Back on the 'Stack

How do we build authentic communities when modern platforms aim to monetize our every interaction?

You might have noticed you haven’t heard from me for a while. That’s because it’s been a hell of a few months — both good and bad. My partner has been in and out of hospital, and I’ve been out on submission.

The boy is now doing well, while I’m working on a new secret WIP (more about my submission adventures soon!). I’ve finally had a moment to rest and recover, as well as reflect on everything that’s been happening, and it’s come as such an absolute relief.

Currently Reading: Just finished The Bronzed Beasts — it’s taken me far too long to finally hunt down a copy of the finale to Roshani Chokshi’s trilogy. I had no idea where it was going to end up, given the huge stakes throughout, but I enjoyed where it took me. If you’re looking for a fantasy heist adventure with a diverse YA cast, definitely check out the first book: The Gilded Wolves.

Back on the ‘Stack (for Now)

I’m going to be honest with you, dear reader: I never thought I’d be coming back to this platform. Back when everything was coming to light about Substack’s content policies, I decided to make the move back to my own website and domains. And yes, a heck of a lot of my thinking was along the lines that I didn’t want to be breaking bread with Nazis at the table — but more than that, I wanted to be able to start building and maintaining my community on my own terms.

So I decided to take a stab at starting a list on my own hosting. I brought most of you with me, and some of you stayed (and some of you didn’t). But I felt like I was starting to get the hang of things, and I even managed to expand my list to readers beyond the primary Substack audience. But then two things happened:

1. My husband and I were struck by a series of illnesses — treatment has involved hospital visits and multiple surgeries, all around both of us balancing jobs and clients.

2. At one point, as I was migrating and restructuring my websites, I ended up losing my entire list.

Here’s the rub: our world is increasingly dominated by platforms. Our communities, our communication, our interaction, everything we do, especially on the web (but also more and more off of it), has become a way for corporations to make money off of us. At any moment, our attention and our social circles can be taken away or diverted, because they are built on platforms that promise us convenience, reach, and ease of use. And yet, all that really means is that our social lives can be increasingly exploited by the people who claim ownership over the tools we use to connect.

There’s an argument to be made that capitalism exploits the means of production by separating the value of labour from the workers who create that value. Here, at the trailing edge of surveillance capitalism, we are now seeing this disconnect happening with one of the most basic human values: community.

I guess my question is this: how much of our genuine connection are we willing to sacrifice in the name of profit or convenience? Meta, Substack, Twitter (eXcuse me) — they all make it easy to share experiences with someone on the opposite side of the planet—

But at what cost?

And here’s where the irony strikes. Because of course, I’m talking about all of this on a Substack post. And yes, after the year I’ve had, I’ll admit that right now, I need the convenience that Substack provides for building my community.

So here I am. Back on the ‘Stack… for now.

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Join Me for an Adventure

I’m slowly building my self-hosted list back up. If you’d like to keep up with me beyond the ‘Stack, head to my website to sign up. I’ll be using it for future bookish updates, and I promise some interesting news on there soon.