Let's talk about your acting! You recently posted on Twitter about an acting gig. Any details you can share about it, and do you plan on doing more in the future?
A bunch of my friends are roaring right now. "Talk about his acting? He never shuts up about it!"
I posted on Twitter about the Ash and Bone premiere in LA. It's a story of a rebellious girl who , in classic horror fashion, messes with a house she was told to avoid. I play Clete McKinley, who resides in the house with his sister May. We have our own way of doing things, most of them unpleasant.
Next up is Stealing Jokes, a rare comedy for me with Jeff Dye, Michael Rappaport, Pauly Shore, Ryu Go Eun and HaHa Davis.
Daily writing is something that happened between acting gigs.
Based on sheer time, Writing is my wife and acting is my mistress, but if a genie told me to pick just one, writing would tremble.
That's crazy, man, I had no idea. I went and watched the trailer yesterday. I think you have one line in it, but was cool to see. When it releases I'll give it a watch. I keep an active eye out for anything you're doing in the Detroit area. I'm less than a hour away 👍
Involving writing: Not starting daily writing sooner in life, not being more proactive about spending time with Elmore Leonard who I met a few times, not learning the art of the screenplay sooner.
Like they say, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. The Butthole Surfers cover that topic poetically. Most of my regrets are things I didn't do.
If I did something regrettable TO someone, I'm willing to apologize as best I can.
Paul, the burglar, is a guy I want to bring back. If I had more time to work on Roulette Weal (which can only be created financially through a spike in subscriptions allowing me to dump other hustles) I would go in and see where the worlds of the different stories mesh. I know I could weave some of the places and people together,it would just take time.
Right now keeping up a daily writing pace is challenging enough.
I often picture you writing when I am reading your stories. No specific visuals really, maybe more your essence as you write. So my curiosity wants to know where and what time of day/night is ideal for writing?
Oh! Can’t wait to see Ash and Bone! Will it be streaming soon?
Over the course of Roulette Weal, I've probably been writing every possible minute of the daily clock, but the heat map would be heavily red on 11pm to 5am, with 1-3 being the core time.
Always in my place, never a coffee shop or bar. Take that back. I wrote one on my phone at Smalls during a power outage at my house, but the bar was empty.
How did you (if it was a factor for you) overcome your fear (which in my case might also be laziness) and just start writing every day? What did it take to develop the discipline?
Fear wasn't an issue, just discipline. You know the Public Image line "anger is an energy"? I started writing every day when I was angry about a few things. The discipline came in when I simply didn't want to let myself down. The same discipline I apply to sobriety I apply to writing. If I take a day off sobriety, I'm fucked. So I guess, in a way, now there is a fear of NOT writing.
If you set an achievable daily word goal at the beginning, you can do it. That way you have 24 hours to write ____ amount of words. Find the time. No one is that busy. The more you do it, the more you'll enjoy it.
If you're working on a novel and the novel isn't flowing one day and it stresses you out, write a character sketch or short story that has zero to do with the novel. As long as you keep writing.
Elmore Leonard, Tom Robbins, Tad Williams by a mile in fantasy, Josh Malerman (my buddy, so a huge bias) in horror. But Josh is great. Inspection, in my indelible and not to be argued with opinion, :) is even better than Bird Box.
Just finished Michael Zadoorian's first novel Second Hand, which I enjoyed and utterly adored little snippets of.
I constantly have a fantasy novel of some sort going to help escape the bullshit stew of the real world. Right now it's Fire and Blood by GRRM, the book House of the Dragon is based on. Not my favorite, but I love the Game of Thrones world, so it works.
1.I have learned that I was a reckless idiot for offering stories every day. Really, there's a massive difference between writing every day and publishing every day. While the discipline of having to finish a piece every day is an amazing thing to build, there's not the safety net of "I'll go to bed and edit that tomorrow."
