Welcome back to 2024 and the third January of ‘Stiff Upper Quip’ as a going concern. 2023 was a year of steady growth for this newsletter, I’m pleased to be sending this newsletter out to 1158 of you today. Of course, the first response to this email, as to every one, will be several people unsubscribing. Is it something I said?
I passed an enjoyable Christmas in Nottingham and London, catching up with family and old friends; my spouse had covid just before Christmas, which led to some uncomfortable nights on the sofa bed, but it did mean that I avoided the lurgy. Hard sleeps aside, it’s worth remembering that just three years ago Christmas was being effectively cancelled by covid; I had to hastily improvise a festive dinner. To be at a status of the disease as endemic, with vaccines available, is progress of a rapid sort.
I managed to get through the family Christmas without losing my shit for one of the first time evers due to the usual mixture of personal growth and weary resignation. I have though hurt my jaw through grinding my teeth so much. Still, booking a first-class ticket for the Eurostar back helped; they even serve you a little dinner.
I’ve not got any resolutions for the new year. I’m getting to the stage of life where I’m just happy for a continuation. I would like to learn some Dutch, though.
As for ‘Stiff Upper Quip’, it’ll run in its current format for now. I still have lots of things I’d like to write about. However, I can’t deny that keeping up five posts a month has become more of an ask now that I’m working full-time. It was easier when I was a fully remote employee, but here in Brussels, from where I write to you now, I’ve got an actual office to go into and social obligations to satisfy.
As such, I’m encouraging you once again to take out a paid subscription; the price will be £35 until Sunday January 7th, when I’m putting it up to £45 again. For that modest sum, you’re getting the full five posts a month (as opposed to three for freeloaders), which usually includes a long read, full commenting privileges and the complete archive. Most importantly, you’re giving me the encouragement I need to keep the project running.
Yet there are other ways to support too, and some of you have been doing them. I’m pleased to say that my novel ‘Midlands’ notched its 200th sale over Christmas; peanuts on a cosmological scale, but a genuine achievement for a self-published writer marketing a funny book over his newsletter and social media. I’m genuinely grateful for all those who've taken a punt and, if any of you feel like adding to their numbers, the novel costs just £1 here.
I’m also pleased to say I have a new novel in manuscript which I’ll be redrafting in the next few months, as I have been saying for a few months now. At some point there’ll be a sneak preview for paying subscribers. Amusingly, I went for dinner with a writer friend on the day of my 40th birthday and asked him to guess what it was about; aside from the profession of the lead character, he was largely spot on. Suffice to say the usual themes of memory, creativity and the wonder of early youth are all present and correct, albeit I’ve done my darndest to put more of a plot in this time too.
In terms of topics for the newsletter, there’ll be the same mixture of comment, memoir and humorous pieces. I’d like to write more criticism along the lines of my Lana Del Rey long read. I’ll certainly do a few more posts about learning foreign languages given how steeped I am in that at present. For your part as a reader, what would you like to see on this newsletter this year? The comment section is open to below for suggestions and requests.
It’s been good for me, this Substack business. It’s made writing pieces into a habit no more remarkable than doing the laundry; there just has to be a piece to go out every week one way or another. Plus it’s given me an audience – you folks! – for which I’m profoundly grateful; one of my recurrent lines of late is that a writer can do most things if they have an audience. But it’s still an audience I’d very much like to grow. Even if you can’t pay, how about recommending ‘Stiff Upper Quip’ to a few other people? It’d be nice to think we might get to 2000 total subscribers by the end of the calendar year. And, joking aside, I would always have those who can’t afford to pay reading, hopefully dropping the words ‘Stiff Upper Quip’ by the office coffee machine.
I wish you all, of course, a wonderful 2024, full of personal flourishing. As some of you may have noticed, the world is not a terrific state right now. Yet one thing my life has shown me is that things often look at their very worst before they suddenly get better. Let’s hope that the sudden improvement arrives somehow, undermining the pessimists, all the sweeter for our surprise.
The very best for the New Year – or, to stick with my Dutch resolution, Ik wens jullie allemaal een gelukkig nieuwjaar 2024. Veel succes, veel vreugde en vooral, veel plezier.