveiled a joint logo: a flaming lavender biohazard symbol wrapped in barbed wire, with the tagline “Oppression, But Make It Retrograde.”

They also launched a new website, BiologicalFacts.biz, which features:

A chatbot trained on 1990s biology textbooks and the comments section of The Times of London

A merchandise store selling tote bags that say “Gender is a construct (but only yours)”

A 12-part podcast series hosted by a former feminist scholar and a man who thinks The Matrix was a documentary

The site crashed within hours, not due to traffic, but because someone tried to code it using Excel.

Collaboration in Action

Since the partnership, TERF forums and 4chan threads have been working together seamlessly to develop cutting-edge bigotry and digital gaslighting tools.

Some highlights include:

The TERFchan™ Meme Forge, where aging boomers contribute text and 4chan teens provide pixelated rage comics.

Operation Bio-Real, an ill-conceived campaign to sneak biology textbooks into drag shows.

Project MisgenderBot, an AI trained to correct pronouns in Wikipedia articles using Morse code and passive aggression.

There are even rumors of a themed live event tentatively titled “Womyn Fest: No Pronouns, No Peace”, with guest speakers ranging from fringe academic grifters to banned Twitter accounts with anime avatars and emotionally distant fathers.

Critics React: “This is Peak Internet”

Reaction to the alliance has been swift and unrelenting. Civil rights organizations have condemned the partnership as “a hate crime with a business model.” Feminist groups across the spectrum have disavowed the TERFs involved, stating:

“Radical feminism is about dismantling patriarchy, not applying it selectively like Instagram filters.”

Meanwhile, Reddit users attempted to mount a counter-movement but got distracted by a debate over oat milk.

Dr. Beatrix Norn, a political theorist and specialist in Extremist Internet Collaborations, offered insight:

“This is a textbook example of ideological horseshoe theory: two diametrically opposed groups meeting at the far ends of logic and decency, fusing into something that somehow manages to be both self-righteous and deeply online.”

Inside the Discord Server

Journalists gained access to a leaked Discord server titled #TERFchan_StrategyLair, where users discussed topics such as “how to make bullying look like feminism,” “are facts transphobic if we shout them?”, and “can you be gender-critical and still stan BTS?”

One user named RadFemRemington posted:

“We’re finally being taken seriously. Even if it’s by teenagers who think women’s rights peaked with Lara Croft’s original polygonal boob physics.”

Another replied:

“L + misogyny + cope.”

A Union Destined to Implode?

While the alliance is currently thriving in a grotesque sort of harmony, most analysts agree that it’s unlikely to last. Tensions are already brewing over key issues like whether women can exist without baking sourdough and if anime counts as a political philosophy.

4chan operatives have reportedly started inserting anime trans girls into TERF memes just to “see what happens,” while TERF leaders have begun compiling a blocklist so long it now includes most of the planet.

“Eventually,” said Dr. Norn, “one side is going to realize the other doesn’t actually care about women at all, and the other will realize they’ve allied with someone who uses the term ‘AFAB’ like it’s a slur.”

Until then, however, the internet will continue to reel from this collision of vitriol and irony.

Stay tuned for the next press release: a potential three-way alliance with Bitcoin evangelists.

Filed under: Hate Collabs, Internet Dark Matter, Feminism But Make It Hostile

© mushycrouton 2025 – All contradictions reserved

[larissa-the-scribe]

Hey! I'm looking into potentially starting a newsletter for writing related stuff, do you have any advice on where to start?

Yeah, for sure!

So, I'll be dividing this response into several parts: the technical details, the content details, and the growing details. (disclaimer that I am by no means an expert, this is just stuff I've learned and/or observed and/or heard about)

Also sorry this is so long adfasdasdadfa it kept building on itself

The important thing throughout, though, is to have fun and be yourself. I'm only partially joking.

Technical details:

So what program do you use? How and why? Personally, my criteria for this was pretty simple: what was the cheapest but still functional option, and/or what option offered the best features for free (without being overcomplicated)?

The answer to this will vary depending on what you want to do. For example, Substack, from what I know, seems good; it's free, simple, straightforward. However, I wanted extra features that Substack didn't provide (automation sequences,* landing pages, etc), and so for me the best fit was Mailerlite. As far as I know, it's the only free option that offers automation, and besides that it seems like it has all the features I'd need. No need to pay until 1,000 subscribers, and after that it's still one of the cheaper options.

Some other possibilities include Mailchimp (though their pricing system can get a bit wonky), Brevo, Sendpulse, ConvertKit, HubSpot and like a gazillion others.

Basically, figure out what features you need/want, and go from there, but personally I'd recommend MailerLite. It can be a bit clunky at times, but overall I've found it more intuitive than Mailchimp, and it has a handy assortment of free features.

