PicoBlog

As a long-time fiction writer who decided to dip my toes into serial fiction (on Kindle Vella and here on Substack), I’ve had a crash course in serial fiction—its history, best practices, and some of the very many platforms where it exists. In this issue of Story Cauldron, I dive into the depths of neverending stories, past, present, and future. Epic tales have existed for as long as humans have told stories.

Band of Brothers, the 10-part HBO series, debuted days before Black Tuesday in 2001. Looking back—I watched it for the first time last week—what’s best about Band of Brothers is a somber tone and reverence for the dead, maimed and walking wounded. The pre-steaming cable TV series of stories about young Americans bonding during the Allied invasion of Europe during what’s become known as the Second World War shows the horror of war.

Last night I texted my BFF Taylor, “Do you know who Jenna Lyons is?” Taylor, a sexy lesbian goth who’d rather be struck by lightning than step foot into a J. Crew, replied, “Is she the J. Crew bitch?” Yes, exactly. Jenna Lyons is The J. Crew Bitch. Basically Jenna Lyons is famous for making J. Crew cool in the mid-aughts. The Lyons aesthetic is very East Coast prep meets the coolest art professor at RISD.

A note to Fight Freaks Unite readers: I created Fight Freaks Unite in January 2021 and eight months later it also became available for paid subscriptions for additional content — and as a way to help keep this newsletter going and for readers to support independent journalism. If you haven’t upgraded to a paid subscription please consider it. If you have already, I truly appreciate it! Also, consider a gift subscription for the Fight Freak in your life.

I’m headed to Hawaii tomorrow, so it only feels fair to share a bonus recipe with you this week: poke bowls! This is a recipe from my cookbook, Just Married (but we added all of the WTC style notes and subs!), and it is actually a ridiculously easy meal, despite seeming complex and like something you’d never make at home. All it takes is really great fish and a few simple Asian ingredients, all of which can be found at a normal grocer, and all of which you probably already own if you cook a lot of my recipes!

Seth Abramson NYT bestselling author of eighteen books. Journalist. Attorney. Art critic. Recovering professor, radio broadcaster and “Best American” series editor. Words at CNN, CBS, BBC, HBO, PBS, NPR, CNBC, The New Yorker, Playboy, The Washington Post and more. 90K+ subscribers ncG1vNJzZmirpZfAta3CpGWcp51kjbSx06GYm6qRosCwug%3D%3D

Wednesday was Decision Day in college basketball, with dozens of players scrambling to finalize their plans in advance of the 11:59 p.m. deadline to declare their intentions regarding the 2024 NBA draft. That deadline is set by the NCAA, not the NBA, so there were a lot of players who were understandably seeking to maximize every possible second in order to secure themselves a possible spot in the pros. Practically speaking, the deadline applied largely to borderline prospects.

It’s been a surreal couple of weeks for me. For those who don’t know, after a year of ignoring some pretty scary symptoms, my doctor called to tell me that the results of some extensive testing revealed I have heart failure. I learned that typically means a person has a 50% chance of living five more years. I asked my doctor what I should do, and besides telling me I need to go to see the best cardiologist we can find, she said it was time to radically change my life.

My response to a recent inquiry from a former participant in my Wim Hof Method workshops. Richard has been buying ice for cold water exposure, which can become rather expensive over time. There are two general ways to create an ice bath. While both require a vessel such as a tub to hold water, the first method requires access to a couple of hundred pounds of ice either via your own ice machine or purchase of ice (Costco is the best place I’ve found with $2.