2. I don't think I've learned much except for the realization that the market is not as large as I thought it would be and the day to day quality doesn't drive subscriptions. Maybe I have some sort of Pavlovian weakness, but when I write a piece I'm proud of that gets good feedback, I feel like that should lead to audience growth. It doesn't.
3. It depends. I am told that the online audience prefers shorter-I think the research geniuses have it nailed at a 20 word landing area somewhere in the 400s-but once i start writing, I stay true to the characters and story. There's never a sense of "better wrap this up because some MIT PhD says I'll lose my audience." I know Eggshells is very popular and that's one of my longer ones.
4. I'm not super comfortable doling out advice, because I certainly don't have it all figured out. But generally, write what makes you happy but be prepared for and respond to feedback. If something doesn't work for people, do your best to figure out why. Anyone writing fiction should read Palahniuk's Consider This and really try to understand it. You see people on Twitter saying "I don't want to play by the rules of writing", but some of those rules are part of a deeply engrained element of the human psyche, and when those rules are broken, the odds of a mass audience are slim. Those same people are always the ones complaining about horrible sales. Chuck explains it better than I can in this response. In terms of Substack in general, be consistent. If that means 2 stories a week, stick to it. I have saved a dozen screenshots of newsletter writers who post "sorry for my absence, my mom died, my husband lost his job, etc, etc, etc,. I have empathy for those people, but at the same time, when you suffer a tragedy or major inconvenience, you still have to feed the dog. So a quick trip to the computer to say "There was a death in the family, please be patient" is better than 6 fucking months later going "Hey, sorry, but...". I did that when I got Covid. I told people my mom died. No, I warned 'em up front I had to take a break. Other than that I've published every day since August 21, 2020. Two or three days a week shouldn't be that hard if you love to write.
Also, use a voice recorder app on your phone to retain ideas that pop into your head when you don't have time to write. Those things are gold. Try to walk every day and think about characters and situations . I PROMISE something will come up worth recording and writing.
Red Wings are my Number 1. I grew up a block off Grand River a few miles down the street from Olympia Stadium. My Uncle Mal, this crazy old hard drinking, cigar smoking, Irish Priest got tickets from his parishioner, so I got to go when I was little.
Then when I was older, I traded Ramones tickets for playoff tickets. They lost to St. Louis that night, and people were leaving early. I was pissed. After years of the Dead Things and Darkness with Harkness, our team was in the playoffs, and people walked out on them. The next day I got the Winged Wheel tattooed on me.
Tigers are next.
DCFC, our soccer team in the USL Championship League is right up there with the Tigers. One of my stories is set in the bar at one of their games when they were in an even smaller league.
Had some fun with the Bad Boys, and I've known Dennis Rodman for years, but the current NBA bores me. I think the NFL is corrupt, but I'll be happy for all my friends if the Lions ever break the Curse of Bobby Layne.
Working on two novels and a screenplay. Hard to get any traction on them writing on Substack every day and doing my other hustles to make a living.
Thanks for sharing everything above. It’s always fun reading your personal anecdotes and “stories behind the stories”. I had a feeling you were going to say Red Wings but wasn’t sure!
What’s your idea of a romantic date? And if could go back in time and meet your 10 year old self, what would you say that would change your life than the one you’ve had so far?
Asking me about romance is like asking Hunter S. Thompson about a quiet evening at home.
I get an F in romance. I have one story that comes to mind that I might tell if I ever write a memoir. It involves a wild cocaine run if that gives you any indication of where I am on the romance map.
I'd be scared to change much, because I've had an interesting life, but I'd probably tell 10 year old me 2 things: You're not ugly (which I didn't discover until it was basically too late), and save some fucking money. You can have a good time without spending all of it.
I feel like I shorted you on that answer. So here goes:
Romantic evening would be a really intense playoff hockey game in June (this is important), followed by a quick trip to the casino with some kind of theatrical win, where I hand the woman a chip and say "follow me", and then we walk down Michigan Avenue, her confused about why we left with a chip in her hand, then somewhere deep down Michigan Avenue,in Southwest Detroit, a limo pulls up, I tell her to hand the chip to the driver, he calmly asks her to put on a blindfold, then drives us to Coolwater Campground on the Pine River, and I remove her blindfold so she can see Manistee National Forest on the night of the firefly hatch.
