<![CDATA[Persona Non Propria]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!LeRv!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F3bb00ef6-7a6a-4517-8988-22d03e4c28ef_1280x1280.pngPersona Non Propriahttps://www.persona-non-propria.comSubstackFri, 08 May 2026 10:32:45 GMT<![CDATA[finding the literature vol. 12]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-12https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-12Sat, 21 Mar 2026 10:02:13 GMTWhenever you start adding a lot of Notes to a post it quickly gets too long for email. View this in your web browser for best reading.

Welcome to finding the literature!

So yeah, recently I was made The Happiest Man On Earth. While I have been overjoyed, it has brought about some lifestyle changes that so far have not been conducive to reading or writing …

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]]><![CDATA[talkin' shop for two seconds]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/talkin-shop-for-two-secondshttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/talkin-shop-for-two-secondsSun, 22 Feb 2026 11:00:22 GMTThis started off as a Note I was writing—but c’mon Clancy, sometimes you gotta publish ‘articles’, am I right? Apologies for talkin’ shop for two seconds. Skip if that ain’t for you.

I know no one cares.

So I just did my taxes to report my earnings from my book publish/paid subscriber income from Substack and, uh…bad news. I didn’t quite make the money I …

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]]><![CDATA[a(n) (un)certain romance ]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/an-uncertain-romancehttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/an-uncertain-romanceSat, 14 Feb 2026 11:00:41 GMT Read more

]]><![CDATA[finding the literature vol. 11]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-11https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-11Sat, 31 Jan 2026 14:59:57 GMTWhenever you start adding a lot of Notes to a post it quickly gets too long for email. View this in your web browser for best reading.

Welcome to finding the literature!

Today I recall a scene from the recently released movie Freakier Friday (which I half-watched as my wife fell prey to its nostalgia) that went something like this [approximate]:

[A fortun…

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]]><![CDATA[the stork landing pad]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-stork-landing-padhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-stork-landing-padMon, 29 Dec 2025 01:03:17 GMT“So there’s this thing...” Begins my pregnant wife, what she always says before turning her phone in my direction to show me something I need to open up my wallet for.

Absent from social media, I am blissfully unaware of emerging adulthood consumption trends, particularly those relating to marriage. It frustrates me to find they are sometimes formalizati…

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]]><![CDATA[finding the literature vol. 10]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-10https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-10Fri, 14 Nov 2025 13:02:55 GMTWhenever you start adding a lot of Notes to a post it quickly gets too long for email. View this in your web browser for best reading.

Welcome to finding the literature!

It was only a few weeks ago I put one of these bad boys out. I told you I had more! The quickest turnaround on FTL ever.

(I’m gonna have to take a longer break before the next one though…

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]]><![CDATA[finding the literature vol. 9]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-9https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/finding-the-literature-vol-9Sat, 18 Oct 2025 02:07:43 GMTWhenever you start adding a lot of Notes to a post it quickly gets too long for email. View this in your web browser for best reading.

Welcome to finding the literature!

It’s been a while since I did one of these. The last was back in March, and a lot has changed since then, both on Substack and Persona Non Propria.

With PNP, I went through the process of …

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]]><![CDATA[clearing my internet history]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/clearing-my-internet-historyhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/clearing-my-internet-historyThu, 09 Oct 2025 23:20:08 GMTI posted a Note a couple weekends ago about how I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and took a break from the Substack app:

A few subscribers messaged to see if I was okay. The kindness I am shown on this application is incredible, and I appreciate and thank all of you. Not to worry, though—it was a good sort of “overwhelmed”, or at least the causes of this…

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]]><![CDATA[how to not win the lottery [retro]]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/how-to-not-win-the-lottery-retrohttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/how-to-not-win-the-lottery-retroMon, 15 Sep 2025 23:01:00 GMTWait, what’s this? A [retro] on a story I haven’t released on Substack?

Here’s something I figured only people willing to spend money on my writing would care about or be interested in: a 5,000 word short story I wrote circa ten years ago, about a young man struggling with self-worth, guilt, and the loss of innocence. I dug it up from a folder on one of my old laptops along with dozens of other pieces of varying length and quality from a time before I had anywhere to post my work.

Those who have read the novel and my work at large will recognize some of the themes here. There’s even a Bell’s Palsy affliction like Jude gets in the big T. There’s also working in the grocery industry.

I would never publish this story now, because—as you’ll read—I was a far inferior writer then; but I think it really shows how much I’ve grown in the time since and my regular readers may find it interesting to see how some of the themes that pop up have coalesced and found themselves in my present work.

I’m going to use footnotes here to give you my thoughts on my prose and the story at large. Hope you enjoy this insight! If you do, there are more archival stories where this came from, including some incomplete ones.

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]]><![CDATA[un-forsaking boyhood]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/un-forsaking-boyhoodhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/un-forsaking-boyhoodSun, 14 Sep 2025 10:02:36 GMTIf I were the type to share pictures of my work area, my office, my desk, etc. such that you all could ogle it and judge/envy accordingly and feed your desire for mimetic content, on one wall you’d see a bookshelf that looks like it was plucked from the room of a fifth grader c. 2002, or at the very least locked in time, like the dust-covered belongings…

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]]><![CDATA[The Events In Order of Loving Someone by Emma Newman-Holden]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-events-in-order-of-loving-someonehttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-events-in-order-of-loving-someoneFri, 12 Sep 2025 22:01:23 GMT

writes about sex.

In all its forms: the act, the genders, the appeal. This much, I think, most Substackers already know.

So when I got this book, I saw the cover and read its title and interpreted the ‘events’ to be sex.

