Mid-Summer Check In

A short update on what I'm doing with this Substack

It’s been some time since I wrote directly to you, my subscribers, to reflect on what I’m doing with this Substack. My subscriber count has doubled since I last did that (standing at 134 on the day I write this) and I thought I’d share a few words about what I’m up to. Basically, I’ve got two “strands” running through my writing, and here’s how I think about them. (Maybe you see it differently? If so, I’d love to know.)

I shaved all my hair off the other day, just for the hell of it.

I’m writing about paying attention

When I started this Substack, it was with the intent of paying close attention to the world around me and accounting for what I found, with the idea that this would be good for me and (hopefully) good for others—for you, my reader. I know that I really enjoy reading how others process their world, and hope that in sharing my thoughts with you, I bring you value, or cause you to reflect on your own experience. (And I always believe that if this isn’t the case, unsubscribe and keep looking! Life is too short to read anything that doesn’t add to your enjoyment of life.)

Most of my early essays fall into this category, but today I’d say that roughly half of my writing fits this definition. But there is another important strand that I want to discuss:

I’m writing a novel about workplace surveillance

I’ve been writing—that is, I’ve been a “writer”—for most of my life: dissertations, reference books, training, corporate stuff, you name it. During all that time—40 years more or less—I swore I’d never write fiction. I just didn’t have it in me, I’d tell people if they asked. It’s not the way my mind works.

And then, just this January, something changed.

I wrote a short story about the weird pressure a guy exerted on a coworker to become a birder … and something in me unlocked. I knocked out another story, about a guy who takes a job at a corporate giant and becomes convinced he’s being spied on. But that just opened a door: why was the narrator interested in his friend being spied on? Who was doing the spying? And why was he spying? And who concocted this surveillance apparatus anyway?

It turns out I’m writing a novel—and I’m serializing it here on my Substack page (there’s a song by the same name, I put it at the end for you).

This novel traces the lives of three characters who find themselves working in a giant corporation¹ where the surveillance of employee behavior has gotten out of control. How out of control? Well, in my experience, not all that different from the levels of surveillance that are already being practiced or anticipated, even desired, in some of our corporate giants (I’ve got sources!). I’m really interested in how these surveillance apparatuses get established, and how real people, decent people, react to them, whether they are designing them, operating them, or being victimized by them. 

The characters in this novel all started in my head with the voice (or voices) of people I know: Stamper started life sounding a lot like Jennifer Wheeler; Christopher was born Julien Duplant; Keith is the child of my brother and my son Conrad; and Dan–well, Dan often sounds a lot like me, doesn’t he? But I’ll tell you what, the moment I put these characters to work in service of my story, they took on a life of their own. Stamper and Keith both scare me a little bit, Dan is a little bit softer than I’d probably be, etc. 

I used to think the writers were full of shit when they said characters “spoke to them” or “took on a life of their own,” but now I know it’s true, because my characters do this all the time. In fact, the entire process of writing a longer work like this is a wild ride, and I’m taking you with me. I invite you to bust my chops if the ride gets bumpy along the way. Eventually, when it’s all over, I’m going to go back and revise it all and try to prepare it for print publication … if someone will have me. Time will tell. 

Thank you!

I hope you’re enjoying one or both of the strands of writing that I’m sharing with you. For perhaps the first time in my life, I’m doing just what I want to (writing) and I promise that you’ll never read me bitching about how hard it is to publish a Substack every week or how difficult it is to get readers.

I deeply appreciate any time you spend reading what I write, and love it when you like a piece or feel moved to comment on a piece. Some of you are friends who have become subscribers, others subscribers who are becoming friends, and others still are simply dipping in to check out a different voice. I appreciate you all.

Perhaps the biggest compliment you can pay me is to share my work with others who you think would like it, and the Share button below makes that easy. 

As always, drop me a note to say hi if you don’t want to leave a public comment, or drop over and have a beer and maybe touch my newly bald head for luck. That’s a thing, right?

Cheers!

Tom

PS: I’m on a long-term project to sample every legit bagel in the Puget Sound area. If you know of any you like, let me know. The best so far came from the Macrina Bakery.

Everything Bagel from Macrina Bakery, Seattle

PSS: Here’s a song by Father John Misty. He’s writing a novel too:

1. I’ve set this story at Amazon, and you might conclude it’s based on my short stint working at Amazon. It’s simply not the case. I didn’t work there long enough to really get a sense of their inner workings, and none of the surveillance I discuss actually happens at Amazon (to my knowledge). Could it? Sure. It could happen anywhere with advanced technical capability and company leadership that was willing to push the type of agenda I describe. Some elements of Amazon, like my depiction of the leadership principles stuff, are fairly accurate–but all of that is well documented.