Honorable mention: Canva is a free service for graphic design, and that can be helpful for setting up any backgrounds or banners you might need.

*["automation sequence" refers to emails you can set up to send automatically without you needing to do extra manual work. For example, if someone signs up for your newsletter, you can set that up as the "trigger" for a sequence of emails that will deliver a freebie to the new subscriber, give them information, welcome them, etc, without you having to remember to do it every time someone new shows up].

Content details:

One of the other big questions that you'll have to answer for a newsletter is 'what am I going to be talking about for the next forever?'

An idea of how to start brainstorming is to sketch out broad categories, and then once you figure those out, see how many related ideas you can list out for each category (say, if you want to write about book publishing, how many topics or details can you cover?). If you can't list more than like 10-15 ideas for a shortish "post" off the top of your head, you may want to look at a different category.

Also, one of the best ways to answer this question is by asking the follow-up question of "what do I want to talk about for the next forever?" If you don't like writing about a topic, it's going to be an absolute chore, and the less you like doing something, the more of a drain that will be on your time and mental resources. And it will be harder to think of things to talk about. Don't worry about what you should write. That's a trap and only helpful in select cases.

So, what can you talk about and what do you want to talk about?

If that's still a lot of topics, you can ask people for their opinions on what they'd most be interested in hearing about, and in general asking 'the audience' for questions can also be a good way to find content ideas.

You'll also want to find a way to talk about your books regularly, too, since you're trying to cultivate an audience that will enjoy the stories you tell. That can be sharing snippets, updates, or even just talking a lot about similar types of books and have a line at the end of "if you liked--" etc.

What I do is I have three categories: 'updates', 'recommendations', and 'content'. Updates is behind-the-scenes stuff of the progress I've made on my creative projects (and a personal touch of things from my non-work life); recommendations is all about other peoples' books, with reviews, collaborations, and such; and content is a serial story I kinda designed for the email format (semi-inspired by podcast stories). I like talking about my projects (and that also makes the audience aware of and invested in my projects), I like reading and talking about books, and I like writing stories and am fairly fast at writing individual scenes. All three of my chosen categories are things I like to do with a lot of options for content, and that makes it easier to work on it regularly.

A lot of marketing-type people will also bring up that what you're sharing needs to 'bring value' to the audience, so that people will want to open your email; but that's really broad, and the 'value' you bring can just be... entertainment. It can be fun to hear someone talk about something they like (or dislike, depending). So like, it's a consideration (you don't want to just be saying "buy my book" over and over again, you want to be giving back to people), but also it is not that deep.

Also! Don't be afraid to talk about stuff you're 'selling'. As long as that's not most of what you ever talk about, people normally don't mind--and also, how else will they know.

Also also: You will want to figure out an upload schedule that you can stick to. Typically, you want to find the sweet spot between 'regular enough that those who signed up don't forget you exist and unsubscribe because they can't remember who you are' and 'spamming.' That can be anything from once a week to once a month. Conventional wisdom states that you don't want to go longer than a month without sending an email, but there can be exceptions.

Addition to the schedule idea: I've found it helpful to figure out a consistent routine so I'm working on my newsletter regularly, and don't have to panic-write an email the night before sending out. I try to work on my next email for 10-15 minutes a day as kind of my warm up for other writing stuff. Sometimes I really need that time every day, sometimes the consistent schedule means I finish early and don't have to worry about the next email for a bit. You could also try dedicating a day a week to focusing on the email versus your story, etc. Basically, play around with it until you can fit it into your schedule in a way that works for you.

[DISCLAIMER: I have a "category three" content system with more or less weekly updates, and I landed on that because I am an over-achiever who can't make up my mind on a thing to focus on. You do not have to make my mistakes. You can just focus on One Thing and do it like every two weeks or something. That would probably be a good idea for starting out]

Growing details:

Then..... the other hard part (on top of the other hard parts lol). You have a newsletter now. How do you get people to join and follow you?

Well, some sites/services make it easier. For example, currently I'm with StoryOrigin, which is a service that allows you to do newsletter swaps with other authors (they promote your book, you promote their book, etc). This does require you to have some kind of "reader magnet," though--that could be a paid one, like your book, but those can be harder to find swaps/followers for, etc. Another similar platform is Bookfunnel, I think, though I don't know much about them (I did research once upon a time but that was Ages ago and I have ADHD lol)

[Disclaimer: I linked to both, but the link for StoryOrigin is an affiliate link, which just means I get something if you go with them. But I do legitimately recommend them]

The downside to both of those is that they are paid. StoryOrigin is 100$ a year, and Bookfunnel is 20-250$ a year. Bookfunnel has a more tiered system, and StoryOrigin has one price and you get everything.

