Hi Dearest Ones,
I first want to thank you all for your patience with me as I navigate the toughest year of my life. I have a lot of support and I feel like I recently cleared a few hurdles, so my goal is to get back to writing at least 2-3 times a week. I read all your emails and I’m so grateful for all your support. <3
We’re now 11 months into this site’s existence and I’ve been thinking a lot about what has worked and what hasn’t. When I started this I really wanted to create a community of intelligent sports fans who also care about things other than sports. I think we’re well on our way to doing that.
But now I want to take it a step further. Our live game discussion threads for paid subscribers have been a huge success, so we’re going to do more of them. I’m already planning to do them every day during the playoffs in October again, but I’m tinkering with the idea of also offering live discussions with me during every Sunday night baseball game during the regular season. How would you guys feel about that? Please let me know in the comments!
Or if you have any other ideas for how we can build this community so you aren’t just talking to me but to each other, let me know. I’m not sure of another space on the Internet where baseball fans can talk to each other in a troll-free, respectful environment. This is the main reason I‘ve made the comment sections in my articles and the live discussion game threads available only to paid subscribers.
I want everyone who participates to feel comfortable that they won’t get shouted down or called a moron by some random troll for sharing their opinions—which is what happens in places like Twitter! All of this is to say that there will be more game threads going forward. If you would like to participate (it’s fun!), you can do so by becoming a paid subscriber now:
Your paid subscriptions are what’s paying my rent right now, so I really appreciate you more than you know. I can only keep this newsletter going if people pay to subscribe, and your support has made me feel like this dream is possible. So, THANK YOU.
I’d like to try to keep most of my writing available to my free list, but I’m now adding more perks for paying subscribers. Something else I really wanted to do when I started this site was foster a community of creative people supporting each other. I’ve struggled with how to do that, but now I’ve come up with something I think might set us off on the right path. Beginning on Monday July 11, I’m going to facilitate a 12-week creativity workshop using the Book The Artist’s Way as a guide.
The Artist’s Way is an incredible book on unlocking the creativity within all of us. It has sold millions of copies. I have started it many times but I have never had the discipline to finish it. I’ve always been jealous of people who got to do this course in a group, and never knew where to find such a group, so I’m starting one myself! The book is $12 on Amazon. I’m sure many of you already own it. Our Zoom discussions every Monday night from July 11 to Oct. 3rd will be free to paid subscribers. You guys can ask me any questions about breaking into sportswriting, how I deal with writer’s block (ugh) and the voices in my head telling me everything I write is terrible.
Here’s what some people have said about The Artist’s Way:
"With its gentle affirmations, inspirational quotes, fill-in-the-blank lists and tasks — write yourself a thank-you letter, describe yourself at 80, for example — The Artist’s Way proposes an egalitarian view of creativity: Everyone’s got it."
—The New York Times
"Morning Pages have become a household name, a shorthand for unlocking your creative potential"
—Vogue
“Morning pages are what I do when I’m stuck, which is every day.”
—Molly Knight
If you would like to join our Artist’s Way discussion group, all you have to do is, No. 1, make sure you’re a paid subscriber, and No. 2, respond to this email and tell me you’re in! We’ll meet on Monday nights over Zoom from 8PM-9PM ET/5PM-6PM PT.
Writing can be so lonely. Substack has given me a platform to build a community and really get to know you all, so that’s what I’m going to do.
Please share this post with anyone you think might be interested in either The Artist’s Way course or the live game discussion threads. I can’t build this community and continue to be self-employed without you guys spreading the word:
Thank you all again for your support. I’m excited to get to know you all better!
Molly
Hi Molly! Happy to be here.
I just saw your tweet about Cal and Stanford. I wonder if you might consider writing about that at some point? I'm heartbroken. And it's not heartbroken because my team (Cal) got left out of this new thing, or that its future is uncertain, or that it won't get to sell its soul for semi-professional college athletics.
It's because I grew up in a season-ticket-holding house, where the Pac-10 was what mattered, and playing USC and UCLA alternating years mattered, and the Big Game mattered, and the Rose Bowl was the ultimate (unreachable) goal. And yesterday... it feels like all of that died. The entire thing. Whatever comes next will be some new homunculus formed from the constituent parts of whatever some mad scientist finds laying around the college football landscape.
I dunno. It's the end of an era and I guess I didn't realized how much I loved the old rhythms of the Pac-10 and the Big Game and the rest of it. The Pac-12 expansion changed it, but it was still recognizable. Now... it's just over. The body has two years to hit the floor.
Love the live game threads.