Note: The content of this article was originally written for my newsletter subscribers on December 4, 2020. If you want to read these articles while they’re still fresh, please subscribe to my newsletter today. You can find the signup link in the side panel (desktop) or at the bottom of this page (mobile).

Hi New Subscribers,

Thank you for opening this email. The fact that you’ve read this far tells me we’re already off to a great start. Hopefully, this trend will continue well into the foreseeable future.

So, some of you already know me personally and are getting this email because you’ve chosen to support me during my professional face-lifting season. I appreciate your coming out and flicking those thumbs up. Nothing beats a wink and a smile, except for maybe pizza and/or tacos. But I don’t have either of those right now, so I’m happy with the wink and smile.

But some of you don’t know who I am, nor do you know why I have an email list, and odds are you’re getting this message because SendFox thought you might want it. (I guess that’s what got you here. I’m not quite sure.)

So, if you’re part of the second camp, then let me first of all say hello. Officially. I know you probably got a couple of my test messages when I was trying out the system, and maybe you even said, out loud, “Who’s this dude sending me a list of his blog articles?”

To that, I say, “Who indeed.”

But that doesn’t answer your question, so let me extend my hand—metaphorically, of course, because 1. I haven’t figured out how to transfer my hand through the Internet, 2. That would be really weird and disturbing if I did, and 3. Are we even still allowed to shake hands with people, given world events? Assuming you’re metaphorically reaching back, I’d like to say thank you and welcome aboard to whatever this ends up being.

So, my name is Jeremy Bursey, and I am a writer. Not just a blog writer—and thank you if you actually clicked on any of those articles from my earlier test; hopefully you liked what you read—but also a storyteller.

What kind of storyteller?

So, that’s where it gets a little complicated.

Most authors stick to a brand. For example, if you read Lee Child, you’ll know that his brand is Jack Reacher, and Jack Reacher’s brand is a former military police officer, current wandering traveler (or badass homeless person if you want to get honest), who meets people in trouble, helps them out a little, smacks around a few bad guys, throws away whatever he’s wearing, then moves on to the next town without a goodbye, just to do it all over again. If you’re a reader of Jack Reacher (and Lee Child by proxy), then you’ll know what you’re basically getting each time you open his books.

(And in case I sound like an idiot right now, I’ve read up through Jack Reacher #9, so if that formula changes in Book 10 or beyond, I don’t know it yet—and don’t spoil it for me if it does!)

I, on the contrary, do not stick to a particular brand (unless you count fish-out-of-water stories and a general quirkiness), nor do I stick to a particular story size. I’ve produced short stories, novellas, novels, screenplays, poems, essays, and even emails!

Here’s one of the short stories, for example:

And here’s one of the super epically crazy I-need-to-break-this-into-three-separate-novels adventure tales:

That said, my most common genres are thrillers (especially crime and psychological), coming of age (think The Breakfast Club or Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), and action-adventures (especially within the superhero subgenre). But, honestly, my range is wide.

• One of my thrillers is about an estranged married couple who rekindles their marriage under very stressful conditions (closest comparison I have at the top of my head is Dead Calm with Nicole Kidman, but it’s not like that movie at all, so probably not close enough). Note: Check the bottom of this email for a special offer regarding this book.
• One of my coming of age tales is about a young man who reunites with his childhood rubber ducky and learns not only about its grand adventure but how to let go of the past (think A Dog’s Purpose, but with a rubber duck and no creepy canine voiceover).
• One of my adventure stories has more in common with A Christmas Carol than with Indiana Jones, but is also inspired loosely by a scene from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey and by the graveyard next to the nursing home I used to drive by to get to work during my college years (at the University of Central Florida, if you’re wondering).

So, the range is wide. Even now for NaNoWriMo 2020, I’ve been writing a dystopian thriller I’ve had in my head since 2007 about a reluctant drug dealer who must defeat a destructive senate bill before it claims more lives and destroys more of western civilization than it already has. Think Breaking Bad, meets Civilization (the computer game), meets Escape from New York, and you begin to understand where this is going. It’s still a first draft-in-progress, so it’s messy and unfinished at the moment. But hopefully you’ll love it, whenever I publish it.

Then, of course, there’s the superhero action-adventure epic that I have to rewrite, but I’ll talk more about that later. (Or you can just look at the cover image above and dream of what is and what can be.)

So, there’s plenty to choose from if you decide to make me your new favorite author, regardless of your interests. Except for erotica. Screw that.

If you’d like to learn more, then continue to read my emails as they arrive. Or, you can catch up on old news by visiting my blog at Drinking Café Latte at 1pm. Or…

You can check out my new author site that may still be under construction as you read this and…

Er, on second thought, we’ll come back to that when I know it’s worth looking at. As of this writing, it’s still a bunch of stock WordPress pages that are slightly less attractive than what the cat put on your doorstep this morning. But I’ll talk more about it when I’m ready to unlock it.

So, if you’re still reading this far, then you’re a rock star. And if you’re an actual rock star, then that’s cool, too. Hope you’ll come back for the next newsletter.

And if you check out my old articles, tell me which ones you like the most. It’s nice to know what people actually want to read.

Thanks again for joining the newsletter. One of these days I’ll even give you a free and exclusive e-book, if you want it. But I have to write it first. It’s going to be just for my subscribers. That’s you!

In the meantime, I think it’s fair to offer you an alternative gift for your early adoption, so if you’d like free copies of not one, but two of my current novels (e-books only), I’ll link you to their respective shops below my signature and offer you a coupon code that will set their prices to free. Just make sure you redeem the coupons by the listed expiration date.

So, that’s it for now. Thank you for your early subscription. You can find your rewards and information about them below my name.

Until next time…

–Jeremy

P.S. I have a YouTube channel, too, if you prefer videos.

And, what the heck, let’s get this newsletter started properly. I’ll send you the first curated list of my favorite articles and videos Monday morning. What better way to procrastinate from the work you should be doing instead than read articles from a dude you just met (or haven’t seen in a while, as the case may be)?

Note: The original newsletter provided bonus e-book content reserved for my earliest subscribers only and will not be reposted here.