I used to await new David Sedaris books with the gleeful giddiness of a child picking out pens, binders, and notepaper for the new school year (oh, was it just me who got so excited about school supplies?). Now I have two unread Sedaris books that I would willingly forgo ever reading in favor of the person I consider the reigning monarch of satire: you, CJ. Most importantly, you are using your barbaric yawp to take on the totalitarians, which makes you a precious ally in the Great Resistance. You have my deepest gratitude for your heroic work, and I am honored to stand beside you in the battle lines 🙌
Childrens Health Defense beat you by a day posting your chat and few more honest as daylight as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr...fab discussion and look forward to more Consent Factory reaching us in the digital underground.. big time fan of Bobby from his earliest Riverkeeper days always awed by his breadth of reference and memory for minute detail. In my estimation he has done more for human health and the environment than JFK-RFK-MLK did for civil rights. Granted more years to fight matters but the censorship Bobby has faced, coupled with very real threat posed by dark side actors, shows his unimaginable strength. Lucky us to have you two together!
Controlled opposition made me laugh as the industry term for critics. I have tracked Monsanto & gmo food since 1997 and that hackneyed term goes with Luddites and anti-science. What CHD has is meticulous research, scientific studies and news the corp media dismisses as disinformation. They are legitimate opposition to our corp propaganda what we old timers used to call facts and now branded disinformation by toxic profiteers.
Eh, an opinion from someone who has no special record of research on the topic doesn't do much to influence my two plus decades of experience w toxic profiteer PR campaigns.
By the way, during my 23 years of academic teaching, I had plenty of time for "research," and I didn't refrain from thinking things over and correcting myself several times with other people's help. That trend is still running strong among my endeavors. :)
My problem with "experts" is that they are paid by sources that expect specific results. Also, after a while, they can be too protective of the pile of junk they have accumulated and stick to obsolete ideas.
Since you are an established and well known Author, there are plenty of non-mainstream platforms, interviews opportunities "on the other side" which will help you to promote and sell your book.
For me, micro publishing is a nice revolutionary way. I bug my booksellers with ordering micro published books, because not only the "big ones" try to block the spreading but also the bookshops. Suggestion to everyone, go and order the books in an ordinary bookshop so that they get used more and more to it. The smaller ones are even willing to put some on their presentation tables once they found out, it's good quality books and their prejudices are defeated.
I’ll buy a few copies for self and friends. We love your work. And though we don’t really know you personally, I think most of us feel we adore you nonetheless. Thank you for some of the finest sanity time spent reading your essays can buy.
After this one I had to pay for s subscription, CJ. Thanks so much. I will purchase a book and promote it because I know it will rock.
I could write a lengthy cringeworthy diatribe regarding personal experiences with the publishing “big boys” of the rotten apple regarding my own self-published novel.
I’ll write just one example: Desperate for any reviews after spending three years of (stolen) time writing editing, rewriting my book - you know the drill - I paid $400 to Kirkus for a review from a giant in that realm. They have an independent arm of the company for unpublished writers. After six weeks I received it. Yes, there were some real good aspects, but many lines simply rehashed my cover page on Amazon. What rankled me was a huge spoiler alert exposing a pivot point that changes the entire trajectory of the book. I complained to Kirkus, and they agreed to do a fresh review, where upon the new reviewer wasted little time savagely trashing the entire novel. Ouch! Predictably I used nothing from them as far as reviews.
I learned many tough lessons transitioning overnight from writer to marketer and will use lessons learned when launching my new book. But regardless of sales, fame or lack thereof, bottom line is it’s all about the passion of writing.
Thanks again CJ, you’re a stalwart chronicler for our troubled times.
If anyone is curious, here’s a link to “Swim a Crooked Line”:
As a micro-publisher with 200+ books by other people in publication, and who is still characterized as a "vanity press" by the mainstream gatekeepers, and who is one of the tiny presses Amazon built it's ebook empire on, I understand completely.
The censorship shift this past week has been palpable. Even Yahoo has figured out how to trick a commenter into thinking that article commenting is "suspended in order to improve the community experience" when in fact many people are allowed to comment---the board is accessible to them! If you post a comment they do not like, but that does not in anyway violate their "policy," they are able to quietly block you from accessing that page again. So when you log back in, it looks like the comment section never existed----except I keep getting email notifications that people are "liking" or responding to me. I had to trick the system and sign in from a different search engine and post a comment about this--now I will be blocked again.
