Hi,
Welcome to the Hardihood Books January Roundup. I hope your year is off to a good start.
In Case You Missed It:
My first story this month was a quick one, about a woman who is “Fed Up” with waiting at the stoplight. When the light “skips” her turn, she floors it and runs the red light. She is, of course, immediately apprehended by a police officer. For suspense’s sake, I won’t tell you how it ends. If you’d like to find out, you’ll need to become a paying subscriber.
I was very pleased to publish our second guest post, and first short story by a guest. “Homeward Bound” is a fantasy story written by my friend Daniel Sausen, a tale about a young woman who finds herself far from the place she was born. Please check it out if you haven’t done so already.
Chapters IX and X in “If You Can Keep It” came out this month. These are free to everyone to read. I enjoyed writing these and I like the direction this story is taking. Please go back and read the early chapters if you haven’t done so. If you like fantasy, political intrigue, or classical culture, you will find it of interest.
My other short story, “Is It That Year Already?” was a bit meandering and inconclusive, but I think many readers will identify with the sentiments expressed by the characters. Certainly, I’ve heard people talking this way this past month. If your new year is off to a strange start, please check it out.
Chapters nine and ten of “Civilization in the Wilderness” are also free to everyone to read. The action will pick up next month, but these latest two are short, so it should be very easy for you to stay up to date. If you haven’t read the early chapters, please go and do so.
I also put out my take on the Substack “Nazi” controversy. I’m on the side of free speech. If Nazi speech is shut down today, the label “Nazi” will be weaponized tomorrow to shut down mainstream speech. That isn’t a slippery slope – it’s a description of what already happens. Substack does a better job than most corners of the internet at fostering healthy discourse. The presence of a few bad apples does not spoil the entire site. What I find telling is that people who otherwise tolerate terrible people in other contexts and in other parts of the internet are up in arms. Every web-hosting provider or blogging platform or social media site has this same basic problem (including the ones to which some former Substack writers are decamping), even the ones with stricter speech policies. This essay is free to everyone to read (only paying subscribers can comment).
My second essay this month, “On the Giving of Gifts,” came out yesterday. If you aren’t a paying subscriber, you can read a preview. As with many of my essays, the idea kicked around in my head alongside a couple hundred others until finally it found its way into written form. I have too many of these to put them all into fictional stories, which is why I launched Hardihood Books as a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction in the beginning.
From the Archive:
“We’re Going Home” was a story I wrote about immigrants coming to America. I’d also like to direct you towards “One Day in the Life of Ivan of Lindishire” and its sequel(s) “City Air Makes You Free (Part One)” and “City Air Makes You Free (Part Two).” The prequel follows the medieval life of a serf in the squalor of the thirteenth century, and the sequel follows his son when he goes to the city and discovers grand new ideas about liberty. Admittedly, I took dramatic historical liberties with this timeline, but I think readers will find it interesting and thought-provoking, perhaps especially those of you who disagree with parts of it.
In Closing:
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Cheers,
Ben Connelly