Get this in print

'Writing Stories' goes old school for 2026. Register for your print copies.

It’s been three months since the last edition of this monthly newsletter. Did you miss this sort of nonsensical misappropriation of the written word?

What the hell has been going on since October? It has been a wild ride for me, with an eye-opening mentoring session, two of my pieces published in two cracking magazines, a handful of new pieces written which are among my best, a long-listing for a writing prize, an invitation to speak at a writerly panel event, and an upcoming first-ever gig for my song-writing. I’ll cover all these in upcoming editions of ‘Writing Stories’.

But now for that exclusive, unrefusable offer.

Reader offer

I don’t know about you but I’ve reached screen saturation point—staring at them all day for work, all evening for leisure, then waiting for the family to go to bed so I can stare at a screen to write into the night.

Is this really what writing looks like? Is this reading now? Is this the creative life in 2026 and forevermore?

Anyway, if you’d rather stare at these barely-monthly articles on paper instead, then I will print and send you a real-life, hold-in-your-hand-able newsletter.

I’ll post them to you before the online edition goes out, no catch, nor strings attached. If you do want to contribute towards print and postage costs, then let me know and I’ll send you payment details, but I honestly don’t care either way.

To get your copies, just send your address to jonny_12 [at] hotmail [dot] com, or on WhatsApp if you have my number. Tell me if you want to unsubscribe from the email/Substack list too, or receive both. Likewise, if you’d rather listen to these pieces with your ears instead of looking at them with your eyes, let me know and I’ll start recording them.

As a reminder of what’s coming up in those future print editions:

• No ‘share’ or ‘subscribe’ buttons!

• Featured writers including Patricia Lockwood, Susanna Clarke, Hilary Mantel, Jane Alison, Leo Tolstoy, Julia Donaldson, Carmen Marcus and more

• My rare moment of revelation from that mentoring session

• Behind-the-scenes reflections on my fiction

• I may even try to make the thing look nice

• I may even include contributions from other writers if they ask nicely

Who knows, maybe this printed paper thing might catch on one day.

And that’s it. See you in the future.