Community Comments - With Gratitude

A word of thanks to our readers.

Thinking Man has reached some big milestones this month.

It’s actually remarkable how much can change in a short time when you’ve set your mind to something. The beginning of April was when

John Mistretta

and I really decided to “get serious” on Substack—put all our eggs in one basket and really try to make this thing grow. We never could have dreamed of the results.

We changed our logo (John wrote a piece about this, which you can read here).

Then, I did something I swore that I’d never do, and posted a picture of my face on the Internet.

Here it is. Ta da.

I’d been holding back because of this deep-down fear of being recognized—a remnant from my past which may or may not be a figment of my imagination. I won’t get into it here, but I explain it in this piece, which was one of the most cathartic and absolutely terrifying things that I’ve ever written.

Playing With Fire: A Review of "Baby Reindeer"

The article was a confessional of sorts. If you’re interested in my deep, dark secrets, give it a read.

Anyway, have you ever built something up in your head to be this big, scary thing, only to say it out loud and realize it was never as big a deal as you made it out to be?

That’s what happened when I shared this story.

Thank you,

Michael Newberry

and

Frater Seamus

, for your wonderful comments. The whole thing seems a bit too personal to post on here, but if anyone is interested, they’re still up on the above post.

This week the whole ‘thinking’ portion of Thinking Man kind of took a halt, which threw a wrench in the usual Community Comments formula. We had some fun discussing The Name of the Rose (shout out to

Miguel Perez-Santalla

), but admittedly, the two ‘heavy hitters’ I put out this week really took a lot out of me.

All I’m left with is thanks.

So, here it is. Thank you to all of the people who reacted positively to my short story this week:

Michael Newberry

The Starfire Codes

Jacqueline Rendell

Christopher Cook

The Bone Writer

Cymposium

Karafree

For anyone interested in finding some new Substacks to read, this doubles as an all-star list of some of my favorite people on here. Give any one of them a read and you won’t be disappointed.

I still can’t believe you guys actually want to read my stuff. It’s unbelievable. We have the greatest readers in the world.

Seriously. Thinking Man reached the 200 subscriber mark this week. We are so humbled and grateful to every single one of you.

This time next Friday, we’ll have one of our usual discussions. I haven’t gone lazy on you guys already. Right now, though, I’m feeling like kind of a sap, and I don’t really have it in me.

Now, I’m going to take a much-needed weekend. You’re in good hands; John has an exciting one planned for you this Sunday.

Thank you to those of you who commented this week or at any point in the past. Thank you to every last one of our subscribers, to anyone who’s read one of our articles. Thank you all. You make us feel like we are doing this for a reason.