It’s My 100th Newsletter!

Graphic design by Matthew Murray (aka Matt) 😀

Can you believe it? This is my 100^th edition of my newsletter. I had to think long and hard about what I wanted for my 100^th newsletter.

I have been on a complete journey with my writing. What started as writing about my life has ballooned into getting back to writing my fiction and profiling my Abstract Art.

If you’re new here or have been around awhile, my Substack started out with not really a distinct idea of what I was going to write about. I’d say I started out a little shaky. I had written a lot of fiction but no one had ever seen it. But I decided not to show and write fiction when I started out.

The first two months I wrote three stories that I considered good. Then it hit me like a freight train of what I could write about. I started writing about my life, things from the present and the past. That’s when things started to take off. I started to get more subscribers and people started commenting and liking posts.

What I learned during this time is that it takes time to get people to subscribe to you. They don’t know you and they have to get used to what you’re writing about. Not everyone is going to like what you write. There will be ups and downs. You have to learn not to take it personally.

When I started this Substack, I was going through a lot of turmoil. It made me feel good to write here. It kept my mind off of all the worries. I still have a few worries but not as much as I did back then.

Once I started writing about my life, the responses I got let me dive into the lives of those who answered back on the comments. I found out they had stories too. That’s one of the best things about writing here, you get to find out that you may have something in common with others.

I’m surprised I have come up with so many stories from my life. I have a spreadsheet with a whole list. That list is getting shorter now.

Writing Fiction

I missed writing my fiction. That’s why I started writing fiction again and writing for some writing prompts on other Substacks. And then I started my new newsletter called Fiction LaunchPad. I came up with that name because I live on the Space Coast where they launch a rocket every few days. It felt like the most fitting title for my fiction newsletter.

I have appreciated all the great comments I’ve received about my fiction. It has made me want to write more of it. You will see much more fiction writing now. I love coming up with ideas and I seem to be able to come up with the writing so easily. For some reason, I have the knack for it.

I’m finding more Substacks where I can chip in my two cents with their writing prompts. In fact, I might add a survey with some choices for you to pick or ask for you to provide a prompt for me. I think it would be a fun way to interact with my readers.

Painting

Then I started my painting again. My advice is to never give up. I had thought I wasn’t going to excel as a painter. Then I got an idea and it took off. I’m enjoying all the art I’m creating. I enjoy posting it to my other newsletter section called Abstract Art. I appreciate all the feedback I’m getting.

There was no posting of my art for the month of March. In February, I only completed 2 paintings. In March I have completed 3 projects. My plan is to show those in April. So look for an expanded posting of all of those paintings.

Fiction Snippet

For those of you that like reading my fiction, I’m going to give you a sneak peek of some of what I have written for “The Woman on the Train”. You’ll remember I wrote that one back in August 2023. I knew I could expand on it and it’s currently over 11,000 words. I’ve been saying that the next posting is coming up but life took over and I haven’t had time to split it up into sections.

So here is a sneak peek:

As we exit the Sloan Square Station, I’m still hot on her tail. I can’t let her get out of my sight. There’s a booth set up with someone selling flowers. My senses are activated. I’m looking all around as I walk behind her. There are a bunch of guys on a bench in front of the stores as we walk down the sidewalk. There’s a couple of red phone booths. I didn’t even know they still had those. We got rid of those a long time ago. I guess England is different than the United States.

“Checking in,” I say.

“What took you so long?” the man on the other line says.

“I had some complications.”

“Bad?”

“Two goons. One with a gun.”

“Is she alright?”

That’s it for now. Stay tuned.

Freebie (I wish)

As I approach my 2-year anniversary on May 10, 2024, I wanted to do something special. But what I had planned has turned into a logistical nightmare. I had planned to give away a small piece of art, something along the lines of a 6x6 or 5x7.

I was going to see who the people were that were “liking” and “commenting” and throw their names into a hat and draw a winner. I was even going to video it.

But the problem I ran into was that 95 percent of the people live out of the country. When I started to research how I could mail a small painting to someone out of the country, I ran into big problems. Did you know that you have to declare it through customs? There are a lot of regulations. And the money you have to pay is extra too. Unfortunately, I cannot afford to go through all that trouble.

It was a good idea but good ideas don’t always work out.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this take on how this newsletter started and how it keeps getting better. 100 newsletters is a lot of work.

I’d like to thank all my readers who have been here throughout my journey. Let’s hope for 100 more newsletters.

Until next time, happy reading!

-Matt