Well. Well. Well. Look who’s decided to post again.
It has been several… years? Eight, in fact? Good lord. This site has been gathering internet dust since 2017?!?
*taps pressure gauge*
*waggles gear shifter*
*cranks engine* *splutter* *screech* *clouds of blue exhaust*
*uncertain arrhythmic firing of website pistons*
We’re back, baby! Good to see you. You look great.
I’ve been fairly busy. I got an MFA in creative writing. I taught college classes for a while. I moved to the South. My wife got cancer. She’s better now. I started a bookstore. That tea clipper book is still in the works. Things are mostly pretty good for me. On the whole, things could be much worse.
I want to be honest with you, though. Creatively, personally, emotionally, I feel like I’ve been in a state of suspended animation since 2017. I had hoped to put a final nail in the coffin of my frustrations and anxieties with American politics/culture in the last election cycle, but of course, the opposite happened instead. And so, I’ve decided that the best revenge is to live well.
I am reorienting my life. Instead of spending my precious hours twisting artisanal volvuluses in my guts about politics, the news, and other things which I cannot control, I want to actually live instead. That means writing. That means trying stuff. Enjoying things. Shaping the tiny micro-sub-fraction of the world which I can influence into something as good as I am capable of making it.
Maybe I should have learned this earlier. Lots of people seemed to have had a similar epiphany during the pandemic. For me it wasn’t until American body politic shat itself to death that I thought maybe Voltaire might be right about the whole “cultivate your own garden” thing.
So here we are.
Lots of exciting stuff coming up in 2025 for me.
I’m getting ready to start sending off this tea clipper manuscript to agents.
My brother and I are starting a podcast.
This blog is back online.
I’ll hopefully test out to the next belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Completed 2/25/25
I want to post lots of book and movie reviews. I want to act in plays and small ridiculous tv and independent film productions. I want to share inane thoughts on life, celebrate the luminous, and connect with people.
I hope you’ll join me.
About Joshua Rigsby
Joshua Rigsby runs an independent bookstore in a small southern town. His writing has been featured on Thrillist, Atlas Obscura, Southern California Public Radio, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Atlantic.