Now, you might find that to be a worthwhile expense, but it is nonetheless an expense. It also isn't a magic way to get your book promoted; sorting through the different groups and swaps takes time, and it takes even more time if you do what I do and try and read anything you swap with (you don't have to do that, and most people don't; you can usually get by with some quick research), but I have chronic "what if I recommended the worst thing ever" disease, so.

However, while SO doesn't magically solve your problems, it does offer steady growth. I only properly started using their services in September, and I'm up to 215 subscribers. I'm also taking it fairly slow; I keep a tighter limit on my swaps (I don't want to spam readers with options, since I make a larger space to talk about the swaps), but I know other authors do like five swaps/groups at a time (basically just sharing the cover), and that can make you grow a lot faster. It kind of is what you make of it, but also it's still going to take patience and effort.

Other methods of growing your newsletter subscriber count: growing a following on social media and hoping that translates with landing pages and promotion and the like; directly contacting other authors you might know to do a swap; doing guest appearances on podcasts or blogs etc to get yourself better known; and most of all, be very patient, and be willing to make mistakes until you get good (those last are for any form of newsletter growth, tbh). I've, uh, only ever done the one way, so this part isn't as good as it could be.

NOTE: Feel free to experiment. You might not get it right the first time. You might need to drastically change your content to something you enjoy more, if you find out that your idea didn't work as well as you'd hoped. That's okay! Now's the time to learn and figure out, when you still have a small audience. Also, I've found that as long as you communicate with people, they tend to be pretty forgiving.

OTHER NOTE: While newsletters typically have a higher "return on investment" than regular social media, you're still going to be dealing with less numbers than you might think. For example, a good, healthy mailing list will have like 60% of people actually opening the email; more often it's about 50%. That doesn't mean you're doing anything wrong (actually it means you're doing well), it just means that the further you expand, the more you're going to get normal people who forget to open emails.

Other things to consider:

What email are you going to use for email list?

Typically, it's recommended that, if possible, you try and get a domain name email (connected to a website), because that will make it seem more legitimate and help it get through peoples' spam filters. Using something like gmail, since it's so easy to get an email from them, is associated with spam and as such it might have a higher rate of being blocked/flagged as spam. Getting a domain name email is a whole other can of worms, but it is something that should be considered. You can also start with gmail and then switch later once you have a more stable platform, but switching things like that can be difficult/a pain depending on what all is going on.

(also I think MailerLite requires you to have a domain name email?? I can't remember. But that it is another thing to consider when looking for an email provider)

Reader magnet?

This would probably go in the "growth" section, but basically--what extra incentive/reason do you have for people to sign up to your letter? That can be a short story or a guide or a piece of art or whatever, but it is helpful to have something to pique peoples' curiosity. Also, it's a good way to present what you have to offer in terms of setting their expectations for type of story, quality of writing/content, your knowledge of a subject, etc. And you tend to get more subscribers this way than if you don't have anything to share upfront.

YouTube:

Mailing List Research is a playlist of all the videos I looked at when researching. There are. a lot of them with varying degrees of quality and helpfulness, and it's a pretty messy overall. But there's some helpful stuff in there on a variety of mailing list topics. I was going to pick out the best ones but unfortunately I can't remember which those were. I think I removed the worst ones, though.

Podcast suggestion:

For marketing in general (and Instragram), it might be worth checking out Book Marketing Simplified (by Jenn Hanson-dePaula). She covers a variety of topics, and since she basically has a few core principles that she keeps coming back to, it can get repetitive after a while, but she's a good starting place. She has some episodes on email marketing and ideas for doing that.

Joanna Penn is another podcaster people talk a lot about, but the few episodes of hers I listened to were pretty supportive of AI so I got miffed asdfasdfas I should probably give her another go because I still have a lot to learn about everything, but I might go back to some of her older ones, pre-AI, if I do lol

If you'd want more resources, I could go digging more, but a lot of what I've used to learn has gotten scattered over the years, or is like a single episode from a longer podcast series, etc.

[mariacallous]

Black Friday is not just about cheap TVs, cut price gaming consoles, and saving money on laptops; it’s also about getting a bargain on Faraday cages to stop 5G from melting your brain, grabbing a great deal on biblically inspired diet pills, and securing that hot-pink T-shirt with a picture of president-elect Donald Trump on the front.

This year, far-right extremists, MAGAworld, and conspiracists are all jumping on the Black Friday bandwagon to try and persuade their followers to buy untested health supplements, unfunny novelty mugs, and guns—lots and lots of guns.

Rather than advertising on mainstream online marketplaces offered by sites including Google or Facebook, these groups are targeting their audience where they live, on fringe and alternative online platforms with little or no moderation. Spaces like Gab, a white-supremacist-friendly social network run by a christian nationalist. Or Telegram, where election deniers and neo-Nazi groups happily sit side-by-side despite new privacy changes being introduced this year. And of course,Trump’s own Truth Social, where his most devoted followers can be found.

