A Peace Offering to My Brilliant Future Brother-In-Law and an Overview of This Publication
To Me It's a Moral Obligation to Push Great Writers to Fulfill Their Potential and Transcend Their Boundaries
Dear Ted,
I’d like to sincerely thank you for the Christmas gift. Presidents of War: The Epic Story from 1807 to Modern Times certainly shows how much you’ve paid attention to my nature and interests. I am what the modernist literary critic Desmond MacCarthy (1877-1952) once christened himself: The Affable Hawk. I generally advocate for necessary wars and embrace an “aggressive” foreign policy in dealing with terrorist groups and tyrannical regimes. I zealously call for militancy both in my Zionism and my feminism. While I own no guns myself and have never even fired one, I am a firm defender of 2nd amendment principles, and I admire your late father’s expertise and literary skill on the subject.
(Editor's Note: Pictured above is our father, Daniel M. Shideler (1960-2011), who ended a long creative career by achieving his boyhood dream of becoming Editor of the long-running firearm bibles Gun Digest, The Standard Catalog of Firearms, and many more. His publishing home was Krause Publications of Iola, WI. -SS)
However, as you are no doubt aware, part of knowing when to make war is knowing when to make peace, and a key aspect of firearm usage is knowing how to use weapons against humans only when absolutely necessary.
Thus, a proposition: let’s end this little feud which we’ve stumbled into for various reasons. We both love your darling sister
and she doesn’t deserve to be in the middle of our shooting match of egos. And she recently revealed to me just why she thinks we’ve come to butt heads so much: “you’re both cut from the same cloth,” she said.And I agree with her. We’re both deeply passionate writers and highly eccentric creatives, and we have simply chosen different modes of expression through which to process the many traumas which we have both experienced. And Sally has recently explained to me what she suspects is really driving our differences at the moment, so I wanted to make clear where I stand and offer you a bit of public praise for the work you do.
I very much respect you for your writing, now collected at your site, previously your separate blogs, on your hobbies of Indiana history and your father’s passion for tobacco pipe smoking. I even appreciate your occasional “trolling” of the writers here at this Substack, challenging them to do better in their writing.
My recent pushing and encouraging you to write on “loftier” subject matter is not because I do not respect what you’re already doing, but because I do respect it, and I see your incredible potential. I want you to keep writing about your quirky interests. And I truly did not mean to be patronizing, or to suggest that your favorite subjects aren't worth your affection and investment. It's simply that, as a professional editor now since 2009, I feel a particular obligation, when I see a writer as naturally gifted as you are, to push him or her further and expand in terms of range. It's a habit.
In doing this with you, I am simply doing what I do with all the writers with whom I work or want to work: encouraging you to evolve and getting you to consider that your potential to contribute to the writing world is tremendous.
Your own website is doing great, I hear: congratulations! Again, however, I extend to you the invitation: if and when you are ever ready to contribute to our small-but-growing site, and start to develop a book project or two for our future publication, you’re very welcome to do so. I really think your unique voice would fit in with those of our contributors and their developing projects, which I have chosen to introduce all here. I know you’ve followed our publication more closely than many, but I thought there might still be some things you don't know about our current slate of contributors.
For the benefit of our many new readers, as well as for you, let me introduce our most regular writers - and the ways in which I'm pushing them to evolve and develop their best voices and perspectives:
First off is a man who plays one of the most important roles at God of the Desert Books, who will make our publishing efforts and business model possible in the first place.
is our Vice President and Art Director. His primary task is to design the covers of our books, marketing visuals, and the art utilized in our other upcoming products like t-shirts, hats, mugs, and so forth.Mike and I have bonded politically over our shared Tea Party roots and our ideological hatred of Donald J. Trump and his Trumpist populist-nationalist political movement. Mike is basically a libertarian-conservative hawk like myself, and also a Navy veteran, a fact that just boosts him even higher in my esteem.
Mike hasn’t been able to contribute as much to the Substack lately because he, his wonderful wife, Bonnie, and their son, Glenn, have recently moved into a new house. Now that they’re more settled, he’s eager to start contributing regularly. You may have noticed he has a shorter, bloggier style: understand that he's primarily a visual artist, and I’m pushing him to start doing longer pieces. I hope he'll lay out in greater depth his views on all sorts of subjects, and dig into his own fascinating autobiographical journey. We’re also planning to co-author some pieces in the future and do some joint podcasting. He’s first and foremost a wonderful artist - he created the caricature of me above which references Where’s Waldo, Watchmen, and the Jigsaw puppet from Saw - but I’ve read enough of his writing and talked with him so much on the phone to know he’s got great writing and thinking potential too.
