Welcome to the New Year (and a New 5AM StoryTalk)!
A reintroduction to this arts newsletter, some exciting changes coming its way, and a preview of the brilliant artists and thinkers who will be joining me here for coffee and story talk in 2024
Happy New Year, dear readers. I hope the holidays treated you and yours as well as they did my family. Now that 2024 is upon us, I wanted to take this opportunity to reboot our relationship a bit – or, if you’re a relative newcomer to 5AM StoryTalk, properly introduce myself. Afterward, I’m going to tell you about some changes to this newsletter, as well as what you can expect from it during the coming year.
“THEY CALL ME MR. HADDON.”
Well, not really. Haddon is a nom de plume, but it’s what most people have called me for two decades now. You can call me Cole.
I’m a full-time screenwriter and novelist. I’ve sold far more film and TV projects than most people I know, but I’ve had far fewer projects produced than most people I know. It’s a mystery of the business, but, hey, I pay my bills and I love what I do. You may have seen my TV series “DRACULA” (2013), which I’ve written quite a bit about here; if you like horror stories, dive in. My debut novel PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD was published in 2022 by Headline Books and Hachette Australia; people seem to like it, which is nice. Dark Horse Entertainment, amongst others, have published my graphic novels.
Long story short: the arts have been very good to me.
I launched 5AM StoryTalk last April, ostensibly to share what I’ve learned from more than fifteen — sometimes glorious, sometimes nightmarish — years as a professional writer. Basically, to tell people the truth as I understand it, the truth nobody told me when I broke into the arts, so they would be better prepared than I was.
I said “ostensibly”, though. That’s because the driving force behind this Substack is really my passion for the arts in all its myriad forms. I just want to talk about what I love. Quite often, this means with other artists in what I have dubbed my artist-on-artist conversations. But just as important to me is the conversation I am having here with you.
WHAT IS 5AM STORYTALK?
5AM StoryTalk is, as I bill it, a place to talk about stories in all their forms, the craft that goes into them, and the role art plays in our lives. Film, novels and short stories, television, music, fine art, comic books – it’s all on the table here.
As for the name, it’s inspired by my favorite part of long nights out with friends in high school, but especially at university. Around 5AM, we would roll up to a diner — in Detroit, this often meant Coney Islands — and order plates of greasy food and, of course, coffee. While I wasn’t a big drinker even back then, my friends were. Still drunk, we would dive into lively debates about whatever art we were most excited by that week. We’d spend hours and hours of our lives on this kind of late-night/early-morning discourse every month.
5AM StoryTalk is an attempt to recapture some of that magic. It’s so far been most often on display in my artist-on-artist conversations, but a couple of changes to the newsletter hope to change that.
WHAT I WANT YOU TO TAKE FROM 5AM STORYTALK
I want you to enjoy art.
I want you to learn how to better appreciate art.
If you aspire to create art in any way or are already somewhere on that journey, I want you to hear about, be challenged by, and learn from others about how they create.
And if you hope to one day earn an income from your art, I hope to provide you some cautionary tales and tools to protect your mental health, secure your financial future, and retain as much creative integrity as possible.
With any luck, you will be inspired by all of this wherever you are on your journey. You should also feel supported by me and the artists I invite to join me at 5AM StoryTalk. The goal is never to tell you how to do anything, though sometimes language does lean that way because talking about art can sometimes sound like instruction. No, the real ambition is to provide you with real-world parables about all things related to art and let you take from them whatever is appropriate to you.
CHA-CHA-CHA-CHANGES
5AM StoryTalk is a dynamic newsletter, in that it is constantly evolving to reflect where I am as an artist and what I sense you need from me as a reader. I like to keep you informed of these changes because I believe we’re forging a community here.
Speaking of community…
When I turned on 5AM StoryTalk’s paywall, I reserved the ability to comment and receive my Weekly Question series for my paid subscribers. This has generally worked, but I find the comments sections less energetic than I’d like. I want this to be a community where we all talk, exchange ideas, and even get to know each other.
Because of this, I’m opening all comments — including my Weekly Questions — to all subscribers. I’ll unlock all previous articles, as well, allowing you to weigh in on older articles. Get in there, guys. Have fun. Weekly Questions will still remain active for one week only, as I like the ephemerality of this.
Please note, no abusive language will be tolerated and I will liberally block those who try to turn comments sections into dumpster fires.