You have equated your writing life to an aquarium and the stories are what leaks out.
Do you limit what goes into your aquarium?
Have you lived your entire life by observation?
Are your stories the results of what you have seen, read, felt and melded together?
I've been reading you every day for months now and cannot classify you in any area as your genre is the vast experience of human existence. If I were forced to put you in a class, you would be the one who wandered on the fringes of each and every one; who occasionally disrupted; asked questions; engaged; led; taught. A person who is willing to help but also willing to listen and watch. A man questioning why and looking for answers, just like most everyone else, but has a genius for story-telling reality through fiction.
I can understand why you enjoy acting.
All the best.
Sorry I wrote an editorial. No reason to reply to all of it, although I am curious about the aquarium.
I like to think my aquarium is open to all, but I'm not gonna get a job in an insurance office just to research a story, so it's limited in that respect. And I have a few stories that are hidden under the aerator.
I have lived most of my life with my ass on fire and too drunk to properly observe, though I do remember enough of my rowdier days to include them in the stories.
The stories are definitely a meld of lived experiences, a vivid imagination and some literary influences, weighing heavily toward the first two.
I'm just gonna pause and enjoy the fact that you called me a genius.
In some stories (most) I'm an observer. Some I'm an intruder, but hopefully a welcome one. Although there are those parties where a drunken, obnoxious person shows up and everyone complains, but in hindsight their presence was the only interesting thing about the party.
I do enjoy acting, very much, and I hope you enjoy Ash and Bone. The early reviews have been very complimentary of the cast in general and Erika Hoveland and I in particular.
Thanks for being a big part of this, Joe. You enhance my experience a ton with your comments and questions.
Have you considered a pivot for Jimmy Doom's Roulette Weal? You have a lot to offer your audience. You're an actor that knows people, and has interesting life stories to tell, you said you're writing a novel and a screenplay, and you have your regular fiction short stories. Add to that all that goes on in Detroit that you could discuss (for better or worse). I'm not saying it's even the right thing to do, or that you would even want that, but I was just curious if you've considered it. You could also send out a survey to your audience to ask. Just thinking out loud.
I had no idea that you were an actor and musician before I found you on Substack. I had been looking for more authors to read when I came across your work. So now I’m curious, did you gain the majority of your readership through fans of your other work (like Almighty Lumberjacks of Death), or did many of them find you through your writing like I did?
Such a tough question. They are all meaningful for one reason or another ( but I suppose most people feel that way about their ink). Forced to choose, I would say my band logo, because I was an integral part of that band and " earned" it more than I did some of the others. As much as the band is so far in the past it's no longer even visible in the rearview, it shaped and facilitated what I do now.
LOVE your writings...do they coincide with your real life events??
They often coincide with my real life mood, but not always.
I draw from my own experiences, but not necessarily current events. That would get boring for all of us.
I shuffle through ideas all day. Whatever I feel like around midnight is what I write.
Let's talk about your acting! You recently posted on Twitter about an acting gig. Any details you can share about it, and do you plan on doing more in the future?
A bunch of my friends are roaring right now. "Talk about his acting? He never shuts up about it!"
I posted on Twitter about the Ash and Bone premiere in LA. It's a story of a rebellious girl who , in classic horror fashion, messes with a house she was told to avoid. I play Clete McKinley, who resides in the house with his sister May. We have our own way of doing things, most of them unpleasant.
Next up is Stealing Jokes, a rare comedy for me with Jeff Dye, Michael Rappaport, Pauly Shore, Ryu Go Eun and HaHa Davis.
Daily writing is something that happened between acting gigs.
Based on sheer time, Writing is my wife and acting is my mistress, but if a genie told me to pick just one, writing would tremble.
