I’ve been unfaithful.

I fell for the siren-like allure of Substack and…well…one thing led to another and before I could say

I’ve got a headache-

I didn’t mean for this to get so serious-

Actually, I’m already in a longtime relationship with-

Before I could bleat out any number of excuses, I found I’d committed to a once weekly, never miss an edition, regular as clockwork newsletter thing with- oh lordy- proper subscribers and potential revenue and…

Oh boy. Have you read it, by the way? My Substack fling thing? I have poured a considerable chunk of time into the making of it. Weeks, in fact. Plus the pictures. So many darn illustrations.

I gave it my heart and soul with high hopes for a future where my writing might bring in a small chunk of income to help fund my outrageous lentil habit. Along with the traditionally published writing I’ve been doing for the past umpty decades.

Q How many decades in an umpty?

A At least three

Traditionally published writing is still ongoing but my success rate with getting projects up and running within a timescale where lentils are occasional rather than the backbone of dining at GlioriSchloss…well, not doing so well on that front.

The flow has dried up to an intermittent trickle with long periods of the drys. Not on my part, I hasten to add. I’m still creating art in a steady stream, but my publishing outlets have – to bludgeon a metaphor to death – furred up.

But, here’s the thing. Currently, as of September 2025 Substack is lovely, full of excellent writing, but so was Twitter, once upon a time. Facebook was amazing at first. Ditto Instagram. You see where I’m going with this? It is in the nature of these sites to rise, plateau and fall. The people behind these sites are not doing it for the greater good. Sooner or later they have to answer to their shareholders.

No. That’s not us. We, my darlings, we are the content providers. And in an age of ai , sooner or later we will be consumed, ground up, mixed into grey slurry and spread across that well known field where no fucks grow.

At some point, I need to come back here, to my tiny acreage of WordPress and build a little citadel of words and pictures.

Will you join me? I’d love if you would.

For now, I need good tech help to lay the foundations, so I may be some time. Lentils and tech help have to be earned and… yeah, that takes time. Bear with. I promise I’ll be back.

XDebi