How are y'all doing?

May 2024

Fisherman, Isle of Shoals, Childe Hassam, 1903

Happy Thursday, everybody.

I hope this finds you enjoying a sandwich, a long conversation with a good friend, or getting out of work early. I am about to head down to the tire store to spend some of my savings account on Michelin Crossclimate 2 tires for my Subaru.

Occasionally, I want to take a break from the stories and just talk: you and me. This is a friendship, after all. You may not have known we would be buddies when you hit subscribe (or clicked the link because you haven’t subscribed yet, but what are you waiting for?). But we are.

How are you? What’s new in your life? What kind of sandwich did you have for lunch? Oooh! I’ll have to try that. How’s your mom doing? Good, good.

Oh, we’re good over here. My daughter turned one and has decided she’s allowed to have an attitude about things now. I don’t think she knows what shaking her head means, but she does it anytime we want her to do … well, anything.

We spent a weekend at the lake in the mountains with some friends. I find a different me in the woods: it’s easier to get to a peaceful place, to let the stuff roll off into the leaves on the ground and be with people. We grilled burgers one night and ate them on the deck with the lake behind us and as many people as we could fit at a wooden table.

A Couple Guys Reading Podcast

My friend Tex and I have started a podcast where we read “Books your wife has probably read.” What we mean by that is we’re reading the most popular books on the planet right now: Romantasy. That’s a combo of the words Fantasy and Romance, and yes, the books are marketed primarily at women, so we decided that two male dummies are the voices people want to hear talking about these books. Tex and I have a penchant for talking in silly voices and being more interested in trying to make the other laugh than staying focused on the discussion. I laugh until I’m hoarse most episodes.

We just finished our first book, Fourth Wing, by Rebecca Yarros. You can listen to the introduction podcast here.

In between books, we’re doing “palate cleanser” episodes, where we read books we fell in love with and want to share with others. We released our first of those episodes today on The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway.

Coming up on Stories Talk Good

I’m going to do a series called “Bad Writing Advice.” I’m writing everything I needed to know a few years back when I started taking writing seriously. My hope is that they will be an encouragement to you, especially if you’re considering writing yourself but also, writing and life overlap, so there’s something for all of you.

I’ve also got some podcast episodes coming soon. I sat down with my grandfather so he could tell me of his football coaching days and about the night his game plan helped the Science Hill Hilltoppers knock off the Dobyns-Bennett Indians back in 74. His face lit up when we talked. If I'd asked, he could have told me the whole game play-by-play.

I’m enjoying

Tiffany Chu is a writer here on Substack who writes with vulnerability, beauty and points me deeper into faith. You can find her writing at Notes from the Town Hermit.

Sean of the South is one of my favorite writers and his recent piece, Hash Browns, is the type of story that makes me want to tell a story like him, and gives me hope, straight 100 proof hope.

I’m despising social media more every day, but it does introduce me to some great music. This fellow, Gareth, from Belfast (hometown of C.S. Lewis) loves Country Music and sings better than most people in Nashville. I particuarly enjoy his covers of “Straight and Narrow” and “Stick Season.”

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Leave a comment at the bottom, I want to hear from you and how your mom is doing.

Y’all take care,

-Sam

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Today’s art comes from Childe Hassam of Boston, Massacheusetts. He was instrumental in spreading Impressionism to the United States along with Mary Cassat. His painting The Avenue in the Rain is hanging in the Oval Office. At the end of his life, as Cubism and Surrealism took over, he riled against people who promoted these forms and called them “Art boobys.”