The Soaring Twenties Social Club Omnibus is sponsored by… my book!
The paperback edition of my debut book is out now. Fifty essays all in the same place for the first time. And the cover is beautiful. Click the button below and see for yourself.
Letter From The Founder,
Here’s how I see this going.
It’s Saturday, and for perhaps the first time all week you have a little time to yourself. Maybe you make yourself a fresh, piping hot cup of coffee. Maybe you brew a pot of tea or even shake yourself a cocktail or put a pinch of tobacco into a wooden pipe. Whatever the case may be, whatever ritual works for you and signals that it’s time to relax.
You take a seat. You fire up your device and open up your email. But this isn’t tedious work related hassle. This is about pleasure. You go to your inbox and see that the latest Soaring Twenties Social Club Omnibus has been delivered.
You open it.
And with your refreshments at hand, you slowly read through each of the great essays and stories it links you to. This replaces what used to be your weekend newspaper ritual, your weekend reading of the culture section before you realised that the top-down culture no longer excited you.
You read until you are done and then you are satisfied and can go on about your day in peace without the compulsion of social media induced FOMO.
This is the vision I have for this new Omnibus feature. The best new writing, the best new stories all gathered in one place. No ads, no product placement, no ulterior motive, just great prose from a worldwide collective of new voices.
In this debut Omnibus recap we have links to 11 essays, 3 short stories and 2 podcasts. Not bad. And we’re only just getting started.
We hope you will join us in this journey,
Live well,
Tom.
Essays
Just Enough To Get Me In Trouble by Lyle
From self-imposed deadlines to the comparison trap to listening to music as you create, Lyle breaks it all down for us here. Rather than a cliched listicle this is real insight from an actual practitioner here. Well worth checking out.
Zero Knowledge by Richard
An ultra-short, emoji-laden piece explaining zero knowledge proof via a Valentines Day story. This is the level that I need anything crypto (or even mathematics based) explained at. So I found it helpful at least!
The Illusion of Money by Theofuturist
Our friend, who goes by the suitably futuristic (and biblical) name Pr0ph3t, attempts to persuade us that monetary value is not a concept connected to reality. Ambitious. And as well as being successful on these terms it is also beautifully written. Impressive.
What If It All Breaks Down by Simon (wordimagedesign.com)
Here Simon weaves together social media outages with his reading of‘The Way of the World', a diary of a writer and an artist travelling from Serbia to Afghanistan in the 1950s. Thoughtful and compelling ruminations here.
Without Twitter by Craig Burgess
The first outing of Craig’s latest venture that looks at doing real creative work in the social media age. Of course this is a topic close to my heart, and is necessary it seems clear that Craig is not going to pull any punches on this one. Rumour has it that he will eventually compile these weekly pieces into a physical volume next year. He can count me as a pre-sale buyer right now.
How To Be More Lucky by Katavasis
I thought from the title that this was going to be a light piece of ‘self improvement’ content. Until I realised who had written it. So rather than fluff what we have here is a dense piece that touches on Jung, sigils, egregores, metabolism, visualisation and much, much more. Original work from an original voice. Excellent stuff.
Bookmark 285 by Deepansh
I have selected one of Deepansh’ bookmarks almost at random here. He publishes these ‘unabridged, unedited, and unapologetic public journal entries about life, people, society and everything in between’ on a near daily basis. A remarkable project that is worth diving into and possibly even emulating.
Problems with Contemporary Writing by Charles Schifano.
‘To care about the state and quality of writing today is to scream into a void while knowing that the void does nothing but laugh.’ Ouch.
Charles’ witty and wise polemic here echoes much of what my own thinking on the topic has drawn up and it is filled with the kind of one-liners you feel compelled to quote in full. For example:
‘Any list of the typical absolutes in contemporary writing instruction—shun adverbs, loathe the passive voice, cut latinate words, use short sentences—has the character of, at best, limiting the threat of mistakes because it removes so many tools.’
Outstanding.
Invisible Boogeymen by Tony Zentelis
Tony’s stream of consciousness series takes a paranoid turn. But as you read you will see that this is no bad thing. Because motivation to actually do something, or become something, is not all positive. Sometimes you need a little darkness to give you a push.
Trivireality by Vita Benes
Vita cuts straight to the point and calls out social media for the den of triviality and escapism that it is. But what are the alternatives? And what is the third road that we can all travel down?
Silicone Valley by Kieran Moran
A scathing (and hilarious) attack on techbros wanting to dabble in the medical space. Or rather the sex space. The quality of the writing and the argument aside, this features what may well be the greatest subtitle in the history of email newsletters.
Fiction
Into The Night by Zachary George
A quiet, slow-burn, slice-of-life story. It has that working man, nighthawk, Edward Hopper Americana flavour to it which I for one can’t get enough of. This captures a certain mood perfectly.
An Unexpected Visit by Yuelian Hong
A heartfelt story of death, longing, regret and remembrance. A very powerful and affecting story which will stay with you told with great economy. It reminds you of what short fiction can do and why it is valuable.
Hunters by Ivan
This has everything I’ve come to expect from Ivan- great prose, telling details, dry humour and that unmistakable Russian flavour which he has modernised and made his own. Give this dark little tale a read and you’ll see what I mean.
Podcasts
Madspace Episode #7- Sludge Factory by Matt
In which our intrepid and beleaguered commuter/host Matt about chicken wings, accents, NFTs and more. There seems to be a correlation between caffeine levels and rage so feel free to buy the man a damn cappuccino.
Wednesday Audio #37- This Is Why I Don’t Watch Star Wars by Craig Burgess
A slightly ill Craig moans about being harrassed to record a podcast while being slightly ill along with the usual listener missives, James Clear disrespect, and elusive search for ‘the point’
Thank you for reading/listening. Feel free to shares this email and the individual authors work and also feel free to leave comments either here or on the authors own sites.
Finally, I will be starting a podcast of my own tomorrow at 9pm GMT which will be exclusive to Social Club members. It will be hosted in the Social Club discord and then shared via this Substack later on in the week. Working title is ‘The 7th Law Podcast’
So if you want to hear that either live or via recording (and if you want to join our ranks and contribute your work) then click the button below and choose monthly, annual or founder member.
I look forward to seeing you over at the Social Club Discord.
Cheers!