As for my features…
I have devoted so much of myself to 5AM StoryTalk over the past nine months that I have not reserved enough time to focus on my next novel. More, in an effort to post so many articles — which, in my defense, I felt compelled to do by my sheer passion for this endeavor — I have concluded not all of my efforts have been equal. This is inevitable, but I feel I can do better if I put more energy into…well…less.
Because of this, I am going to shift from two articles free to all subscribers and one main feature exclusively available to paid subscribers to a new weekly schedule of one free article and one main feature for paid subscribers every week. More on that in a moment.
As for my artist-on-artist conversations…
These conversations take an extraordinary amount of work. But that’s irrelevant next to the challenge I experience maintaining equal gender representation here. I refuse to allow the article series to become weighted more toward male artists, but, that said, it has proven extremely difficult to do this for a variety of reasons.
Because of this, I am going to publish two to four rather than a guaranteed four artist-on-artist conversation every month. Fear not, most of the remaining slots will be filled with new multi-artist features that will see artists from multiple mediums weigh in on a subject with the hope that the juxtaposition of their answers and backgrounds will provide you deeper insight into the subjects.
Additionally, 5AM StoryTalk is expanding the arts conversation it’s having by inviting world-class arts thinkers to have coffee with us and discuss the culture, philosophy, and business of art – first up will be Ted Hope (indie film-producing legend and former Amazon Co-head of Film), journalist/author Maureen Ryan (BURN IT ALL DOWN: POWER, COMPLICITY, AND A CALL FOR CHANGE IN HOLLYWOOD), and Franklin Leonard (founder, The Black List).
MORE CHANGES TO COME
2024 will also eventually see 5AM StoryTalk introduce a unique kind of arts podcast I hope will excite you as much as it does me. Episodes will be a mix of free and exclusive to paid subscribers.
In addition, the first quarter of the new year will see the introduction of video chats in which paid subscribers will be able to join Zoom discussions with me and my artist-friends.
THE NEW PUBLISHING SCHEDULE
Here is what you can expect until the podcast and video chat features are introduced:
Tuesday morning PST: Main feature exclusive to paid subscribers
Thursday morning PST: Weekly Question, in which I pose an arts question for us all to discuss. Available to all subscribers.
Saturday morning PST: Feature article available to all subscribers.
Also:
First Friday morning PST of the month: A lengthy list of all the arts articles I’ve read in the past month that informed, inspired, or challenged me. Available to all subscribers.
Occasional Tuesday and Friday mornings PST: Bonus features. When these appear, they might be either free to all subscribers or exclusive to paid subscribers.
WHAT COMES NEXT
The first three months are shaping up to be an exciting time at 5AM StoryTalk.
Amongst the features coming to your way are epic artist-on-artist conversations with the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of ARRIVAL and BIRD BOX and creator of “SHADOW AND BONE” Eric Heisserer, “LINE OF DUTY” and “BODYGUARD” creator Jed Merucrio, Eisner Award-winning comic book writer Kelly Sue DeConnick, “HOUSE OF THE DRAGON” co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal, and Emmy-winning screenwriter and actress Lena Waithe (“THE CHI”).
Additionally, arts features with fun titles like “All Art Is Biography Made Flesh”, “Luke Skywalker Isn’t the Hero You Want Him to Be”, “A Tale of Two Aging Heroes: James Mangold’s LOGAN and INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY, “The Three Burials of Some Assh@le Named Cole Haddon”, and “Liminal Symbolism in STATION ELEVEN: The Space Between What Was and What Will Be”
HOW YOU CAN BECOME PART OF THE CONVERSATION
Easy. Just become a free subscriber.
Even better, get yourself a paid subscription. This is the best way to support my writing here, but especially the time, effort, and care I put into them. I like to think I get you some pretty intimate access to some of our best working artists, especially filmmakers. I can do more of that with the time your paid subscriptions provide.
If you’d like to support my work, but aren’t interested in an ongoing subscription, you can always “buy me a coffee” here:
If you’re unable to pay for a subscription, consider posting this link on social media with a note about why your friends need to subscribe, too. You’ll earn comp months of paid subscription with every free subscription you generate.
And, of course, you can just keep sharing my articles here or elsewhere on social media. The more people we can get to join this conversation, the better.
IN CLOSING
You’re all amazing. Thank you for being here. Thank you for loving art as much as I do. And thank you for being part of 5AM StoryTalk!
Genuinely excited by all of those feature titles. So much to look forward to!
I love the sound of all these changes and wow what a lot of posts to look forward to! Once again, thank you for all that you share on here - it's like being at some ever-growing table with amazing artists.