Hardihood Books May Roundup
Happy Memorial Day
Hi,
Hope you’ve enjoyed your Memorial Day weekend.
Welcome to the Hardihood Books May Roundup. Or, since this is the first time I’ve done a separate roundup email, the inaugural roundup. As you may recall from last month, from here on out I plan to send out two emails: a monthly roundup with links to all of the stories and essays I published that month, and the traditional newsletter for paying subscribers only.
Since this is the first one, I’d love to hear you feedback. Let me know if you have any suggested changes or improvements.
What I Published in May:
I launched my Substack pretty much exactly one year ago. To commemorate the anniversary, I released an additional story this past month for paying subscribers: “The Return.” Longtime subscribers will remember that I’d mentioned this story in newsletters last summer. Ultimately, it was too long for a newsletter, so I just posted it on the site. I wrote it many years ago (although I’ve since made edits) and it’s similar to “Hortus Deorum” in many respects. Although it’s not really a true “early version” of that story (they depart from each other in significant ways – including stylistically), you can think of it as something akin to that. I invite subscribers to contrast the two stories, which – if there was a multiverse – might exist in parallel universes. By the way, if you’re a free subscriber and you haven’t read “Hortus Deorum,” yet, I’d invite you to click through and check it out. It’s outside the paywall.
Speaking of which, I also released a story called “System Sanctus (Part 1),” which is a sequel (or maybe a prequel) to “Hortus Deorum.” The setting is the same, but “System Sanctus” fits decidedly in the sci-fi military thriller subgenre (also called “space marines”). Part 1 is free to everyone! (But Part 2 will not be.)
Before that, I released the second part of “Travails of a 21st Century Woman.” It’s behind the paywall, and – as I mentioned last time – contains some mildly disturbing elements (mainly a conversation about “adult” themes). You can exercise your own discretion. Given that reader tastes and tolerances vary wildly, content that some of you might consider very mild, others of you might find off-putting. Warnings are offered out of respect for those members of my audience with finer sensibilities. If you like graphic and explicit books and shows, you can safely assume warnings are not meant for you.
In nonfiction this month, I published both parts of a two-part essay called “The Intellectual Fallacy of Ascribing Motives to People Whom You Don’t Understand.” (Part 1 is subtitled, “Why It Isn’t All About Sex and Money,” and Part 2 is subtitled, “Why Is It So Hard to Understand Other People?”) Part 1 is free and Part 2 is paywalled, but you can read Part 1 by itself. There’s also a hidden sidebar for paying subscribers. I’ll admit, parts of this extended essay were rants. But I basically wanted to consolidate a bunch of related ideas that were all floating around in my head for a while.
I felt bad about doing the “Part 1 free, Part 2 behind the paywall” thing for both free posts this month. And, since I posted that extra paywalled story for my Substack anniversary month, I figured I’d make one of the other stories free. The third free post is a science fiction short story called “AD 2101.” It’s a letter by a woman born in 2005 and living in the 22nd century, describing the extraordinary changes she experienced in her life. A nonagenarian or centenarian born at the beginning of the 19th or 20th centuries lived through extraordinary change and I wanted to think about what it would be like to look back on the 21st century. Also, I figured it was time for an optimistic story, especially since some of my near-future sci-fi tends to be pretty dystopic. For the record, I think (some of) “A.D. 2101” is more realistic than “After America” or “I’m Not Sure You’re Using It Right.”
Speaking of dystopian, I published a very short, paywalled story called “Woe to You, O’ Earth and Sea.” It’s a “flash” story, meaning in this case between 500-1000 words. I think I’ll be doing more of those (especially outside the paywall), partly because they don’t take as much time to write, but also because I think they’ll be more enticing to readers. My guess is most people are more likely to go for a 2-3 minute read over a 10-15 minute read unless they’re already invested in the activity (if you have thoughts on this, feel free to reply to this email). Anyway, the story was fun to write. There are a couple of “Easter Eggs” in it, or little hidden things which astute readers may pick up on.
Finally, I put up an announcement post earlier in the month explaining that I set up pages on Gumroad and BuyMeACoffee, where people can give contributions or become patron supporters of my work. Mainly, this is for work that I do outside of Substack, much of which is free (such as my LinkedIn newsletter). As always, the best way to support my work is by buying my book or becoming a paying subscriber here on Substack. However, I wanted to have a variety of ways for people to support my work and I thought it made sense to be on at least one or two of creator/patron platforms. In the future, I may use them for targeted fundraising efforts towards professional covers or editing or similar projects, something I can’t do with Substack. But I won’t make a habit of emailing my list and asking for money. Especially given that many of you pay for my content here on Substack already. Contributions are appreciated, but never expected or required.
In Closing:
Thanks for subscribing. Please feel free to email me with any feedback. If you’re on the free list and you’d like to respond to one of my stories or essays, you can email me, or reach out via Twitter (@benconnelly6712) or LinkedIn.
I’ll be traveling in June and July, but I’ll stick to the regular publishing schedule. I might be doing more flash fiction and mini-essays. Also, I’ll have some more announcements coming in June. If you’re a paying subscriber, please keep an eye out for the newsletter tomorrow, as I’ll have another couple of announcements.
Finally, before I go, I’ll mention that on June 1st I’ll be releasing an essay about one of my favorite science fiction authors called “Was Isaac Asimov a Soft Totalitarian?” It will be free to the public and I think (hope) you’ll find it fun.
Thank you for reading and subscribing.
Cheers,
Ben Connelly