Read to the end for climate control.
Clicking the Publish button is a finality. Every thought, opinion, piece of news, or rabbit hole ends with me clicking on a blue button. It sends my words into the world and eventually to your inbox.
I clicked PUBLISH for the first time here on August 11, 2021, at 5:19 PM. That article was the beginning of my experiment to see if writing a newsletter was for me.
Prior to this, I'd spent over a decade giving fiction a try. I'd written five short stories and a novel. Each one was a spark of excitement and a story I wanted to tell. Unfortunately, those efforts did not go very far. It wasn't for a lack of trying. I partnered with some great people to help push my words out to new people. I worked hard to cultivate a place to share my work on the (now defunct) Google+ social network.
In the end, it's friggin' exhausting.
Writing fiction means you're in a vacuum. There are few means of gaining feedback and input to see if your story is viable. I spent seven years writing Spirit Hackers and ultimately it went nowhere. Some gracious friends made sure to support me. I'm super appreciative of that. A few people I don't know did read it. But that was it.
I found myself in a creative dessert after my 2015 foray into novel promotion. My muse went on permanent vacation. The ideas stopped flowing. Any attempts to write had quickly dried up. Frankly: writing ceased to be fun. The reality of what the business is and the work involved for the lucky few had gotten to me.
Early in 2021, I realized that in speaking to friends, I kept saying "I read an article about..." and that was the birth of TimeMachiner. If my friends enjoyed the randomness I'd uncovered from the internet, maybe others would too.
Fast forward four months. I was brainstorming, doing tons of HTML tinkering, and learning the things I didn't know. Finally, that first post went up. There was no celebration or anything. I just went for it.
TimeMachiner was officially live.
Since then I have written over 300 pieces of content. Some have done well. Others, not so much. But trying to get individual items I wrote to land well wasn't my goal. As a whole I want TimeMachiner to be a successful adventure. So far, I think that has been the case.
I've adjusted the look of the newsletter endlessly. My first issue, sent to only 6 people, looks nothing like what you're seeing today. A color change here, a format fixing there, endless spelling errors I corrected (why WordPress doesn't have spell check is beyond me), and constant refining to bring you the best way to read my work.
With the first year of TimeMachiner in the books, the most important thing I can say is Thank You.
Thank you to everyone who has subscribed.
Thank you to my Time Traveler Members who support me financially. You LITERALLY cover the costs of running this place.
Thank you to everyone who has contacted and connected with me via email or tweet or feedback.
I promise to keep writing in a sustainable way for me and to earn your trust & support.
Now, onto Year 2...
-Aaron