G.M. Nair's Excuse For A Newsletter #12

Lots of Stuff to Cover In This One

It’s been a while since my last real newsletter. #11 doesn’t count, because apparently no one listened to the political advice provided in an esoteric e-mail newsletter with less than 600 subscribers and 3 actual readers. Regardless, I’ve built up a few things since then that I thought I should put out there. So strap in, this might be a long one!

Anyway, the first thing you’ll probably notice is that I migrated my newsletter from Substack to Beehiiv, which doesn’t really mean anything for any of you, but I was told by the internet that Substack was full of Nazis and I needed to change. As I like to avoid Nazis as a general rule (one that gets more difficult to adhere to with each passing day), I went ahead and made the switch - much like my switch from Twitter/X to BlueSky (update your address books folks).

But as the wide internet spaces of post-web 2.0 become more infested with the sorts of abhorrent villains you might find in an episode of Captain Planet, the options are going to get slimmer and slimmer. It also looks like BeeHiiv is adding AI writing features so who knows how long until the Internet Mob decides this place is shit and we need to move on to the next thing, because if you don’t you’re literally Satan. But, at that point I’ll be worn down to where I wouldn’t have the energy to move to another brand new service with some other stupid-ass name.

However, as a result of all of THAT noise, I’ve been reminiscing a lot about how the internet used to be when I was growing up - a simpler, more optimistic time when the Spice Girls walked the earth and Star Wars Episode I hadn’t yet begun the decline of the franchise. A time when the internet was wild and more decentralized. A place that was maybe less polished and convenient to traverse, but where you could curate your own spaces and content to your heart’s… content, I guess. And even if it looked horrible, nobody cared.

Like those poorly coded geocities websites.

Enter Neocities

So guess what’s back.

“Wow! What a great transition!”, you might say. Well, I am a writer, of course. Just not a very good one. But I guess that might explain your surprise.

Writer Preeti Chiibber was very vocal about Neocities on BlueSky, and I was absolutely on board once I heard someone had revived the old geocities-style website platform, and I had to make one for myself.

So, I utilized the same HTML skills I cultivated back in 1998 and put together this monstrous eyesore that I kinda love - except now there isn’t a repeating jpeg of a pokemon as the background wallpaper. Maybe later, once I add more content.

In any case, even though it is sub-optimal garbage, I had so much fun putting it together that I realized I’d forgotten how much joy there is in just putting out less polished products on your own. It’s pretty freeing and liberating, and the result just feels a little more real because it kinda sucks (in a good way), while right now everything kinda sucks (in a bad way).

Speaking of putting less polished products out that feel a little more visceral…

A Serialized Story?

Okay, maybe this transition isn’t as great as the last, but I thought that one was a career high never to be duplicated.

In the process of all that reminiscing I did earlier, I revisited some memories I had about my time spent on something called America Online, which I will hesitate to discuss in detail, because if you're too young to remember AOL, get the hell off my newsletter.

Anyway, on AOL, I was part of a small community called 'Comics By Kids', where a bunch of newly-online 8-10 year old miscreants put together the neanderthal equivalent of webcomics of varying quality using MSPaint. Some were gag comics with witty dialogue, others were huge fantasy or anime epics. It was a strong community of creators who shared fun stories that I miss every time I remember it. Surely, though, if I were to find and read any of those comics now, the quality would likely be dogshit.

Speaking of dogshit, I myself wrote and drew a few that have since been lost to time (thankfully). One of which was a sci-fi epic that has grown into something drastically different that may eventually see daylight (but not this day). The original comic, though, was a seat-of-the-pants improvised story wherein I was using the drag line tool to put aliens together once a week or month and seeing where they and, therefore, the story went. It was an unabashed rip-off of the Oddworld games, but I added in a giant spider at some point, a floaty guy with a big head, and, of course, plenty of Star Wars references. So, as I say once again: dogshit.

But, dovetailing with my ‘come to geocities’ moment, I found that I really missed the feeling of putting something together and discovering where it goes at the same time as the audience. Something where the monthly results aren't always winners, but the journey is interesting and winding, and a lot of fun.

I can't draw as well as I used to (nor do I have the time to churn out illustrations), so a revival of my old comics are kinda out. But writing... writing I think I can handle.

So I wanted to try my hand at a serialized story. I had a base of an idea which I tried to launch on Kindle Vella - until THAT platform went nowhere and went defunct (if you’ve been reading from the top, you may sense a pattern here). Now I’m trying again with the urban fantasy roadtrip comedy I call BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK FOREVER. 

The story idea I have for ‘Birds’ is very open ended - a woman and her ex-ex-ex-boyfriend have to travel across the country in order to help him find someone he thinks holds the key to his self-worth. Along the way they encounter sinister conspiracies, weird creatures, and all-around strange happenings. It has the potential to go in a hundred different directions every chapter, so I thought it would fit the wandering serialization model just right.

And that's why, after years of resisting putting together a Patreon, I'm doing just that. Because I think it might have the best infrastructure to host it on as it’s own separate thing. Until, of course, Patreon becomes ‘Xatreon’ or something equally awful (ooh, maybe ‘Hatreon’?).

But I digress:

If you’re worried that this is just some money grubbing scheme, I get it. Patreons usually are. But the good news is that I’m a terrible businessman and not confident enough in my seat-of-the-pants content generation pace to justify charging anything. So I'm not going to lock any of the content permanently behind a paywall. Any and all subscription tiers will be optional and pretty much ornamental (check them out if you don't believe me).

And stay tuned for the next newsletter where I launch my OnlyFans - where you have to pay to UNSUBSCRIBE.

But What Does This Mean For Duckett & Dyer? I Don’t Care About Your Other Stuff, You Dumb, Dumb Asshole.

"Why the hell is he doing Patreon stuff? He needs to write the next Duckett & Dyer book!"

Well, uh, sorry. The next DUCKETT & DYER book - THE CURSE OF HITLER’S TOMB - is probably a ways off for a couple of reasons.

(1) DUCKETT & DYER is a book that runs on optimism, hope and whimsy and, to apply a tired meme:  *gestures wildly at everything* so I'm feeling a bit tapped out of that right now.

(2) I'm working on a new book that taps into what exactly I'm feeling tapped into now. It’s expanded a lot since I first started it, so I don’t want to divulge any details right now, but it’s fun, but it’s a little… angry - which is a new feeling for me so I’m gonna roll with it.

DUCKETT & DYER isn’t going away. I’m well aware there’s a story and characters I love there that need to be tended to and finished. But I don’t think that time is now.

If that disappoints you, well, I guess it’s a good thing I’m used to being a disappointment.

[Exeunt Newsletter]