I didn’t order the book because I wanted sex, though I’m not a prude. I got it because I find Emma an endlessly fascinating character an…

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]]><![CDATA[the big t (again, print edition this time) - available now]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-big-t-again-print-edition-thishttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/the-big-t-again-print-edition-thisTue, 02 Sep 2025 23:00:46 GMT

GET the big T NOW BY USING THIS LINK TO GET A $30 YEAR-LONG PAID SUBSCRIPTION TO PERSONA NON PROPRIA.

YOU’LL AUTOMATICALLY GET AN EMAIL WITH A DISCOUNT CODE FOR A COMPLIMENTARY COPY OF THE BOOK AND DIRECTIONS ON HOW/WHERE TO ORDER.

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]]><![CDATA[seasonal]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/seasonalhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/seasonalSun, 31 Aug 2025 10:01:00 GMTAudrey is the kind of girl who, as the world tilts and quarterly brings us to the brink of each new season, declares the incoming as her new favorite, replacing the last to have come and gone.

“You know, I really think fall is my favorite season,” she says, the moment hot chili becomes appetizing and the NY Jets have lost their first three games.

“Summer …

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]]><![CDATA[Why Teach? by Peter Shull ]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/why-teach-by-peter-shullhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/why-teach-by-peter-shullFri, 20 Jun 2025 23:13:03 GMT
a real life photograph of this novel taken by yours truly

I bought Why Teach? knowing, at least, what I was going to get.

I was so glad to discover Peter on Substack because I feel like he and I are, in some ways, kindred spirits. We both like to write about—as he put it to me once (forgive my paraphrasing )—‘men trying to be men and stubbing their toes’.…

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]]><![CDATA[bus kids [retro]]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/bus-kids-retrohttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/bus-kids-retroMon, 26 May 2025 10:01:17 GMTHello PNP’ers, and welcome to another entry in my retros series, in which I revisit past stories, share inspirations, influences, choices, and—sometimes—brutally criticize myself. These are a way to realize the ‘meta’ content of the Clancy Steadwell character in a way I hope PNP’ers will find intriguing, satisfying, and—most of all—honest.

The story subject to retrospection in this edition: bus kids.

It’s been about a year since I’ve done one of these, but figured I’d get back to it as a little insight for my paid subscribers; after all, they are probably the only folks invested enough in my fiction to care about my process and the stories behind the stories. Probably strikes everyone else as a little vain.

I think I’m skipping a few stories to get to bus kids, but it was on my mind lately because it was a little over a year ago I posted it. I only know because it was around the time of the Kentucky Derby, and when I saw some coverage around that pop up, I went through my old posts to have another re-read. It holds up well— mostly—but I am a little surprised it went over like it did.

The fiction community seemed to really dig it. At the time, what is now the Substack Post was something like ‘Substack Featured’ and they were in the process of having select Substackers curate the weekly featured newsletter. PNP subscriber posited the story to a thread , that week’s curator, had posted seeking suggestions. I guess she read it and liked it enough to send to the masses.

I’m forever grateful for the confluence of these two peoples’ enjoyment of this story—it really was a turning point in my Substack career that moved me to tears. 3.6k people looked at this story. Imagine how many might have read it! Never, ever could I have imagined so many people reading my fiction. I was writing and posting because I could, because I wanted to, for myself, then somehow this incredibly fortuitous thing happened and I was writing for an audience.

And how did I follow the success of bus kids up? Let’s get to that later.

For now, let us retrospect…

Subscribe to receive new short stories and Substack fiction reviews. Consider becoming a paid subscriber for retrospectives like this, special content, and more.

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]]><![CDATA[handless/chain link]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/handlesschain-linkhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/handlesschain-linkSun, 18 May 2025 10:02:26 GMTMy big secret is I am missing my right hand.

Well, not entirely.

The medical report (recovered from my father’s desk) said something like: Traumatic amputation of the right middle (digit III), ring (digit IV), and little (digit V) finger...amputations are complete at the level of the proximal phalanges, with extensive associated soft tissue avulsion and c…

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]]><![CDATA[desktop of the hesperus ]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/desktop-of-the-hesperushttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/desktop-of-the-hesperusSun, 11 May 2025 10:01:42 GMTMy mother loves watching old movies because she desires more than anything for the world to return to a dichromatic past, to be reduced to binary bits once again, as she imagines it was when she was young, an unconfused dichotomy of good and evil, bare and fruitful, here and there. Things were fairer then, in her mind anyway, because subjectivity serves…

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]]><![CDATA[unholy tilapia]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/unholy-tilapiahttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/unholy-tilapiaSun, 13 Apr 2025 10:02:44 GMTPatricia was nervous for her first day at the new job, as nervous as she was for any new job she ever had, anyway, and she’d had a lot of them once she discovered that teaching meant dealing with living breathing human teenagers and pleasing their unpleasable parents, which meant her teaching degree was useless and she had to decide what else she could …

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]]><![CDATA[think piece]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/think-piecehttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/think-pieceTue, 01 Apr 2025 10:01:31 GMTApril Fools! Thanks for tolerating me on this one—had a lot of fun with it. I hope none of my non-fiction think piece-ers take offense. Fiction will be back Sunday.

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]]><![CDATA[monarchs of memory]]>https://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/monarchs-of-memoryhttps://www.persona-non-propria.com/p/monarchs-of-memorySun, 30 Mar 2025 10:02:12 GMTI remember the first time I deliberately tried to make a memory—a sort of meta-remembrance of the power of remembering—and the memory formed was thus:

It’s a snapshot of my foot, sandy from a day at the beach and tanned from many days at the beach, on the floor of my mom’s white Dodge Spirit in a ray of Atlantic sunlight. ‘Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)’ b…

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