Hello friends,
By the time you read this, I’ll be on my way to São Paulo’s International Airport with a one-way ticket to London. After five years of living in Brazil, helping care for my mom while running our family’s guesthouse, I’m returning to the UK to find work in the not-for-profit world and see if I can re-start my life there.
It’s been exactly 7 months since I launched this Substack, thanks to the encouragement of my dear friend Camille. Thank you for being here, reading and sometimes commenting too. I really appreciate it; it has made my experience on Substack so enjoyable.
When I first started, I thought this Substack would capture the unfurling of my translation career, and include a mixture of flash fiction, short stories and older pieces. The Writing Muse had other plans, however. The flash fiction in Messages from The Log took centre stage, and the longer pieces in Damn Fine Coffee, meant to come out twice a month, have appeared only once a month. I’m fine with this and I hope you are too!
Messages from the Log is where I post pieces that are exactly 100-words long. They are a mixture of my life in Brazil, my previous life in the UK, and some more abstract pieces based on dreams, writing exercises, etc. Damn Fine Coffee is for longer pieces and has included posts about being a carer for a parent with dementia, a short story based on Margaret Atwood’s MaddAddam trilogy, a ghost story, and a strange fellow’s e-mail communications.
All my content has been free and will continue to be so. I'm thinking of adding a paid subscription option once I hit 100 subscribers. Posts would still be free but then get archived behind a paywall after a while. I’m also toying with the idea of sending postcards and/or letters to paying subscribers as a thank you. We’ll see!
Since I’m moving to the UK without a job or a laptop, I don’t know when I’ll be able to sit down and post again. I’ve pre-scheduled a few posts to go out in the coming weekends; I think they should keep things going here while I settle into my new London routine.
I wish you all the best and look forward to sharing with you whatever adventures, sights and insights London has to offer.
Ollie x
Hope the move goes well, Ollie. You're a braver man that I moving to London.
I'll miss your stuff, but wishing you best of luck! (no going back and working my way through your archives. I didn't realize there were other sections!)