Now,
I know you’re quite familiar with, because you’ve occasionally jousted with him in the comments over his much more traditionalist, socially conservative views. I intend for Alec to be the first author whose first novel we’ll publish, as he was essentially “next in line” of the books which we intended to publish at Liberty Island Books before I had to shut it down.Alec’s primarily a science fiction author in his writing, and his 3-part sci-fi series he’s drafted I’d describe as in a 1980s space opera, “Star Wars,” “Battlestar Galactica” vein. I’m really excited to publish it, and Mike has already created some of the covers.
But I’ll be pushing Alec more too. It’s fine for him to continue with science fiction, but he’s such a skilled writer that I hope we can publish other books from him in different genres, including nonfiction.
You’ve also certainly noted that Alec and I disagree on the “social issues.” He’s very much a serious Catholic with the number of children that entails, and takes a very different position than I do on LGBTQ+, abortion, and likely other related cultural subjects we haven’t talked much about yet. (Though on abortion, we’re really not that far apart - in spite of being raised by a 2nd wave feminist, I’ve grown fairly moderate on the issue after years of editing pro-life activists. They have some legitimate points.) And these differences are fine with me. I bring this up with you to emphasize that, while I’m very strident on many issues, I’m certainly tolerant on a good number of others, and do sincerely welcome robust debate.
The only issue on which I demand some level of agreement on this publication is the state of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state and defend itself from annihilation. Everyone we publish must embrace some form of Zionism or another, which I defined here:
On most other political issues I’m fairly tolerant and open to warm debates here. Though, as an “Affable Hawk” there will be some exceptions - such as those advocating for Vladimir Putin’s genocide in Ukraine or defending China’s genocide against its Muslim population. Those bastards can fuck off. And, of course, while some reasonable debate about LGBTQ issues is necessary, outright anti-gay bigotry or any form of racism won’t be tolerated. I’m certainly not a “free speech absolutist,” à la “Space Karen” Elon Musk, and this isn’t Twitter.
Another Catholic writer who I just adore and we’ll also be publishing this year is
. Fred has written across genres but right now his focus is young-adult thrillers, three of which we published at Liberty Island and which we’ll now be republishing - under different branding and a new series name - through God of the Desert Books. It’s a 5-book series with a wonderful female protagonist, and I’m excited to return to the project. We’ll also publish the final two volumes in the series, which have not been published yet.Currently, Fred is going to contribute to the Substack with a series of movie reviews we’re going to plan to publish every Friday. These are appreciated (and needed!), but at some point I’m going to brainstorm with Fred something more challenging for him to pursue. But for now, I’m quite happy reading his takes on whatever films interest him.
contributes history book reviews. I’m going to have to nudge him to check out the super cool book you got me. It’s totally up his alley.I met Daniel at a writer’s conference in 2015 or so and found him a very kind, decent soul. He writes superhero novels but I believe he is expanding into other genres too. He and I don’t have a specific book project planned yet, but part of the reason I’m eager to include him here at GOTD is that I hope down the line we can develop one together. He’s just great - very creative, and his Substack,
is worth subscribing to and following. I'll sometimes cross-post his entries from it. I’ve been editing for some time now. I first became aware of his work when I was an editor for FrontPage Magazine and then spent a number of years editing him when I moved over to PJ Media. I even collected a bunch of his articles I edited which you can read here. He’s another author we’re planning as one of the first we’ll publish, since his memoir about moving to Israel was one of the books I nominated to be published at Liberty Island. It’s a wonderful book, and I hope to publish some of his novels too. Right now he writes lovely autobiographical reflections for us, and I’ve been very impressed by the amount of readers they’ve been attracting and how strongly so many people have responded to them. I do plan to push him on his poetry - he’s very good at that, too, and with the aid of our poetry editor I'm sure we could get an extraordinary collection out of him someday, when he's ready.Speaking of Jon Bishop, he was our poetry editor at Liberty Island, and is now our poetry editor here at God of the Desert Books. He’s a published poet himself and is simply wonderful. We both have similar poetic sensibilities and preferences, so he’s just ideal to be my eyes and ears in the poetry world, hunting for great writers who we should pursue. He hasn’t had as much time to contribute lately, but we’ll be getting more from him soon enough. Jon’s been a tremendously dear and loyal friend this year while I’ve grappled with the PTSD, as really everyone on this list of contributors has been.
is a writer especially near and dear to my heart, since his book The Art of Looking for Trouble was the first book that I both edited and published myself, back when we were still trying to relaunch Liberty Island Books. His was the very last book released under that publisher, so it's a high priority for me to republish it under God of the Desert Books as one of our first titles. He's also working on a second novel I'm very eager to read and publish too. It’s going to be so much fun developing the covers and products for his books with Mike.Tom writes in a style I’d describe as “literary comedy.” His writing style is simply superb, and he’s very good at creating endearing and humorous communities and groups of friends. The main reason I chose to publish The Art of Looking for Trouble is because I found the Catholic bar setting and cast of characters so emotionally engaging and effective that one of the chapters even made me cry. Tom is so gifted as a writer, and I love encouraging him and pushing him to do more. He’s also been a very dear friend as I’ve struggled with PTSD, checking in with me with frequent Twitter direct messages that have meant so much.