But it's different from before. If they didn't like your comment, it would be "rejected" and you could still log in and re-post something edited better. Now you have no idea if a comment board exists or not (even though you know it once did because you commented)--only the people with the state-sanctioned views are allowed to participate. It's akin to the frog in boiling water.
So Yahoo has their "sensitivity readers" in place too. Censorship soldiers.
I loved your interview with JFK. I listened to it on Spotify podcast. Can't wait for your book. Will spread the word as much as a person without social media can.
Looking forward to ordering / reading the new book CJ and will spread the word. I was excited when i saw in my inbox when the interview dropped that RFK Jr was having you as his guest. Enjoyed the interview. Glad you're still making it. lol.
A politruk, or political commissar, was attached to Soviet military units to help soldiers hold dear the dictates of communism and to encourage compliance… or else, off to the gulag with you! At least the sensitivity readers don’t have the power to march us off to detainment camps… Yet. As a writer, it scares the crap out of me. What’s the purpose of art without the ability to offend?
I don't sell or ship the books myself -- the distributors do that -- but if you find yourself in Berlin and want to buy me a cup of coffee, or if I'm ever wherever you are, I'll be happy to sign one for you.
If I ever find myself in sunny Berlin, I shall love to buy you a cup of java. And if you ever find yourself in Iowa, I shall revel in the happy of you signing one for me!
I used to await new David Sedaris books with the gleeful giddiness of a child picking out pens, binders, and notepaper for the new school year (oh, was it just me who got so excited about school supplies?). Now I have two unread Sedaris books that I would willingly forgo ever reading in favor of the person I consider the reigning monarch of satire: you, CJ. Most importantly, you are using your barbaric yawp to take on the totalitarians, which makes you a precious ally in the Great Resistance. You have my deepest gratitude for your heroic work, and I am honored to stand beside you in the battle lines 🙌
Yawp - my word of the day even though it’s early!
OMG, same here with Sedaris and I feel exactly the same about CJ!! I heart you Margaret!
🙌💗🤗
Childrens Health Defense beat you by a day posting your chat and few more honest as daylight as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr...fab discussion and look forward to more Consent Factory reaching us in the digital underground.. big time fan of Bobby from his earliest Riverkeeper days always awed by his breadth of reference and memory for minute detail. In my estimation he has done more for human health and the environment than JFK-RFK-MLK did for civil rights. Granted more years to fight matters but the censorship Bobby has faced, coupled with very real threat posed by dark side actors, shows his unimaginable strength. Lucky us to have you two together!
While CHD comes across as controlled opposition, it does produce results one thing at a time.
Controlled opposition made me laugh as the industry term for critics. I have tracked Monsanto & gmo food since 1997 and that hackneyed term goes with Luddites and anti-science. What CHD has is meticulous research, scientific studies and news the corp media dismisses as disinformation. They are legitimate opposition to our corp propaganda what we old timers used to call facts and now branded disinformation by toxic profiteers.
How can one recognize controlled opposition?
https://rayhorvaththesource.substack.com/p/controlled-opposition?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F42034032-ray-horvath-the-source-&utm_medium=reader2
Eh, an opinion from someone who has no special record of research on the topic doesn't do much to influence my two plus decades of experience w toxic profiteer PR campaigns.
By the way, during my 23 years of academic teaching, I had plenty of time for "research," and I didn't refrain from thinking things over and correcting myself several times with other people's help. That trend is still running strong among my endeavors. :)
My problem with "experts" is that they are paid by sources that expect specific results. Also, after a while, they can be too protective of the pile of junk they have accumulated and stick to obsolete ideas.
None of us can do better than that.. favorite Twain quotes short list
'What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so.'
You are running a nice blog. I am signing up! :)
Random riffs and lots of pics my most favorite to share! :~)
Logic is still logic; even God cannot create a valley without a mountain.
My objective is not to convince anyone; independent thinking will do.
Would be more than happy to spread the word and I'm looking to reading your upcoming book. Saw the interview with RFK Jr - excellent. Thanks.
Since you are an established and well known Author, there are plenty of non-mainstream platforms, interviews opportunities "on the other side" which will help you to promote and sell your book.