Gab and Truth Social did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Telegram spokesperson Remi Vaughn said that ads placed through the Telegram Ads platform are vetted before they are shown.

For those feeling a little drained after Thanksgiving, alternative health company Exodus Strong is offering discounts on a dietary supplement which has “7 Biblically-inspired ingredients and a molecular hydrogen generating blend that optimize your Mind and Body to function the way God intended.” The tablets, which are currently being advertised up to 60 percent off on Truth Social, include, among other biblical ingredients, frankincense and myrrh. Those who purchase one of these supplements will even get a free gift: a prayer plan.

Undermining the boasts about the product slightly, however, is the disclaimer on the company’s own website that reads: “These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Launched just in time for Black Friday, the new online store from right-wing YouTube-alternative Rumble features a who’s who of conspiracy theorists and conservative agitators on its front page, including Trump confidante Laura Loomer and underpants-wearing baptiser Russell Brand.

The store itself is a cornucopia of unimagined gems, everything from Faraday cages for your phone to stop 5G melting your brain, to nuclear fallout preparedness kits for the bargain price of $349. Rumble did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Many far-right and conspiracy newsletters and subscription services are offering huge discounts to lock in their audiences for the next 12 months. Gab for example is offering 50 percent discounts on yearly subscriptions to its AI service, whose racist chatbots have been trained to deny the Holocaust.

An antisemitic Irish blogger who is a close ally of white supremacist Nick Fuentes is offering 40 percent off his Substack subscriptions directly to his existing readers, showing that the effort to cash in on Black Friday hype is not limited to extremists in the US.

By far the most popular Black Friday ads on these platforms are from gun manufacturers, who are offering huge discounts on everything from high-powered rifles to a pink “no drill cheek rest” for your scoped long gun. (The “MAGA Patriot,” a Trump-themed AR-15 that was created in the wake of the president-elect surviving an assassination attempt by the same gun, is not discounted for Black Friday.)

Some of these promotions are simply flogging pro-MAGA paraphernalia. On Truth Social, Fox News host Sean Hannity is promoting the Black Friday deals available in his own merch store. From coffee cups with the phrase “leftist tears” to a “Daddy’s Home” T-shirt featuring a picture of Trump in front of the White House wearing a hot-pink jacket, Hannity has something for all tastes—as long as those tastes align with a pro-Trump, MAGA, Christian nationalist view of America.

For those Trump supporters who may be missing the glory days of 2020 when they could come together online to rage against the voting machines for stealing the election, conspiracy group Audit the Vote PA has got you covered with a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “election denier,” advertised on Gab.

And the biggest election denier of them all, pillow salesman Mike Lindell, is, of course, having a massive Black Friday sale. The man who has sponsored huge swathes of the far-right media ecosystem with promotional codes for the last four years is now offering a two-pack of “We the People” pillow covers for just $25.

On these alternative platforms, discussions about Black Friday are not only about getting 50 percent off “Make Christmas Great Again” T-shirts. Those promotions are interspersed with incredibly antisemitic and racist posts about the day, including several featuring children in black face.

Some users of Gab and Truth Social are also pushing back against Black Friday, calling out the “deranged libtards who turn into dangerous NCPs” during the event (misspelling NPC, which is used to describe someone who is predictable or robotic.) Others insist they are “boycotting Black Friday” because it’s a cash grab by the globalist elite.

And of course, conspiracies are never far away.

One user on Trump’s Truth Social, who calls themselves “Trust the Plan” (spelled like trusttheplqn), believes they have uncovered a secret message in one store’s Black Friday promotional material based on “intel” provided by another Truth Social account called Entheos. The conspiracy theory centers on the store promoting a “storewide blackout” for Black Friday, which “Trust the Plan” believes is code for something sinister taking place, though they fail to say exactly what this is.

“Black friday is on the 29th, but their sale starts on 27th (date that Entheos gave). And why would there be a ‘blackout storewide’ for black friday? You want complete opposite of a blackout...so people can actually shop.”

For others however, the situation appears much more dire. One Gab poster shared an article from a conspiracy site discussing a “global escalation” on Friday. The piece suggests that recent comments by Russian president Vladimir Putin related to launching a nuclear strike signal a looming apocalypse. “Stay Armed, Stay Safe, Patriots,” the poster wrote on Gab.

