Upcoming Topics

Thanks for all the suggestions.

The well is deep. This was taken in Egypt, Aswan, I think, in 2020.

I asked in a random post on Wednesday for questions and topic suggestions for my upcoming posts. Sometimes this is difficult, reaching into the well of what I can write about, and trying to decide what would be interesting to both you and me.

Because this is often a one-way street of me telling you what I’m in the mood to talk about, I can lose a sense of what it is you, the reader, are interested in.

A bunch of you helped me out, and at the end of this post is the list of questions I’ll be answering or pontificating on in the near future (and now that we all know how the future works—you know).

I’ll be acknowledging where the topics came from because you’ve become part of the work and I thank you.

Most of the ideas are fairly complicated answers and perfect for posts, so thank you for that too.

The question I will answer first (and I will get to all of them because they are all great questions and run through a variety of topics) is from

36filatiers:

I’d like to know what you write and who it is for.

Thank you for asking. This question should remind anyone posting in a format such as this that they should occasionally address this type of question since there are always new folks signing on. That’s a terrible sentence. Sorry.

The umbrella response is that I write whatever interests me. The formats are varied and include poetry, short story, essays on here, and novel. I rarely write non-fiction, but much of my posting here on Substack is actually that—stories from my life and experiences—I just don’t publish them formally.

As an indie author who didn’t go the traditional route mostly because I’m old and impatient, I have to define for myself what genre—what shelf—my books should occupy and that’s been more difficult than I originally thought.

My first book was Postcards and it was a collection of poetry and short stories. Not a popular format, but it gave me valuable information about how this whole publishing thing works, and I’m proud of the result.

My first novel was Margaret of Thibodaux and it’s YA because it has a teen protagonist, but it wasn’t really meant to be just that. I call my novels upmarket which is a newer term meant to imply writing that is between commercial and literary, and combines the best of both intentions.

In simple terms, commercial fiction is primarily plot driven and literary fiction is about theme and usually character driven. My writing falls somewhere in the middle of those two, so upmarket works for me. I would love to write a literary masterpiece, but I also want lots of people to read it.

As to the question of who I write for, I didn’t have that in mind with Postcards except that it would be folks who like poetry and short story.

It became apparent when I finished Margaret that I had actually written it for older people (Gen X) who would remember 1974, the year in which the book is set, and it was less about being for teens of the present, which is what YA denotes. You can see my conundrum.

In most cases, if I have to declare it, I call it YA. That’s fine.

The next novel, Mimi and Maurice is an Epistolary Historical Fiction, also written to the upmarket level, about a man from Belgium and a woman from San Francisco who wrote letters for over 20 years, fell in love, got engaged, and never met because WWII got in the way.

It’s a love story, not a romance. Romance has to have a happily ever after ending and my story does not put them together at the end.

It’s written because I promised Maurice I would write it (longer story), and for people who like untidy, complex, real human stories, the kind that doesn’t need a traditional happy ending to be satisfying.

The letters are real and I’ve paraphrased them completely, so as to not infringe copyright. The story goes from 1936 to 1947 and has taken me 10 years to write. It’s currently in final edits and I’m pleased with how it’s turning out. Publication date is August 18, 2026.

The next novel after that is Road Clothes about a girl who collects the clothes she finds in the road, and ends up peripheral to a serial killer. It’s more of a mystery than a thriller, and it will still not fit into the tidy genre box because . . . well . . . me.

I go against all the advice of picking a lane and staying there so I can have a dedicated audience. I’ve never stayed in my lane, won’t do it with fiction either. That would be boring.

So again, back to the umbrella, I think I write for people who like the style, the insight, the perspective of a writer vs what the actual story is about, and they are willing to read outside their expected likes. I’m willing to take the risk. I think there’s more people with varied interests out there than publishing and advertising admit, because then they are back to square one of how to capture them.

I don’t want to capture you. I think marketing is manipulative in many of its iterations and I don’t like manipulation. Telling you here’s my book, this is what its about, this is my writing style (over here on Substack)—you decide. Thanks if you read me.

Of course, everyone is welcome to read my work. In fact, I would rather have people read it than make money from it. For me, it’s not about selling something, it’s about creating art and illuminating the human condition. Each reader, by themselves, gets to decide if I’ve done that.

So you can see how my style does not fit into a tidy 10 second sound bite.

Thanks again for the question. I wrote the answer in about 10 minutes which is what happens when I am inspired.

OK, here’s the list of upcoming topics and I will answer all of them:

The tentative order is at the bottom as a screenshot of my Scheduled Posts on Substack.

First, these questions were in the comments from the last post, so I’ll name the askers specifically.

1. Desert Jewel asked me to “Finish this sentence: ‘If I could go back in time I would change.....this.’” LOVE THIS! On its way . . . although I’ve never thought about this in particular, so it may take a bit.

2. Elizabeth Browne asked for my take on salt. Surprisingly, a very complex topic and one I have an opinion on (what a suprise, Jo has an opinion).

3. Jennifer Van Horn asked about the new book and its all coming very soon!

4. Stacey Aaronson asked about soul stuff: families, pods, contracts, choices, over soul/higher self, parallele lives. Speaking my language, sister. This may be a multi-part-er.

These next questions were sent as DMs so I’m assuming they don’t want to be named.

1. Question about dogs/pets going to the other side. This will be interesting.

2. Question about guides and the practical how-to of engaging with them. Love this. This is something I feel like I explain well, so we’ll see.

3. Question of whether anyone can be a Medium and/or read the Akashic Records: short answer yes, longer answer as a full post.

Again, thank you all for the re-inspiration.

Include more questions in the comments to this post if you like.

Plan for the post order

Blessings,

Jo