For me, micro publishing is a nice revolutionary way. I bug my booksellers with ordering micro published books, because not only the "big ones" try to block the spreading but also the bookshops. Suggestion to everyone, go and order the books in an ordinary bookshop so that they get used more and more to it. The smaller ones are even willing to put some on their presentation tables once they found out, it's good quality books and their prejudices are defeated.
I’ll buy a few copies for self and friends. We love your work. And though we don’t really know you personally, I think most of us feel we adore you nonetheless. Thank you for some of the finest sanity time spent reading your essays can buy.
After this one I had to pay for s subscription, CJ. Thanks so much. I will purchase a book and promote it because I know it will rock.
I could write a lengthy cringeworthy diatribe regarding personal experiences with the publishing “big boys” of the rotten apple regarding my own self-published novel.
I’ll write just one example: Desperate for any reviews after spending three years of (stolen) time writing editing, rewriting my book - you know the drill - I paid $400 to Kirkus for a review from a giant in that realm. They have an independent arm of the company for unpublished writers. After six weeks I received it. Yes, there were some real good aspects, but many lines simply rehashed my cover page on Amazon. What rankled me was a huge spoiler alert exposing a pivot point that changes the entire trajectory of the book. I complained to Kirkus, and they agreed to do a fresh review, where upon the new reviewer wasted little time savagely trashing the entire novel. Ouch! Predictably I used nothing from them as far as reviews.
I learned many tough lessons transitioning overnight from writer to marketer and will use lessons learned when launching my new book. But regardless of sales, fame or lack thereof, bottom line is it’s all about the passion of writing.
Thanks again CJ, you’re a stalwart chronicler for our troubled times.
If anyone is curious, here’s a link to “Swim a Crooked Line”:
https://www.amazon.com/Swim-Crooked-Line-Al-Griz/dp/0692520643
As a micro-publisher with 200+ books by other people in publication, and who is still characterized as a "vanity press" by the mainstream gatekeepers, and who is one of the tiny presses Amazon built it's ebook empire on, I understand completely.
I am looking forward to this new book. Will it be also available in German - to promote it to my German speaking friends
Working on that ... I'll keep you posted.
Looking forward to reading your book, CJ!
The censorship shift this past week has been palpable. Even Yahoo has figured out how to trick a commenter into thinking that article commenting is "suspended in order to improve the community experience" when in fact many people are allowed to comment---the board is accessible to them! If you post a comment they do not like, but that does not in anyway violate their "policy," they are able to quietly block you from accessing that page again. So when you log back in, it looks like the comment section never existed----except I keep getting email notifications that people are "liking" or responding to me. I had to trick the system and sign in from a different search engine and post a comment about this--now I will be blocked again.
But it's different from before. If they didn't like your comment, it would be "rejected" and you could still log in and re-post something edited better. Now you have no idea if a comment board exists or not (even though you know it once did because you commented)--only the people with the state-sanctioned views are allowed to participate. It's akin to the frog in boiling water.
So Yahoo has their "sensitivity readers" in place too. Censorship soldiers.
I loved your interview with JFK. I listened to it on Spotify podcast. Can't wait for your book. Will spread the word as much as a person without social media can.
i only discovered you a few months a go and have just bought Zone 23, looking forward to it and your new book already :)
Looking forward to ordering / reading the new book CJ and will spread the word. I was excited when i saw in my inbox when the interview dropped that RFK Jr was having you as his guest. Enjoyed the interview. Glad you're still making it. lol.
A politruk, or political commissar, was attached to Soviet military units to help soldiers hold dear the dictates of communism and to encourage compliance… or else, off to the gulag with you! At least the sensitivity readers don’t have the power to march us off to detainment camps… Yet. As a writer, it scares the crap out of me. What’s the purpose of art without the ability to offend?
Well, we can't tolerate people telling transsexuals that they're not women. 🙂
https://medium.com/@s.r.allen/if-transwomen-are-women-what-is-a-woman-d36121bdd926
Will we have the option of purchasing a signed copy? 😃
I don't sell or ship the books myself -- the distributors do that -- but if you find yourself in Berlin and want to buy me a cup of coffee, or if I'm ever wherever you are, I'll be happy to sign one for you.
If I ever find myself in sunny Berlin, I shall love to buy you a cup of java. And if you ever find yourself in Iowa, I shall revel in the happy of you signing one for me!
Yes, let us know when it is available. Can't wait to read the essay.