Are You Busy Thursday Around Lunch?

I’ll be joining a livestream tomorrow discussing my book, Dragged Into the Light (gentle reminder, it’s read by me and costs is only 1 Audible credit). I like to joke with my long-suffering publisher that if I do one million podcasts I’ll eventually sell a million books, so I never say no when invited (so feel free to invite me on your podcast).

This one looks like it’s going to be different, though. I believe the host has not only read the book but also has specific questions. So if you’ve already read it, there should be some cool stuff for you.

The downside is they’ve moved it from 7 p.m. to 11:30 a.m., which will very likely affect the viewership. I mean, I can’t compete with Days of Our Lives or whatever people watch at 11:30 a.m.

If you’re around, I’d love to see you; if not, I’ll report back this weekend.

While I have you, I’ve started my next book to review for the New York Journal of Books. It’s Raised by a Serial Killer, and so far it’s fine. It’s odd how following the accounts of systematic evil associated with Opus Dei softens accounts of child torture.

Raised by a Serial Killer is out now, and if you’d like to follow along I’m making notes in the chat as I read. I’ve been ill, so I haven’t picked it up since Thanksgiving, but I’ll be back to it this afternoon.

Finally, I rarely plug the PinesCast because it is super niche, but in the latest episode I read Yes, Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus, a work I always find moving because I’m a sap (and because there are so few secular accounts of what makes the Winter Holidays worth celebrating).

Keep the Faith,

Tony

PostScript

I might send two emails this weekend. The next installment of Object History will be done soon and I want to update you on Sherry Shriner. I’d also like to think about my sappiness as relates to Christmas. I know it’s cliche for fat old men to cry at the drop of a hat, but I have just a few very specific triggers—Glenn Close standing in The Natural, The Chimes of Freedom, A Christmas Carol, White Wine in the Sun, and Yes, Virginia.

I don’t wanna get too heavy yet, but I feel like the thread is nostalgia for hope. Like, the courage it takes to hope can be unbearable at times.

I know that’s oblique and incomplete (which is why it’s in the PostScript).

Welcome New Subscribers!

Thanks to all of you who just signed on. I’m sorry the welcome letter hasn’t been revised in so long. I plan on a technical redo over Christmas week, and I have so many great things planned for 2025.

I am still so grateful for and humbled by my paying subscribers, but for those of you who are kind enough to give me your attention, please don’t feel badgered to become a paying subscriber.

If publishing on Substack has a downside it’s that they need me to have paying subscribers more than I do, so they can sometimes be more aggressive than I am. I’d rather die poor than badger people. Put another way: since I’m going to die poor I may as well not badger people while I’m alive.

For those of you who haven’t downloaded the Substack app, here’s my regular appeal to try it out. The “Notes” feature can genuinely replace most of your social media if you’re exhausted by the hate and drama. It’s easy to curate.

I would love to start posting on Facebook again, but it honestly just exhausts me. For those of you who are interested in the funeral reporting I do, I’ve started dabbling in Threads for death care sharing. It’s still sporadic. I was going to try TikTok (again) but whenever I open the app, I feel like I’m going to have a stroke.

TR