Hello everyone, and thank you Steve for that introduction, you are super kind. (He truly is. It’s not even like we owe each other anything at the moment. We have both given each other 5-star reviews on Goodreads, so there are currently no outstanding debts between us.)

Friends, I just feel like: what the fuck is going on with being a writer these days. It’s crazy, right? When I was growing up, saying you were a writer was a sure-fire way to never have to do any actual work. Hide out in some cabin, string some metaphors together every couple years, they dump a bunch of money on your lawn. Alfred A. Knopf himself drives the truck. Sorry Mr Corporate America, I can’t sit at your cubicle and help you grind the fascist gears of the global economy, I’m a Writer.

Fast-forward to me last year, mid-conversation with an editor who was interested in publishing one of my books. The problem, he said, was that I wasn’t blogging enough. I needed to be doing more on the internet if I wanted to be a published author. Bitch please.

So what do we have now. We have a publishing industry that is super angry at a search engine. We’ve got people reading books that are not even on paper. We’ve got successful writers having to dust off their resumes and re-enter the work force. We’ve got this one lady somehow making millions of dollars. We have laws at both the state and federal levels about putting a vampire in every novel.

I just feel like we need to chill out this month, come together, and figure out what’s going on. I don’t want to post any stories. Honestly, we’ve got bigger stuff to worry about. Let’s do some interviews. Let’s talk to all kinds of writers. People with and without day jobs, people with and without book deals, people who are super good at self-promotion and people who get really angry when their mom suggests they sign up for Twitter.

What does being a writer even mean anymore. How hard should we be trying to get published. How do we compete as artists in a tumblr book deal world. Does anyone even read a story longer than 400 words. How do you tread the narrow path between the stuff you need to do, and the stuff you want to do. How do we define success.

So yes. Being a writer is only about The Work, and nothing else matters. Whatever. This is the stuff I’m stressed about, so here we go.