[mehmetyildizmelbourne-blog]

Featured Newsletters by Substack Mastery Boost Pilot: Episode 17

Curated Newsletters Community nominated newsletters of writers contributing to the Substack Mastery Boost, Curated Newsletters, and Magnetic Newsletter Pro publications on Medium and Substack to create synergy Non-members can read this story on our community blogs. Dear Writers and Readers, Happy February, We, as the volunteer curation team of ILLUMINATION, are excited to curate and feature…

[mooglebunny]

why I keep thinking about 2006

(from my Substack newsletter, Molly's Love Letter)

Someone once said that being 10 years old is the peak of our lives, that it doesn’t get better than that. I can’t remember who said this—Darren Aronofsky? Truman Capote?—but I have found there is some real truth to it. I tried to look it up and couldn’t find it, but I did find this relevant Capote quote:

“Past certain ages or certain wisdoms it is very difficult to look with wonder; it is best done when one is a child; after that, and if you are lucky, you will find a bridge to childhood and walk across it.”

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. This runaway train of thought was fueled in part by The Artist’s Way: Week 3, which asked me to note my favorite childhood toy (dolls), game (dress-up, monkey bars), and foods (Walker’s prawn cocktail crisps and paté sandwiches (?!)). And then there were my artist’s dates spent reading old issues of Teen Vogue and remembering not only cultural trivia, but also certain cultural—and personal—moods.

When I was 10, I was in 6th grade. The year was 2006. I spent my evenings rooting for Paris Bennett on American Idol and then trying to get Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” out of my head. There was also “Promiscuous” and “SexyBack,” and Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy,” and the premieres of Hannah Montana and Ugly Betty…

This month, to harness my tweenage nostalgia, I rewatched a 2007 episode of Gossip Girl and listened to 2006 Britpop and Ameripop albums like Lily Allen’s Alright, Still and Fergie’s The Duchess. Each of these cultural artifacts was like a portal into a world I had not truly thought about for at least a decade.

As I dug into all these sentimental pieces of media, I started thinking more about who I was when I was younger—someone free-spirited, enthusiastic, imaginative, goofy, eccentric, whimsical. Someone who wrote freely on my garage-sale typewriter about orphans and spies and talking cows and overweight cats doing ballet. I didn’t overthink or question my writing or compare it to that of Joan Didion or even think about other people reading it at all. I was in my own little world, playing, for the joy of it.

Cut to a decade later: After taking a semester-long writing workshop in Chicago at age 19, I stopped writing fiction. Since then, another decade has passed—one spent writing primarily for other people, lifestyle features for medical websites and branded content for luxury liquor labels.

More and more throughout this decade, I have been wondering why I’ve had creative-writer’s block for 10-plus years, when I used to spend hours a day playing make-believe through my writing. While thinking about this recently, I thought about how I had gone through puberty and internalized a narrow idea of who I “should” be in order to be “cool” or attractive. I realized there was some truthful connection between the loss of my childhood creativity and my adolescent foray into the world of hormones and vodka and boys and Skins. As I moved into my teens, writing weird, whimsical stories—or made-up stories at all—started to seem childish to me, or delusional somehow. I found myself spending less time in my vivid imagination and more in my (self-)conscious mind. This self-consciousness stifled my ability to play.

Not to get all Peter Pan Syndrome and start rambling about the Good Old Days and how “when you grow up you lose your wings” or whatever—referencing, of course, these quotes from J.M. Barrie’s Victorian-era plays and novels:

“Why can’t you fly now, Mother?” “Because I am grown up, dearest. When people grow up they forget the way.” “The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease for ever to be able to do it.”

It’s just that, as someone who prides myself on my elephantine memory, I was alarmed by how much of the stuff I used to wholeheartedly love I hadn’t given much thought to in almost two decades. And the reason I hadn’t thought about it was because somewhere along the way I deemed it “uncool,” or else not in alignment with a certain identity I had created for myself. Said identity may have been more digestible to whatever dude I was crushing on or dating at the time or to strangers on social media or to my own ego, but it was a dilution and a flattening and a boxing-in of who I was. I denied myself the complexity of being a full human being who can love both Ariana Grande and Tom Waits, both Gossip Girl and Twin Peaks, both Teen Vogue and Tolstoy.

The result of this self-denial was that it not only obscured my true self from the people around me, but it obscured me from myself. I think that’s what growing up can do to a lot of us: We start trying to define and explain and justify ourselves to the world. We start to compartmentalize things, to label them as “babyish” or “basic” or “nerdy” or “girly” or whatever else. This hides parts of us in the shadows, and keeps us from being free and expressive and whole.The Olsen twins: Style icons then and now.