I know you've also noticed in the past. He writes his own Substack too called which I urge you to subscribe to also. I met Jay around about 2010, when he gave a lecture at a "Restoration Weekend" event for conservative activists when I was an editor at the Freedom Center. And Jay just blew me away with his knowledge of foreign policy and moral clarity. He’s a Vice President at the conservative flagship think tank The Heritage Foundation, and I used to edit him at PJ Media, where he wrote mostly about movies. He still primarily writes about that for us - he writes so much about military matters that I gather he likes having a venue to write on his other passions.As with Daniel Sherrier, Jay and I don’t have a specific book project in development yet, but he’s certainly on my list of people to promote, and I hope we'll publish a book-length work down the line. A collection of some of his best foreign policy writings is something I’d really enjoy working with him to put together, but he has a lot of potential as a creative writer, too.
And, of course, I’ve saved the best for last. I don’t need to praise your sister
's writing abilities to you, you certainly already fucking know all too well how damn good she is, both as a writer and an editor, hence why I’ve made her Managing Editor of this Substack, president of God of the Desert Books, and my primary writing partner on whatever we decide to pursue together. Her writing is one of the reasons why I fell in love with her.But understand: just as I’ve pushed you to dive into more subjects outside of your comfort zone, you can be damn sure I’ve done so even harder with her. I love what Sally already contributes to this Substack, but where she’s at is really just the beginning of her potential. I’m pushing her to start planning her books and considering longer essays, and have grown excited by her potential as an investigative journalist. She’s going to be great - but even she needs an editor to motivate and push her. And I intend to do that throughout our marriage.
(Editor's Note: Oh, goody. -SS)
So there you go, Ted - that’s our primary cast of characters so far! I’m planning to publish books by several of these folks this year, and by others who will hopefully be a little further down the line. I’m also hoping to publish some collections by two of my dead Zionist mentors, first Jack Saltzberg (read some of his work here) and then, if I’m lucky, maybe I’ll be able to do a collection celebrating Barry Rubin (read some of his work here.) There are also a few other writers in the wings we’re considering, too.
So can you see now why I’ve been so zealous in pushing you to contribute and urging you to expand your range? I do this with everyone I regard as a gifted writer - even including your own mother, whose prose is simply tremendous. All nine of the writers I’ve written about and described to you here have boundless potential to write books, articles, scripts, essays - basically whatever the hell they want. But each needs an editor to push them, motivate them, and sometimes pull them back when they get too close to falling off one cliff or another. And that includes me, of course - right now your sister is playing that role - and, I’d say, doing a damn good job of it, though I’ll certainly concede I still sometimes go over-the-top in my ranting.
And do you see the diversity of the writers we’ve got here and the broad range of the types of projects I’m working on with them? We’ve got serious literary books, fun genre books, nonfiction series reflections, my polemical broadsides and activist provocations. We’ve got longer essays, podcasts, cute dog photos, bloggy jokes. In other words: your quirky self would fit right in here, if you wanted to. I’d love for you to stir the pot a bit yourself, and use your writing to jolt and provoke the others a little, if you’re so inclined, on the subjects that matter to you. But controversy for controversy's sake is not my aim: we’d be very happy to publish on what fascinates you already - your Indiana history and pipe smoking interests would make great additions to our broad assortment of content.
I understand, of course, that I can be a bit of a jackass sometimes about this stuff - about a lot of stuff, really - and that not every war should be fought or can be won. And while I am in the habit of encouraging all writers I encounter to evolve and improve, I do recognize that doesn't mean my unsolicited challenges are always welcome. I apologize.
So if you really don’t want to contribute right now - or ever - and don’t want my help with drafting and publishing a book, or two, or three, of your choice, then I surrender. And we'll be here if you change your mind! For now, we’ve got the wonderful writers named above, and there are surely more, who Sally and I can't wait to discover soon. But please, know that we'd love for you to join the team, if you want to. We could really benefit from you and your perspective.
respect, warm regards, and hoping to see you again soon,
David Swindle
P.S. Oh, and I think I’ve already mentioned this to you previously, but I’ll emphasize it one last time. My broadside here against contemporary Indiana and Midwest culture is in no way a disrespect of your subject of studying Indiana history and architecture. As stated, I respect what you do. And I acknowledge that all of Indiana is not the same, that some towns and regions are going to be better or worse than others, and that a significant part of my negative Indiana experience was unique to Carmel, the town, and the insane size and general corruption of Carmel High School, the institution. If my family had picked a different town in which to live, and I’d gone to a better school, then I’d likely not have such animosity toward the state and its general cultural tendencies. I did not intend for any Hoosier to take offense who does not worship sports or use their power to bully others - and that's certainly not you.
