Welcome to My Substack: Love and Other Fictions

When it comes to Substack, I’ve dabbled. When it comes to writing, however, I’ve been stockpiling for years. It’s time to find an equilibrium. It’s time to publish some stuff.

I’d like to introduce you to my new Substack, “Love and Other Fictions.” It’s not a newsletter. It’s not a blog. It’s all fiction. All the time. I decided to migrate to the platform and give my writing a chance to be seen and – hopefully – read.

The idea is simple. I wrote and continue to write a lot of fictional stories. I put them together into a collection that I titled “Love and Other Fictions” but never published, or tried to publish. The common theme, unbeknownst to me, tended to be love in all of its diverse forms. Familial love. Friendly love. LGBTQ+ love. And disastrous love. Be warned. This is not romance. It’s, well, something else.

The stories range from cute to exasperatingly bizarre, from soul-warming to “Is he OK?” and that’s sort of the point. Love isn’t one thing, after all. Why should my writing be?

But I am getting ahead of myself. Read the first story and let’s go from there. Most stories are inspired by real life events, and then fictionalized to filth. Mostly.

I will put them out in a serial fashion – in parts, not kid-tested/mother-approved – to spread the love out over time. Read at your own pace. Share them quickly and with fervor.

For the moment, you’ll see short stories, but I’m working up the courage to start sharing a novel or two. Soon. Just be patient. Someone ahem, has to finish writing the novels before they can debut.

The pandemic fueled a lot of the long-form writing I want to share, but now that we’re all back to work and “being social” again, there’s just not as much time to sit down and write at the kitchen counter with a glass of whisky and a slice of cold pizza. It takes time to write, but it takes just a few clicks to share it. So why not? It’s what I love to do. It brings me joy. Even if it’s questionable in so many ways, it’ll be a fun ride. We could all use some more storytelling.

You may roll your eyes and mutter, “Oh Bryan,” but I’ll take any reaction I can get. If it stirs even an iota of emotion, I’ll be pleased.

Please read, enjoy, and share my Substack if you can. And also leave any feedback to let me know what resonated with you, if anything.

Happy reading!