Introducing the Spliced Personality Substack

“Two reviews a week. Seven bucks a month. Cheap!”

I realize that the last thing the world probably needs right now is another broke-ass writer flogging a Substack. But here we are. A couple of months ago, I was forced to leave the restaurant job that’s helped support my writing habit for the past nine years. As I figure out my next move, I thought I should hang out a shingle here and try going into business for myself. So while I’ll still be writing for WBUR’s Arts & Culture, Crooked Marquee and North Shore Movies for as long as they keep letting put my feet up on the couch, I’ll also be writing additional movie reviews here in newsletter form. I started out as a critic back in the ‘90s by sending my thoughts on film to a friends and family email list, so in a way this is all coming full circle.

As of now, the plan is to write two reviews a week for paid subscribers. (I’ve already got my takes on “A Poet” and “The Moment” posted up on the site.) I’m hoping $7 a month sounds fair. Think of it as the price of a latte, or a domestic beer at a bar. If this takes off and folks seem interested, we could talk about opening it up to tiered memberships and different kinds of exclusive posts like interviews, autobiographical essays, review requests or any other crazy ideas we can come up with. But for now, let’s start with two reviews a week.

And if this doesn’t take off because not enough people feel like the work is worth 88 cents a review, that’s a valuable lesson for me as well. On the advice of my friends who used to sell drugs, I’m going to make the month of February free so you can get hooked — or at least get a feel for what’s going on here and decide if you’d like to subscribe. I hope you do.

Thanks as always for reading.

Sean