“Writing For Your Life” Newsletter, January 11, 2021: a Day Late, a Literary Conundrum

What a week …

If you live in the U.S., you experienced shock and awe firsthand via your television sets. If you live out of the country … the same applies.

I had been planning on releasing the typical newsletter yesterday, sharing articles some of you may have missed on the craft and business of writing and pop-culture.

And then that effort suddenly appeared very small to me.

I posted a Medium article — no, scratch that, a rant — yesterday. The title was “And America, Inc. Woke Up: Why Freedom of Speech is Not the Issue.” See the link above between the quotation marks for that piece.

Though I post about politics with some frequency on both the Medium platform and elsewhere, I do not generally delve into my views within this newsletter. However, I am making an exception today due to my belief that writers must continue to be audacious in their work and write to their truths ... a belief that now holds stronger than ever as we are in large part difference-makers.

From J.K. Rowling to Salman Rushdie to H.P. Lovecraft, writers can be viewed as sometimes expressing dangerous visions (with apologies to the late, great Harlan Ellison) that risk losing readerships. For me, it’s all part of the high-wire act of the profession. Don’t like it, don’t patronize.

I will not preach here further as I am loathe to do so. I will release our usual newsletter, as I intended yesterday’s to be, on Wednesday, January 13.

For now, take the time to write, and take the time to embrace your loved ones and one another.

Speak your truths today, as always. Only then can we begin to communicate, and subsequently to heal.

Thank you for allowing me to indulge.

Yours,

Joel Eisenberg

Writer-Editor, “Writing For Your Life”