Sure, 2006 wasn’t a wholly wholesome time. Toxic trends (Perez Hilton, fat shaming) ran rampant. But the Internet had a simpler and less central role in the culture then: Facebook wasn’t made available to the public until that September; iPhones weren’t launched until the following June; and YouTube revolved—at least in my own consciousness—around silly videos like Charlie the Unicorn, Fred Figglehorn, and “Shoes. Oh my God, shoes.” Today, most of the content I see on YouTube comes from lifestyle vloggers pushing products or podcasters preaching self-optimization strategies. Teen Vogue has gone digital and political. Hyper-“connection” has made us more individualistic and censorious as a society. Culture, not just age, has made the world feel heavier.Blake Lively and Leighton Meester in Gossip Girl (2007)

So why am I thinking about that time so much? Why am I watching The O.C. and reading back issues of Teen Vogue and listening to tracks produced by Timbaland? It’s because doing so reminds me in small but mighty ways of who I was—who I am—beyond any self-consciousness about projecting a certain curated, “correct,” and clear-cut image to the world. It’s fun to look back and feel 10 years old again. It reclaims the parts of me I had rejected for being too corny or cheesy or geeky or goofy. It builds that bridge Capote wrote about, the one back to childlike wonder and creativity.

A lot has changed within and around me since 2006. And one day I’m sure I’ll be looking back at 2024 through this same wistful, rosy haze. But today, I look at and listen to these cultural relics with the same ears and eyes I did 18 years ago, and I am reminded what it felt like to be free, to express rather than impress, to explore and play with wonder and delight. Thinking about 2006 reminds me how to fly. ♡

(from my Substack newsletter, Molly's Love Letter)

[hyba]

Heya! I'm trying to join the newsletter and I'm kind of confused by the thing with the google group and joining the group and how I want to get emails... ( I fear this will turn other people off too). Have you thought about maybe doing a newsletter over mailerlite or even substack?

Hola! Thank you so much for reaching out <3 I realize that I never talked fully about why I chose to go the GG route, so I'm taking this as an opportunity to do that, and I hope you don't mind.

For the first part of your Q:

The way that the Google Group thing works is just that you join it and then you're good to go! You don't ever need to go back to that page again if you don't want to. You'll receive the emails (newsletters) just by being a member of the group. It's basically the same functionality as a normal newsletter. (With the caveat that it requires a google account, I believe.)

Screenshots under the cut of what it looks like to get a newsletter from the Google Group.

For the second part of your Q:

My answer got a little long and probably way outside the scope of your Q, so here's a TLDR in case you don't want to hear the Origin Story lol:

I'm trying this out partly as an experiment, but I'm giving it a genuine run, especially since it works exactly the same from the reader's POV. Unless it proves to be disastrous (and it very well may be if most people let me know they aren't joining specifically because it's GG), I may keep this newsletter for a year or more. Ideally when my subscriber count gets big enough, I'll move to a "better" newsletter app which has more features for analytics and such, or give Substack a go because I've also had my eye on that (thanks for reminding me of it!). I did at some point have a TinyLetter but I didn't feel very satisfied with it, and maybe that was just because I also just wasn't using it how it was meant to be used (my fault for sure).

But my number of newsletter subscribers is low (ilyasm <3) and I feel that if there will ever be a time I can try something like this out, it's now. It might be an absolutely terrible idea, but I won't know for sure until I give it a go, right? ^^'

Now onto the aforementioned Origin Story. There are 4 main reasons I chose to work with a GG as a newsletter. (If you're interested at all by the idea of a GG as a newsletter, this might also be of interest to you.)

1: It looks the same from the subscriber side of things.

I signed up to it with a personal email and this is what it looks like to get a newsletter from it:

This is what it looks like inside (I did zero formatting for this trial email haha):

And at the bottom you do have a link to unsubscribe (you also have that up above, if you noticed). For newsletter subscribers that only want to engage via email, that's all there is to it.

But for anyone who wants to engage on the GG, at the bottom there's also a link to see the Conversation (newsletter post) on the GG, which takes you to a page like this:

Normally, it should be set up so that everyone can reply to a newsletter post. Right now, none of the members have posting permissions, simply because there are some issues with that (see below), so the Conversation part of things is limited.

Anyway, the fact that it works the same for subscribers as any other newsletter was the most important thing to me, because whatever happens in the background, I didn't want the experience to be so alien to subscribers that they just Nope away from it. Granted, the first step of signing up is different enough that, as you pointed out, some people will still be turned off by it, but that can't be helped as I can't change the mechanics of the sign-up.

...That I know of. Will keep digging.

2: I was intrigued by the Conversation features in GG.

I thought it meant readers would be able to reply both privately to me (we've tested this and they can) - a functionality most newsletters provide - and publicly to each other in a forum-type way (turns out, this is problematic for many reasons, the biggest of which is that it could be a nuisance to get an email every time someone replies to someone, but there are a variety of other issues there, like the fact that anyone can post anything and it would send - like a newsletter - to all subscribers, so that's not a feature I'm using).

3: I wanted to know why more writers aren't using it in this way.

GG is a free app connected to your Google account. Lots of writers work with Google Docs, share their stuff through Google Drive, organize their writing using Google Sheets, collect beta reader feedback via Google Forms, and so on.

