Dear friends,
I apologize for not getting this letter up right away. I've been thinking of how best to change how everyone experiences Orange Cat, and I think the letter might be it.
Here's my thinking as to why:
The internet, social media, generative AI -- you could make an argument that these are all distractions. We don't go to the website of the New York Public Library to experience the New York Public Library -- we go the actual building and surround ourselves with the actual books. We don't watch a clip of a baseball game on our phones -- we go to the park and watch the game. We don't seek to improve our creative writing by going to a website -- we take a class with fellow writers. The internet is flat. Writing isn't. The internet is not a place; writing is.
This is why I'd like to try and reduce this website -- as much as is reasonably possible -- to a monthly letter. You won't find me trying to win the figurative video game of social media here. You won't find me launching a substack within a subtack. I will run classes, and I will tell you about them here. I will tell you what I'm doing; I will tell you what I'd like to do; and I'll invite you along. (And, of course, because it's me, I might throw in one or two extra things as well.)
Not only does this adhere to my philosophical read of the moment, but it has the added benefit of being practical, too. Personally speaking, I know I would much rather focus my energy on writing a letter once a month, writing more broadly, and teaching classes than falling down yet another rabbit hole of web design.
So what kind of classes are we talking about? What's on the menu?
This month, we're running two classes and one one-off. The two classes are Dungeons & Dragons & Writing and All-Star Writing Workshop. D&D&Writing is currently meeting online every Wednesday at 5PM. All-Star Writing Workshop is currently meeting every Saturday at 10AM. Our adventure sees us on the planet of Beigerton, where a student's vampire has just laid bloody claim to beings of cosmic usefulness. (Forgive me for being intentionally vague here, but.) Our Saturday class is
Next month we will continue D&D&W. (There is a section D&D&W section that technically meets every other Friday, but scheduling has gotten fluky with that one.) We'll continue All-Star. And we'll launch a continuation of a Cosmic Horror class.
I'd also be interested in trying to get a third D&D&W class going.
Because Orange cat is still in its relative infancy, I have to stay flexible as I grow. The idea of having an endless series of official looking pages is nice, but it obscures the fact that this is ultimately a very human exercise: I am a working writer who wants to run a class with you. I am curious just as you are curious.
And that's really it. That's the interesting thing to me. I know that my curiosity won't match yours, and so -- while I read Alice Bollin's Culture Creep or The McCartney Legacy by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair; while I debate with myself as to whether or not I'm going to watch Linklater's Blue Moon tonight or whether or not I'll do something else, I know that you'll be making a choice and following a path of expertise that I will find interesting.
What might that look like? Well, I know that when I was first getting into the UK stand-up comedian Stewart Lee years ago, one of my first students was a defense contractor who used a penname to write homoerotic fiction under a pen name in which nothing really happened.
Here's what's currently running this month: I'm running a weekly D&D&Writing class on Wednesdays set in outer space. Our heroes have --. Saturday mornings currently feature --. By the time you'll read this, I will have [cosmic horror, etc.]
Here's what's coming next month:
Here's what I'd like to see next month:
This month the D&D kids chased a prophecy hiding inside a telegraph wire,
and the Wednesday teens nearly talked a masked wolf out of a courthouse
in Wilmington. Over in Read Like a Writer, we chased rhythm across a
Pina Bausch fall and found the shape of a sentence in a single breath.
I'm opening one new seat for the Wednesday teen class. January’s
All-Star Writing Workshop is on the horizon. Other things are stirring,
as they always do—maps being drawn, ghosts being revised, stories finding
their own weather.
If you're looking for a place to write, to imagine, or just to be part of
a strange small world that keeps unfolding, you’re always welcome here.
Warmly,
Evan