In the upcoming minutes I’ll be publishing the last two parts of Loudoun County: A Culture War in Four Acts. I’m sure TK readers are just about done with the topic, and for those with questions about the format or the length, or both, please understand I’m feeling my way through the Substack experience along with you. In a previous life I made my living writing long reported magazine features, but that was when nobody noticed if I didn’t publish for two or three months.

I found the Loudoun story really interesting, but got carried away somewhat, leading to a definite insight and from that, a promise. From now on, even if I’m writing a piece that has to be in multiple parts due to the length limits of this newsletter service, I’ll at least do subscribers the courtesy of publishing them all at once. I think Substack works just fine for reported features, but it messes with the reader experience to know a writer is too busy working on something to pay attention to other news like, for instance, the Assange decision, which I would otherwise have weighed in on.

I will be doing a Callin show tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. EST to wrap up the Loudoun series. Check here or on Twitter tomorrow for more info.

In other news, I recently signed a deal to write a book. It’s essentially a sector-by-sector look at how all the major industries ripped the country off during the pandemic, from pharmaceutical firms to banks to defense contractors and beyond. It’ll be old-school reporting in the mold of Griftopia or The Divide, which will take some work, but I’ve made some arrangements that will make it possible to keep the pace on TK. More on this in a bit, but I wanted to make clear that I’m not stepping away from the site at all. As you may have noticed, I really enjoy writing in this space.

Lastly, there are a few more items forthcoming on this site before the weekend, but I wanted to wish everyone a relaxing holiday, and on behalf of Emily, Jared, Ford, Matt, and other TK contributors, thank you all for your support. Writing here has been more fun and rewarding than I could have imagined, and if I could wish for anything, it would be that you all feel as happy as I know I my wife and I both will be this Saturday, with three little boys waking up on Christmas.

In any case, thanks again for your patience, and watch for a pair of articles in the coming hour.