Jackson's Distractions Grand Opening

An Introduction

Let me begin by saying thank you to my 5 loyal subscribers who have been here since before I shared this page with a single soul. To y’all I say: I don’t know how you did it, in fact I’m a little creeped out that you tracked down my private Substack before I announced it’s existence, but I appreciate your ongoing support.

To those of you who are here for the first time: Welcome!

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Last year I listened to an interview with one of my favorite writers. She spoke of writing, in her younger years, a story a day and sending them off to a writing mentor who then wrote back, giving feedback, warnings, and encouragement. According to her, this strategy made all the difference.

My first thought, I confess, was, “A story a day? That seems somewhat excessive…”

But then I thought, “Wow, a writing mentor. What a life it would be if I had one of those.”

So, I created this page (site? blog? I’m not quite sure what the lingo is). The thought is, I guess, to manufacture something like a writing mentor with the collective thoughts and feedback of everyone who reads my stories and/or responds to them. A teacher by committee, so to speak.

If you’re interested in participating in that committee, welcome aboard! Even if you don’t have much advice to offer, you can remain a silent member of the committee if you enjoy reading my posts or just want to be part of something bigger than yourself.

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This summer, I’m planning to post twice a week: every Tuesday and every Friday. Around about August/September-ish, questions will arise such as where I will live and what I will spend my time doing. At that point, it’s possible that I’ll switch to posting once a week or sporadically as my schedule permits. But for now, you can look forward to some consistency.

I’ve written a little about what the posts will look like on my About page. Read that if you want to know more. The general gist is that I’ll be posting old stories, new stories, chapters from longer projects, thoughts on art, sports, and culture, diary entries, or some combination thereof. I might post a fully formed and edited story on a Tuesday and a diatribe about the Lakers on a Friday, a first draft of a new story the following Tuesday, skip a Friday just to keep people on their toes, then a long, personal anecdote the Tuesday after that.

My first post in this new and public edition of my Substack will go live this upcoming Tuesday, May 30th. In the meantime, I have 3 older posts containing 3 stories of varying lengths and subject matter. To get some idea of what you’re in for, check those out.

Thanks for being here and supporting my work! If you’ve got something to say, message me or comment on one of my posts at any time of day or night.