Until recently, an NGO had pledged to publish an anthology of my Coronamania essays. This arrangement has dissolved over differences regarding the book’s title and content. Procedurally, this was disappointing; I wanted to pass publication logistics along to someone else; it’s an unfamiliar realm and process. But substantively, self-publishing will work better. I have a clear sense of how the book should be and I don’t want to deviate from my vision.
I’m printing this anthology—including a few unposted stories— because some readers have asked me to and because I think there’s value in recording and presenting these Coronamania parables in tangible form. The evil and destruction of the past four years need to be described and documented by many, and for a long time. And who knows when censors might scrub Substack from the Net?
I’ll send a free copy of the book to any paid subscriber—as of yesterday—who wants one. Or I’ll reimburse them if they buy the book from Amazon when it becomes available. I want to thank subscribers for their support and to express the kinship I feel with them after all that’s happened.
I hope/plan to distribute/sell the book to a wider audience. Thus, I’d like to have some reader endorsements of my Coronamania writing on the book’s back cover. I would appreciate your short—a sentence or two—comments about the posts to date, and what they have mean to you, that I might use for that purpose. If you allow me, I would include your name under such a quote. If you’re willing to write a short endorsement, you can send it to me at forecheck32 at g mail. If you want to say something critical, that’s OK, too. It’s unlikely that I’d put negative comments on the book cover but if a given criticism is funny enough, I just might. As in life, generally, part of my approach is to entertain others and to do things a little differently.
I don’t know how long the printing process will take. But my draft is done; it’s 190 pages in the current format. And I have a cool, original cover painting. I plan to entitle the book Dispatches from a Scamdemic: Why the Covid Overreaction was Obvious from Day 1, unless one of you comes up with something even more disdainful and/or catchy. Please send along any alternative titles that pop into your heads.
Regardless, deep and sincere thanks for reading and commenting on my posts and for keeping your heads when most others were losing theirs. You have felt like friends at a time when I needed some new ones. I have very much enjoyed talking with and meeting some of you and I’d like to continue to do so.
At some point, perhaps soon, I might stop writing about Coronamania. Ultimately, I have only so much to say. And while I have plenty more stories I could tell, most don’t pertain to Coronmania. Others involve occurrences that I wouldn’t put on the Net. They’re the kind I tell only one-on-one during long walks or car rides. Or not at all.
But no matter how much or little more I write, the Covid conspiracy and the peoples’ attendant gullibility will remain relevant and unforgettable. Keep speaking out.
You have great story-telling talent which helped me keep my sanity these past several years. I’m so glad you’re publishing your work, lest it be memory-holed. I will definitely purchase your book!
Probably too long ... but here's what I knocked out (my first-ever effort to write a book jacket plug):
"If 100 percent of establishment news organizations in America were not completely captured, ONE of these newspapers or magazines would publish Mark’s brilliant commentaries. If this had happened, Mark Oshinskie would have quickly become one of the most-influential columnists in the nation. That is, there’s a reason the gatekeepers of news and commentary conspired to censor the country’s most talented writers.
"Still, a silver lining of the “Scamdemic” is many Americans DID discover Mark’s dispatches via Substack. Compiling a sample of his greatest hits in a book is another common-sense way to get around our massive Censorship Industrial Complex. Buy this book, read the essays, share them with a friend and do your part to show that every American didn’t take the Stupid Pills that must have been snuck into the water glasses of 80 percent of our fellow citizens."
- Bill Rice, Jr., freelance journalist and author of "Bill Rice Jr’s Newsletter" at Substack.