So I thought, why isn't anyone using GG as a newsletter, especially when starting out? It felt almost like a logical step to me, despite the obvious lack of analytics and other features (CTR, automated emails sent out to new subscribers, etc.). It could still function as a newsletter, so why was nobody even considering it?

Again, it'll probably end up being not the best idea, but I think I'll at least try it out before I make up my own mind about it.

4: It keeps your inbox clean & acts as an archive.

So, once you've read a newsletter, you might delete it. A few months later, you might realise, Oh, I could actually really use that resource Hyba linked in that one newsletter email... which I deleted! No worries; head on over to the GG and all the newsletters are listed there, like an archive. I found that to be a nifty feature, so I just thought I'd throw that in there. ^^

Although, I'm not sure how retroactive it is. As in - if you join now, can you see all the past posts I ever made on the GG? In other words, do you have access to all the past newsletters from before you subscribed? Hopefully someone will let me know, haha.

I also tried deleting conversations to see if that notifies people (it doesn't) and if people can still reply to the email that was sent with that post (the post was too old and nobody had it on email lol, so jury's still out on that one).

Major Cons so Far

No analytics other than how many reads a conversation/post (newsletter) has gotten. That's alright, but I have no idea how many people are clicking through on the links and such, so that's not the best thing for someone trying to grow as an author.

No automated email that is sent out to new subscribers. It would be cool to be able to create a Welcome to the Newsletter post and set it so that it can send as an email to every new subscriber, but that's not an option. Unfortunately, if you're a new subscriber, you've got radio silence until the end of the month, when the next newsletter comes out ^^' I'm not too sure if new subscribers can see older posts directly on the GG (any new subscribers out there willing to chip in?), but that might be a potential workaround.

Confusing and limited 'conversation' feature. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a lot of info about how to fiddle around with the settings and only allow members to reply to posts instead of giving them the permission to also make posts. I also would prefer that if there is a reply to a post, it doesn't then send out an email notification to everyone that a reply has been made. This is purely for the 'community' side of things on the GG, not something that alters the way the newsletter as a newsletter works. But it was one of the selling points for me to give GG a go, so I'm still fiddling around with it in hopes that I can make it work.

Anyway, lots of troubleshooting, lots of interesting things to check out, still giving it a go, some mistakes might be made, and definitely it will turn some people off for sure, since it's markedly different in many ways. However, I hope that beyond that, people will realize that it's the same thing as any other newsletter at heart.

If it definitely bothers a potential subscriber and it's a total deal-breaker, then that's definitely a bummer for me, too, but as I said before, I'm not thinking of it as a permanent newsletter solution.

[lindira]

Meet our final main character from The Fall Before Flight: Everest Naught!

Orphans without a family name are considered "little nothings", and Everest is no different. Having never known his parents, he is "naught" but a slip of a child, almost forgotten in a Talavran orphanage. He is often bullied by the larger children in the orphanage and longs for a friend and a way out of his dismal life. Everest is intelligent, lonely, and desperately ambitious.

The Fall Before Flight is an epic fantasy novel celebrating oral tradition and featuring a unique magic system. It’s available for preorder now on ebook, with paperback incoming. Launching July 30th!

Subscribe to my Substack newsletter and get early access to the first 3 chapters, free!

💻 Website

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🦋 Bluesky

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Zach W. Lambert and Amy Lambert at Public Theology:

Several weeks ago, Chron religion reporter Eric Killelea asked if we could set up a call to discuss progressive Christianity in Texas and how it relates to politics in the lone star state. I was obviously interested and we set a date. Just a few minutes into that call, I found myself explaining the intersection of conservative politics and evangelical church affiliation, and why I receive such vitriol online from people that, from the outside looking in, should see me as one of their own.

I’ve lived in Texas my whole life. I grew up in a Southern Baptist megachurch and once served as the personal intern to a former SBC President. I know the ins and outs, the motivations and fears, and more insider information than most. Like most of the members of our church and those who connect with my work online, I’ve been kicked out of churches, cut off by former friends and family, and told I’m going to hell (and taking my congregation with me).

So why do I do it?

Are Texas churches safe for liberal Christians?

By Eric Killelea, Religion Reporter at the Chron

[December 13, 2024]

"I'd be lying if I said this is how I wanted the election to go, and I'd be lying if I pretended like I'm ok right now." So began an X post from Texas Pastor Zach Lambert of Restore Austin Church two days after Donald Trump secured his win in the 2024 election and his second term in the White House. Lambert, a 36-year-old political progressive, has quickly gained popularity among Christian Democrats throughout Texas for speaking out against the religious conservatives who helped prop up the now president-elect. Lambert believes many far-right politicians and powerful religious leaders statewide have misused and misquoted the Bible to campaign for Trump, to pass restrictive abortion laws and to attack the rights of immigrants and transgender people across Texas. Lambert faced online criticism and death threats after announcing on social media last month that he cast a ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris. Despite the backlash, he's continued to release new messages on social media and through his Substack newsletter "Public Theology" to stay engaged with political debates. "I don't have all the answers, but I have a few ideas on how we move forward," Lambert wrote on X.