That's crazy, man, I had no idea. I went and watched the trailer yesterday. I think you have one line in it, but was cool to see. When it releases I'll give it a watch. I keep an active eye out for anything you're doing in the Detroit area. I'm less than a hour away 👍
Where are you?
(Here's my imdb in case you wanna give any of my previous stuff a look) https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3224066/
Northville area, but I've got friends and family all over SE Michigan - Dearborn, Ann Arbor, Clinton Township, Macomb, etc. It's home 👍
What's your biggest regret?
Involving writing: Not starting daily writing sooner in life, not being more proactive about spending time with Elmore Leonard who I met a few times, not learning the art of the screenplay sooner.
Like they say, it's better to regret something you have done than something you haven't done. The Butthole Surfers cover that topic poetically. Most of my regrets are things I didn't do.
If I did something regrettable TO someone, I'm willing to apologize as best I can.
Any thought to having any of the characters be recurring?
Paul, the burglar, is a guy I want to bring back. If I had more time to work on Roulette Weal (which can only be created financially through a spike in subscriptions allowing me to dump other hustles) I would go in and see where the worlds of the different stories mesh. I know I could weave some of the places and people together,it would just take time.
Right now keeping up a daily writing pace is challenging enough.
I often picture you writing when I am reading your stories. No specific visuals really, maybe more your essence as you write. So my curiosity wants to know where and what time of day/night is ideal for writing?
Oh! Can’t wait to see Ash and Bone! Will it be streaming soon?
Night time.
Over the course of Roulette Weal, I've probably been writing every possible minute of the daily clock, but the heat map would be heavily red on 11pm to 5am, with 1-3 being the core time.
Always in my place, never a coffee shop or bar. Take that back. I wrote one on my phone at Smalls during a power outage at my house, but the bar was empty.
Ash and Bone releases Oct 14
How did you (if it was a factor for you) overcome your fear (which in my case might also be laziness) and just start writing every day? What did it take to develop the discipline?
Fear wasn't an issue, just discipline. You know the Public Image line "anger is an energy"? I started writing every day when I was angry about a few things. The discipline came in when I simply didn't want to let myself down. The same discipline I apply to sobriety I apply to writing. If I take a day off sobriety, I'm fucked. So I guess, in a way, now there is a fear of NOT writing.
If you set an achievable daily word goal at the beginning, you can do it. That way you have 24 hours to write ____ amount of words. Find the time. No one is that busy. The more you do it, the more you'll enjoy it.
If you're working on a novel and the novel isn't flowing one day and it stresses you out, write a character sketch or short story that has zero to do with the novel. As long as you keep writing.
Do you have a favorite author? Are you reading anything right now? Who?
Elmore Leonard, Tom Robbins, Tad Williams by a mile in fantasy, Josh Malerman (my buddy, so a huge bias) in horror. But Josh is great. Inspection, in my indelible and not to be argued with opinion, :) is even better than Bird Box.
Just finished Michael Zadoorian's first novel Second Hand, which I enjoyed and utterly adored little snippets of.
I constantly have a fantasy novel of some sort going to help escape the bullshit stew of the real world. Right now it's Fire and Blood by GRRM, the book House of the Dragon is based on. Not my favorite, but I love the Game of Thrones world, so it works.
1. What have you learned from writing every day?
2. What have you learned about posting fiction online?
3. Do people respond better to shorter or longer pieces?
4. What advice do you have for other fiction writers on Substack?
1.I have learned that I was a reckless idiot for offering stories every day. Really, there's a massive difference between writing every day and publishing every day. While the discipline of having to finish a piece every day is an amazing thing to build, there's not the safety net of "I'll go to bed and edit that tomorrow."
2. I don't think I've learned much except for the realization that the market is not as large as I thought it would be and the day to day quality doesn't drive subscriptions. Maybe I have some sort of Pavlovian weakness, but when I write a piece I'm proud of that gets good feedback, I feel like that should lead to audience growth. It doesn't.
