A Year in Review

My journey at Along the Hudson

Photo: J. Deming

Dear Reader,

Before I begin, I genuinely want to thank you for being here. It’s been an absolute delight sharing my fiction with you and hosting these fifty-word writing challenges.

I’ve been reflecting this past week about my year with writing and what I hope to accomplish in 2023. I hope you don’t mind if I share some of these thoughts here with you today.

2022

In March of 2022, I rebranded my Substack from Micro 2 Go to Along the Hudson. This change occurred for many reasons. One of them was that I wanted a fresh start. A do-over, if you will. Another was that I wanted to pay homage to the Hudson River because of its importance and relevance in my life. But mainly I think this change occurred because the river itself is a perfect metaphor for my journey. The Hudson will always flow north to south, but other aspects of it will change — and are constantly changing all the time. Banks erode, the water level rises and falls, and the temperature fluctuates with the seasons.

I think of my writing in similar terms. Giving myself some flexibility and allowing myself to make changes as I progress only makes sense.

This past year has taught me so many things about myself and my writing. One lesson I’ve learned is that if I set deadlines, I can hit them. There were many Sunday and Thursday night writing sessions that consisted of last-minute stories that sometimes came down to the wire. Was the outcome always pretty? Absolutely not. But, more importantly, I was able to stick to a schedule and get the writing done.

I’ve also learned that inspiring others to write, or at least helping them start the process, brings me joy. Maybe this isn’t something new — I’ve had an on/off relationship with fifty-word stories for years at this point — but hosting Fifties by the Fire has been such incredible fun. The reading, writing, and celebration of each other’s work have helped to create a positive community. It’s really neat to see the camaraderie develop within this band of writers. The collaborative, behind-the-scenes work has been a lot of fun, too. It’s been a pleasure getting the chance to work with John Lightle, an extraordinary photographer and constant source of inspiration. Thank you to Amie McGraham over at

the micro mashup.

for introducing me to John, and a very special thank you to John for the creative dialogue — and for providing us all with such incredible photos.

Speaking of which, this Friday I will be sending out one of John’s poems. You won’t want to miss it!

2023

Looking ahead to 2023 — or downriver, I suppose — I’m going to make a slight adjustment to my publishing schedule.

Moving forward, I am only going to publish original fiction on Mondays. I want to give myself more time to deliver quality, polished stories, and this seems like the best way to approach this. I also have other side projects that I want to focus on as well. (Speaking of which, I’ve been making slow and steady progress with my flash fiction collection!)

There won’t be any major changes to the way “fifties” are being run. I’m going to continue posting prompts for them at the tail-end of my fiction. Fifties by the Fire will be held on the first and third Friday of every month.

I’ve been toying with the idea of creating “mystery prompts” on the second and fourth Friday of every month. If I follow through with this, the prompts will be set up as threads, just like Fifties. Some examples may include writing a six-word story based on a particular topic or perhaps drafting a story in haiku form. There may even be whacky collaborative prompts that ask us to create stories one sentence at a time.

My question for you: would you be interested in these “mystery prompts” or would you simply prefer our fifties by the fire? I’d love your feedback!

And…I guess that’s a wrap!

I will be taking the final week of December off to rest, recharge, and spend some quality time with family and friends.

Though I will be sending out two more posts before the New Year (this Friday’s guest post and Embers for December), I want to thank you all — all 307 of you — for choosing to spend some of your precious time reading my work. And to the five of you who have chosen to support me as paid subscribers, I am beyond grateful for your generosity.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

All the best,

Justin