Spooky Season’s Greetings!

Fall is my favorite time of the year. Not only because my birthday is on Halloween, but a lot a great stuff happens: the Summer heat starts to dissipate, fun decorations pop up everywhere, scary movies are featured, and Fall flavors retake the menu.

My overall mood improves with this confluence of changes. This year is especially great since I’m sharing it with all of you. It’s been 15 months since I started posting on Substack, about a year since the creation of The Storyletter branding. In that time a lot has changed, and I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished so far.

I say ‘we’ because I don’t consider this to be much of anything without you. The writing community here on Substack has been a major factor in my focus and drive to write, and I’ve been able to produce more now than at any other point in my life. Your continued support makes this all possible. I can’t say that enough. Thank you!

S6 Contest Results

We officially concluded our first annual short story writing contest at the end of September. Our judges scored each entry separately, and I ranked them in a private spreadsheet that only I had access to (so that the judges weren’t influenced by each others’ scores).

We had a lot of great submissions, and I was blown away at how closely they were scored. The winning writers all agreed to have their stories published on The Storyletter, which we’ve already begun by publishing M.S. Arthadian’s “The Summer Light”.

If you missed the announcement of the short story contest winners, here they are:

• J.M. Elliott

• James Castor

• Brylle Joseph Gaviola

• M.S. Arthadian

Huge congratulations to the winners and a big thank you to everyone who participated and helped make this contest a success. October’s paid newsletter will go deeper into the preparation of the contest, for those that are interested in the process and are thinking of running their own.

Featured Substack - Kindling

I’m going to try something new moving forward. Instead of the periodic “What am I reading on Substack?” posts, I’m going to highlight one Substack a month in my newsletter and detail why I’m subscribed.

This month, I’ve chosen Kindling by Shaina Read. The Substack is perfect for October because Shaina is currently publishing a serial fiction story entitled “Night Witch”, along with an essay series on various witch-related events throughout history. If you’re into spooky topics and looking for something to sink your elongated teeth into as we approach Halloween, I highly recommend Kindling.

Shaina also has a section where she reviews the most banned and challenged books in America. Shaina’s literary style and expert analysis of why these books are banned makes for a fascinating read, plus I’ve learned a lot about certain books that are outside the scope of my normal reading lists. Shaina even wrote one featuring Sherman Alexie’s book “The Absolute True Diary About a Part-Time Indian”.

If any of this sounds like your cup of witch’s brew, then I suggest subscribing to Kindling!

Kindling Exploring strange stories, horror fiction, books worth burning, and trying to write a few of my own. By Shaina Read

Featured Songs

Kai Straw is an independent musician who lost his job during COVID and has gone all in on his music career. I’ve been digging his latest stuff. His style is raw and you can hear a wide range of emotion in his voice. Plus, his songs usually have an interesting message or theme attached to them that makes them super relatable.

“Motor Mouth” is just as good as anything playing on the radio these days. I’d go so far as to say it’s better than a lot of mainstream music. “Breathe” is about facing the lows and the darkness in your life head on, and knowing that you’re perfect just the way you are. “Mr. Rocket Shoes” (explicit lyrics) is the song that turned me onto his work, and it’s such a powerful anthem for achieving your dreams no matter what.

Let me know what you think of Kai Straw. Hope you like him as much as I do!

Last Bit of News

The Storyletter Anthology has locked in its stories for Volume 1. With 35+ stories and poems from 9 different authors, I think we have an amazing first edition product in the works for new readers unfamiliar with what we’re doing here on Substack. There will also be new, exciting additions to the book that I think subscribers will want to check out as well.

The goal is to compile everything we’ve published here into one book, have our editor go through it, and then make it available digitally and physically on Amazon (or Ingram Spark, I haven’t decided). This will be a service that I hope to provide writers and readers of speculative fiction for years to come.

If you’re interested in supporting the anthology process and getting a physical copy of the book, please consider subscribing at the Founder’s tier called “First Class”. I’ll be writing a full post about this tier soon to explain all of the perks. Either way, your support is greatly appreciated.

(Authors featured in the anthology will get a copy of the book regardless of their membership status. Also, you don’t have to be a Founding member to get a book as it will be available for purchase. This tier is if you’d like to upgrade for more in-depth editing services, graphic design, and for showing your support for The Storyletter)

In case you missed it:

Storyletter Meet & Greet
The Weight of the World (poem) by Winston Malone
To Build a Method (XPress)
Interview with M.S. Arthadian
(SRA) From the Loom of the Dead by Elia Wilkinson Peattie
Storyletter Thoughts: Does genre affect your writing process?
Community of Tomorrow: A Guide to Wellness® by Winston Malone
The Summer Light by M.S. Arthadian

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