3. It depends. I am told that the online audience prefers shorter-I think the research geniuses have it nailed at a 20 word landing area somewhere in the 400s-but once i start writing, I stay true to the characters and story. There's never a sense of "better wrap this up because some MIT PhD says I'll lose my audience." I know Eggshells is very popular and that's one of my longer ones.
4. I'm not super comfortable doling out advice, because I certainly don't have it all figured out. But generally, write what makes you happy but be prepared for and respond to feedback. If something doesn't work for people, do your best to figure out why. Anyone writing fiction should read Palahniuk's Consider This and really try to understand it. You see people on Twitter saying "I don't want to play by the rules of writing", but some of those rules are part of a deeply engrained element of the human psyche, and when those rules are broken, the odds of a mass audience are slim. Those same people are always the ones complaining about horrible sales. Chuck explains it better than I can in this response. In terms of Substack in general, be consistent. If that means 2 stories a week, stick to it. I have saved a dozen screenshots of newsletter writers who post "sorry for my absence, my mom died, my husband lost his job, etc, etc, etc,. I have empathy for those people, but at the same time, when you suffer a tragedy or major inconvenience, you still have to feed the dog. So a quick trip to the computer to say "There was a death in the family, please be patient" is better than 6 fucking months later going "Hey, sorry, but...". I did that when I got Covid. I told people my mom died. No, I warned 'em up front I had to take a break. Other than that I've published every day since August 21, 2020. Two or three days a week shouldn't be that hard if you love to write.
Also, use a voice recorder app on your phone to retain ideas that pop into your head when you don't have time to write. Those things are gold. Try to walk every day and think about characters and situations . I PROMISE something will come up worth recording and writing.
I know you are a big Detroit sports fan...but which team is your favorite? (Does it depend on the season?)
Also, are you working on any writing projects outside of Substack?
Red Wings are my Number 1. I grew up a block off Grand River a few miles down the street from Olympia Stadium. My Uncle Mal, this crazy old hard drinking, cigar smoking, Irish Priest got tickets from his parishioner, so I got to go when I was little.
Then when I was older, I traded Ramones tickets for playoff tickets. They lost to St. Louis that night, and people were leaving early. I was pissed. After years of the Dead Things and Darkness with Harkness, our team was in the playoffs, and people walked out on them. The next day I got the Winged Wheel tattooed on me.
Tigers are next.
DCFC, our soccer team in the USL Championship League is right up there with the Tigers. One of my stories is set in the bar at one of their games when they were in an even smaller league.
Had some fun with the Bad Boys, and I've known Dennis Rodman for years, but the current NBA bores me. I think the NFL is corrupt, but I'll be happy for all my friends if the Lions ever break the Curse of Bobby Layne.
Working on two novels and a screenplay. Hard to get any traction on them writing on Substack every day and doing my other hustles to make a living.
Thanks for sharing everything above. It’s always fun reading your personal anecdotes and “stories behind the stories”. I had a feeling you were going to say Red Wings but wasn’t sure!
Drank out of the Cup a few times. That sealed the deal for sure.
What’s your idea of a romantic date? And if could go back in time and meet your 10 year old self, what would you say that would change your life than the one you’ve had so far?
Asking me about romance is like asking Hunter S. Thompson about a quiet evening at home.
I get an F in romance. I have one story that comes to mind that I might tell if I ever write a memoir. It involves a wild cocaine run if that gives you any indication of where I am on the romance map.
I'd be scared to change much, because I've had an interesting life, but I'd probably tell 10 year old me 2 things: You're not ugly (which I didn't discover until it was basically too late), and save some fucking money. You can have a good time without spending all of it.
