Jack of Diamonds

Chapter 16: BUT THE INSPECTOR IS A PRETTY GIRL

This is the PAYWALL section of my ‘Stack…

I’m sure you’re all aware of that fact. Again, I’m going to ask you if you’d like a copy of my story THE BASHFUL COURTESAN?

We’re about to embark on a new phase, here on my SUBSTACK. I’ve started what is called a BOOK TUBE CHANNEL. It’s a part of You Tube, but obviously deals with books, and writers, and writing, and all sorts of things. It’s what you make of it. And what do I plan to make of it? Well, I did my FIRST reading the other day...

Saturday. It was Saturday. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but I want it to tie into this page. I’m going to use it to READ my stories; it’s going to be a platform for reading. The stories I read on SUNDAY’S SHORT STORIES AFTER EIGHT, will probably end up being read there.

I’m going to invite A-list celebrities to read parts of my stories…

The problem is I don’t know any. So if you know any, pass the word along. We can have them read in the comfort of their own home, and then ask them to send it to me, or, if they’re in Vancouver, filming, they can give me a shout and I’ll come pick them up. My wife will make dinner, we’ll drink wine and get stupid (no judging!)

Those of you who know me, know that I don’t take life too seriously at the best of times. (Drives my wife bat-shit crazy sometimes, but she puts up with me.) “A work in progress,” as she often says. So I can’t say that I won’t say something inappropriate. (It’s probably a gimme.) But what makes my page so different, is that there’s no hi-tech “gadgetry” here. Sure, I have an Apple, but I’m not about to film myself on the camera, upload it into iMovies, edit it, and then download it onto my Substack page. For one thing, I don’t know how to do that, and for another thing, I have Photo Booth.

Yes, I’m using Photo Booth…

It’s a single shot operation here. I turn on the recording app, and start talking. Probably…10 minutes—give or take. And then I read my story. It’s a cold reading. Before, when I was doing it here, on this very page, I’d read the story, and that was it. I sometimes had to do it three times. Well, I can’t really do that anymore. It’s not that I can’t, but if I’ve invested 25 minutes of reading and talking, I’m not about to start over again because I got a sentence mixed up, or the phone rings.

So it’s going to look cheaply, because it is.

But it’s all about the stories I write…

What my production quality looks like, doesn’t matter. It’s the story I’m reading that matters, and the first story up is: THE BASHFUL COURTESAN. After I introduce myself, I’ll probably end up talking about where the idea for the story came from. People are always asking me where I get my ideas from. So I guess I should say where I got the idea for this story. This is the first instalment of my Book Channel. It’s the beginning of the story.

I want to make this into something different…

I mean why not? You’re not getting in anyway, unless you pay the toll, which, as you know, is $30 a year. But THIS part here that I’m reading, is the story I plan to make into a book. THIS is the one I’ll be sending you. Listen to the story, and decide after as to whether or not you want to have it mailed out.

I’m still working out the bugs, but the link works now. It didn’t yesterday.

In the meantime, I’ll be reading my SUNDAY’S SHORT STORIES AFTER EIGHT, which, as you know, is THE DAWN PATROL, which will finish in April. At the same time, I’ll be putting THE BASHFUL COURTESAN up on my Book Channel. I have a week overlapping on the Book Channel, at which time I hope I have things figured out and have have a guest reader…oh but I can’t tell you because that would spoil the surprise.