Beyond the Bookshelf Spring Update
A Little Spring Cleaning!
Exploring Life and Literature
Dear Friends,
April is almost finished meaning we are nearly one-third of the way through 2025. I have been busy planting flowers and setting up bird feeders in our backyard. These two nature-focused hobbies bring me joy. They complement the reader in me who stays indoors with my nose in a book.
For those of you who have been with me since late last year, you will recall I laid out an ambitious plan for 2025. The Tuesday editions would be focused on our monthly topic, and the Friday editions would be focused on our slow read of Homer. Needless to say, I think I bit off more than I can chew. I have been running myself ragged trying to provide quality writing each week while staying on top of the many other projects I have going on. I feel that I haven’t always kept up with what I promised.
One of the major projects I worked on recently was a poetry anthology for National Poetry Month. If you didn’t see that previously, I will include a copy at the end of this letter for you to download.
Another project I am working on is the publication of a collection of my personal essays in book format. I am reworking many of my early essays with the assistance of an excellent group of editors and readers. I look forward to sharing some of those with you in the coming months as a bit of a teaser before I publish them as a collection.
So I am making a few changes to the scheduling lineup over the next few months to give myself a bit of breathing room while ensuring you continue to receive the best quality writing in your inbox.
Updates/Changes
Publication Schedule
Beyond the Bookshelf (every Tuesday morning at 0500 Central Time)
1st week of the month—A personal letter/essay from me to you.
The middle weeks—A guest post or an interview from someone in our community. These will likely be on the monthly theme and how it relates to their life.
Last week of the month—My monthly Commonplace collection, where I curate links, quotes, books, music, TV, movies, and random things that I think you might find interesting.
Deep Reads Book Club (every Friday morning at 0500 Central Time)
Each week, we discuss the currently assigned chapter from Homer’s The Iliad. Once we finish, we will move on to The Odyssey.
Paid Subscriptions
I have changed my paid subscriptions to a flat rate of $12/year, which comes out to $1/month. I know that everyone has a lot of demands on their finances. I do want your support. This is my only full-time work after all. But I don’t want it to cost you an arm and a leg.
If you have previously signed up at a higher rate, I will comp you for extra time on your subscription unless you tell me otherwise. Please do check your subscriptions because some of the special deals I ran (Black Friday especially) were only discounted for the first year. You can always cancel your current payment plan and renew under the new rate as well.
Paid subscriptions are your way of supporting my work. I don’t have a paywall on any writing at this time, so paid subscriptions are a voluntary choice, one that means a great deal to me. I intend to keep the no-paywall program in place at least through the end of 2025.
If you want to remain a free subscriber, that is fine as well, and I am glad to have you here as a part of the community. I do anticipate that, as my archive of work grows, I will implement a paywall in the future.
You can find all the ways to support me at the link below.
Upcoming Lineup
May - An interview with
and a guest post from .June - My review of Exogenesis and an interview with the author,
Gaskovski. Also, a guest post from , who writes a fantastic publication on the history of animation.July - We are reading The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. We will feature guest posts from
, , and .August - December - I am taking a look at these months to see how I want to focus our reading efforts. A couple of my original choices no longer seem as appealing. The only reading selection I know we will keep is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. The rest of the schedule is TBD!
In case you missed it, the attached file is a poetry anthology I published earlier this month, celebrating the many courageous poets who share their art with the world. Thanks to everyone who contributed and my heart-felt thanks to
for holding my hand through the process.
I also recently went live with
and to discuss AI policies. You can see that below if you missed it.
Sorry to bombard your inbox this week but I wanted to ensure I was being proactive in my communications with all of you. Thanks as always for being here as we journey beyond the bookshelf to explore life and literature.
Until next time,
I appreciate this update, Matthew, and respect your ability to recognise your own limits. You're doing excellent work here.
Matthew you are always proactive, please, have no fear in that department! That said I have a feeling Substack runs a good few of us ragged, its a lot of beauty to take in, every day! I was wondering just this evening whether to cut down a little on the amount I write, albeit only once a week, with a full time job and smallholding on top I am exhausted. I will see how the weeks ahead go. In the meantime I look forward to you up-coming posts - thank you for letting us know. 🙏🏼