Oh Jimmy…..❤️
I feel like I shorted you on that answer. So here goes:
Romantic evening would be a really intense playoff hockey game in June (this is important), followed by a quick trip to the casino with some kind of theatrical win, where I hand the woman a chip and say "follow me", and then we walk down Michigan Avenue, her confused about why we left with a chip in her hand, then somewhere deep down Michigan Avenue,in Southwest Detroit, a limo pulls up, I tell her to hand the chip to the driver, he calmly asks her to put on a blindfold, then drives us to Coolwater Campground on the Pine River, and I remove her blindfold so she can see Manistee National Forest on the night of the firefly hatch.
That’s perfect!! Now that’s a date!! Shades of Gray, Eyes Wide Shut and camping!! And definitely a hockey game!! ❤️
You have equated your writing life to an aquarium and the stories are what leaks out.
Do you limit what goes into your aquarium?
Have you lived your entire life by observation?
Are your stories the results of what you have seen, read, felt and melded together?
I've been reading you every day for months now and cannot classify you in any area as your genre is the vast experience of human existence. If I were forced to put you in a class, you would be the one who wandered on the fringes of each and every one; who occasionally disrupted; asked questions; engaged; led; taught. A person who is willing to help but also willing to listen and watch. A man questioning why and looking for answers, just like most everyone else, but has a genius for story-telling reality through fiction.
I can understand why you enjoy acting.
All the best.
Sorry I wrote an editorial. No reason to reply to all of it, although I am curious about the aquarium.
I like to think my aquarium is open to all, but I'm not gonna get a job in an insurance office just to research a story, so it's limited in that respect. And I have a few stories that are hidden under the aerator.
I have lived most of my life with my ass on fire and too drunk to properly observe, though I do remember enough of my rowdier days to include them in the stories.
The stories are definitely a meld of lived experiences, a vivid imagination and some literary influences, weighing heavily toward the first two.
I'm just gonna pause and enjoy the fact that you called me a genius.
In some stories (most) I'm an observer. Some I'm an intruder, but hopefully a welcome one. Although there are those parties where a drunken, obnoxious person shows up and everyone complains, but in hindsight their presence was the only interesting thing about the party.
I do enjoy acting, very much, and I hope you enjoy Ash and Bone. The early reviews have been very complimentary of the cast in general and Erika Hoveland and I in particular.
Thanks for being a big part of this, Joe. You enhance my experience a ton with your comments and questions.
Have you considered a pivot for Jimmy Doom's Roulette Weal? You have a lot to offer your audience. You're an actor that knows people, and has interesting life stories to tell, you said you're writing a novel and a screenplay, and you have your regular fiction short stories. Add to that all that goes on in Detroit that you could discuss (for better or worse). I'm not saying it's even the right thing to do, or that you would even want that, but I was just curious if you've considered it. You could also send out a survey to your audience to ask. Just thinking out loud.
I had no idea that you were an actor and musician before I found you on Substack. I had been looking for more authors to read when I came across your work. So now I’m curious, did you gain the majority of your readership through fans of your other work (like Almighty Lumberjacks of Death), or did many of them find you through your writing like I did?
Only about 5 ALD fans can read and 2 of them subscribe.
I think most of my subscribers came from writing word of mouth/friends/social media.
A handful of writers followed me here after I/ we became disenchanted with Medium.
What happened with Medium?
They cut the pay, tried to slap some corporatespeak explanation on it, how it was more equitable. It was a cut.
Glad I moved to Substack, though I was hoping for a better growth rate
Question from Peyton - what is one acting strategy you would recommend to young actors?
Question from Jeff - who’s cooler, Strummer, Bowie or Keith Richards?
Business strategy?
Because acting isn't a " strategy" except for the business end of it. Peyton has a free lesson any time
Jeff knows the answer to his question.
What’s your favorite tattoo on yourself and why?
Such a tough question. They are all meaningful for one reason or another ( but I suppose most people feel that way about their ink). Forced to choose, I would say my band logo, because I was an integral part of that band and " earned" it more than I did some of the others. As much as the band is so far in the past it's no longer even visible in the rearview, it shaped and facilitated what I do now.