Zach W. Lambert was recently interviewed in the Houston Chronicle about how safe Progressive Christians are in churches following the 2024 elections.

[inexplicablymine]

Hello Beas!! I would like to know more about “Models do indeed have brains”??

Yes!! So very happy to give you more on this one Sara, so models do indeed have brains is a formula something like this

Alex is a world famous model ~ think Lucky Blue in his hayday, if Cindy Crawford, Iman, Linda Evangelista, and Naomi Campbell all decided to have an even more famous male protégé ~ that is Alexander Claremont-Díaz. Famously dropped out of college after being scouted from the background of some accidentally viral street photo. He had the looks but word on the street is there is nothing in his brain.

Henry Fox, of the Mountchristen-Fox media empire, is an English literature major’s wet dream walking. With a few anthologies of poems, three global best sellers, and now working on some fourth secret project, he is the global media darling of the family’s booming empire ~ of which they own a stake (majority of course) in most major magazines. The very magazines that Alex is featured on so often.

Henry thinks Alex has nothing going on, and is happy to keep up their more than satisfactory fling if it means getting his rocks off with someone that attractive never mind that he doesn’t stick around enough afterwards to even know if Alex can put 2+2 together.

Instead Henry languishes the days away reading Gabriel D’s Substack, an up and coming newsletter that has more subscribers than most traditional news media conglomerates and nobody even knows who he is.

Henry has been tasked with getting in contact to buy/bring Gabriel’s blog into the fold and he is having a moment about it.

The thing is… Alex never dropped out of college, he has a masters degree from Columbia and a Law degree and has been running a substack newsletter so popular it is starting to rival some of his modeling contracts.

Now we have a mistaken identity AU of bumbling epic proportions, established FWB no friends involved, and a lot of FUN to be had

If you would like to ask about one of my badly explained WIP’s my inbox is open!!

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

Biden heads to Florida

April 20, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

President Biden will be heading to Florida next week as that state’s most infamous resident is otherwise detained in a Manhattan courtroom. Biden will arrive in Florida one week before the state’s six-week abortion ban goes into effect. The President will deliver a speech that focuses on abortion access, a topic that has rarely served as the main subject of a Biden speech. See Politico, Biden to deliver abortion-focused speech in Florida.

Over the last two decades, Biden has been a strong advocate for women’s reproductive rights. He has advocated for those rights despite his deep devotion to a religion that teaches abortion is wrong. As described in Politico,

Biden’s addressing of abortion head-on is also significant, as the devout Catholic has often displayed discomfort with the issue. Instead, he’s regularly leaned on other messengers, including Vice President Kamala Harris and women who have been directly affected, to argue for abortion rights. His campaign has released several testimonial-style ads that feature women sharing personal stories about abortion.

The dichotomy between Biden’s personal beliefs and political stance has resulted in criticism of Biden among some abortion rights groups. Biden re-ignited those concerns when he skipped over the word “abortion” in his State of the Union address and instead emphasized restoring Roe v. Wade and protecting IVF and pregnancy-related emergency healthcare.

The Biden campaign is expanding the debate to include all aspects of reproductive rights to bring “pro-life” Republicans and independents into the 2024 Democratic coalition. For example, The Guardian reported that anti-abortion laws have prompted emergency rooms to refuse treatment to women experiencing pregnancy-related medical emergencies—a healthcare crisis that affects all women without regard to their beliefs about reproductive liberty. See The Guardian, Rise in pregnant women turned away from US emergency rooms, papers show.

By going to Florida to address the imminent six-week abortion ban, Biden is stepping into the breach as Floridians are supporting an initiative to amend Florida’s constitution to protect abortion rights. See Florida Amendment 4, Right to Abortion Initiative (2024) - Ballotpedia. 

A 60% super-majority is required to pass the initiative to amend Florida’s constitution. Current polling shows that 57% of likely voters in Florida support the initiative to include abortion rights in the state constitution. But 78% of Democrats in Florida support the initiative, demonstrating that turnout will be the deciding factor. See Nearly three in five registered voters in Florida favor expanding abortion access via ballot measure | Ipsos.

As I noted at the beginning of this week, I will attempt to keep attention focused on President Biden’s activities so that Trump's trial in Manhattan does not overshadow Biden’s accomplishments and campaign activities. A reader recommended a new Substack newsletter, What Did Joe Biden Do Today? It is well-written and informative. I have subscribed to the What Did Joe Biden Do Today newsletter. Check it out!

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]