Six Months On Substack

Thanks For Being With Me

Six months ago I went live with my Substack space, RECOLLECTIONS, REFLECTIONS, FANTASIES, FICTIONS: SCENES OF A LIFE I THINK WAS MINE. Since then I’ve published almost 100 pieces on various topics – including a 13-part novella, Song of the Amorous Frogs: A Story of Paris in the 1920s.

Some of you have been subscribers since the beginning; some have come on board later – but to all of you I say: Thank you for doing me the honor of subscribing, and taking the time to have a look at things I write. Several of you have shared comments with me, and I’ve appreciated that very much. Some of you have even inspired me as I’ve tackled new topics. An extra THANKS for you! Hope you were happy with the results.

As with any new endeavor, I’ve had a learning curve figuring out Substack, how it works, how I can use it to communicate with you, what the drawbacks and hazards might be. I’m sure that learning will continue, but I’m a little more adept as a Substacker now than I was six months ago.

Though not all the pieces I’ve published have gone out to you as emails, a lot have – roughly two a week, on Wednesdays and Sundays. That’s been my goal, and I know that can be a lot. Sometimes I worry it may be too much.

I wouldn’t want to lose you as a subscriber because I send too much, or on topics that don’t interest you. So I wanted to let you know that I’ve divided my space into SECTIONS, in which pieces are grouped by topic. If I’m writing on some topics that don’t interest you, or if you’re getting more emails from me than you want, you can limit the Sections you receive automatically in the Notifications within the Manage Subscription link of your subscription to my Substack space. All subscribers are automatically subscribed to all sections, and I hope you’ll want to keep receiving all of them – but I mention this in case you might want to explore it.

These are the Sections I have created – for now. They may change over time.

RECOLLECTIONS, REFLECTIONS, FANTASIES, FICTIONS – This is where I include all those wry, witty observations about life (and death) which just seem to keep coming as I get older (and closer to death!).

THE GAY THING – Here I include fictions and memories relating to my life as a gay child/youth/man. They mostly deal with the more interesting aspects from long ago, before I got “old and set in my gay ways,” as my mother might have said – if either of us had actually ever said “GAY” in each other’s presence.

HOUSTON ART HISTORY – This one is pretty self-explanatory, though maybe I should mention that my version of Houston Art History does tend to stop around 1970.

NEEDLEPOINT MUSINGS – This is a new section, inspired by a friend who thought others might be interested in seeing my needlepoint adaptations of other peoples’ paintings, accompanied by a little explanation of how and why they came to be. If I add to my currently few pieces on food and cooking, I may group them here and change the section name to KITCHEN AND STITCHIN’ MUSINGS – or is that too twee?

Thanks again for subscribing and joining me for this first six months of Recollections, Reflections, Fantasies, Fictions. And thanks especially to my husband, Rick, who has encouraged me, edited my posts and carefully proofed them, weeding out my errors before I sent them out to everyone.

I have some plans (maybe “hopes” is a better term) for the next six months. Get ready! There’s even another novella in the works, this one set in Houston in the 1930s. No way of knowing for sure what will happen, of course. The plans may change, and the novella may grow into a magnum opus. But whatever direction things take, I hope that it’s fun and that we’re still sharing it when it comes time for my “One Year On Substack” email in September. Until then …