#43: Sticking to Principles & Getting Stuck
Another foiled attempt at setting up the Penflower Post elsewhere, plus new Patreon assets, a new video, and some more eldritch creature art.
Hello dear Readers,
I had an almost entirely different email ready to go yesterday morning, before I did a little more digging into the Squarespace email campaign settings (which still somehow manage to boggle my mind). Here is version 1.5 of that email.
What Happened?
While I have enjoyed (most of) Substack’s features, their contemptible / lackluster response to the whole nazi nonsense - coupled with plenty of other writers deciding to go elsewhere - I woke up on Friday morning with a resolution. I was going to move the Penflower Post over to my website, paid custom email address be damned!
For context, just in case you missed it, the higher-up at Substack agreed to remove some of the nazi publications on their platform. Importantly however, not all of them, and neither does it seem likely they will do anything remotely effective about content moderation. For those reasons, and for the sake of staying true to my principles, I was all set to leave.
As I mentioned in my previous issue, I did not want to start paying another monthly or yearly subscription for a custom email domain.
So, I decided to set up a new gmail specifically for the Penflower Post, and attached that to my Squarespace email campaign. It gave me the usual warning message about spam filters… but, you see, I had a cunning plan.
My “genius” work-around was as follows: send the newsletter twice, once through Substack as per usual, and once again through my website.
In the substack version, I would ask you all to check your spam folders and mark the email from the new Penflower Post address as “not spam”.
A bit fiddly but still, theoretically effective.
Alas, upon saving the draft email on Squarespace I noticed a teeny tiny bit of text near the bottom of the page: 1 of 3 free trial campaigns. Uh Oh.
A bit of circuitous digging and several open tabs later, I learned that I would only be able to send three emails, before I would have to start paying for that functionality. Foiled again.
What Now… Again?
You can imagine how put out I am at the moment.
It seems that to stick to my principles and not provide traffic to a tech-mogul platform that is happy to fund actual fascists, I must fund another tech-mogul platform (on top of what I already pay them for the domain I already have). Such is the wonderful world of capitalism that some many of us find ourselves stuck in. Likewise, it seems I am still stuck on Substack for now.
Is there any reason to hold some hope?
Well, for one thing, seeing similar sentiments expressed by another creative person here on Substack was somewhat reassuring (see below):
For another, the fact that Substack has gradually been turning into more of a social media platform (sigh) does mean there is a possibility it will be forced to adopt more stringest content moderation policies.
But I suppose, we’ll just have to wait and see.
I have not given up on finding a new home for the Penflower Post.
Whatever the case, the Penflower Post will remain free: free for readers and free from nazis and their odious ilk.
New Isometric Assets
What else is new at Penflower Ink? Well, at the beginning of this week, I published a new batch of isometric art assets on my Patreon.
These, for a change, are science-fiction themed. You could use them to create maps for spaceship interiors, space stations, laboratories, and other high-tech environments.
As always, Patrons get the set in both colour and black & white, as well as early access to any expansions I add to the set.
Greenjackers! Trailer Video
Even more recently, I produced and published this trailer for my brand new TTRPG, Greenjackers!
I decided to make something that would feel like it belonged to the world of the game, so I went out into town (just after dawn, so it would feel nice and gloomy) to do some on-location filming.
I wanted the intro of the video to feel like a propaganda reel that is directly broadcast into your head via a neural link. For that I needed some footage of what would look convincingly like a cyberpunk city pavement, on top of which I could overlay some static-y scrolling text.
Next I went around in search of suitably grim and grimy-looking walls and surfaces onto which I could temporarily stick some tattered scraps of agitprop.
Coupled with superb official Greenjackers music theme composed by Psiren (which starts at the 0:51 mark), I think the video has come out really well, and effectively sets the tone of the game: grim but nonetheless hopeful and defiant. In light of the current situation - both on a micro and macro scale, I hope it resonates with people and maybe provides some needed inspiration.
Particularly attentive listeners may notice a lite-motif that Psiren included in the track, that originally comes from the first composition I commissioned of him: the Come Rain Come Shine theme. He did a fabulous job of weaving it into the new theme, and I really like how it creates a connection to my other solarpunk game.
A New Bundle for New Beginnings
Speaking of Greenjackers!, it is my pleasure to share that it is included in Sprinting Owl’s latest itchio bundle, entitled New Beginnings.
Richard (of Sprinting Owl Games) always does a fantastic job of organising and setting up these bundles, via the bundles’ Discord and navigating the deplorable and rapidly collapsing ex-bird app.
Some More Elder Being Buddies
Given my somewhat sour mood, it may not come as a surprise that I felt inspired to draw some more eldritch horrors, to keep practicing my character / creature design skills.
Here are two more friendly god-monsters (like the Cabin Keeper).
First is the Vizier, to whom all “voices-in-the-back-of-your-mind” actually belong to, but only the nice ones.
Second is the King of Keys. Not actually a monarch, he just likes alliteration. As his title may suggest, he is the deity of lost keys.
That’s all for this week!
As always, thank you so much for reading. One last reminder that if you feel like supporting my work, you can buy something from my website or itchio, join my Patreon, or commission me.
I’ll leave you with something I regularly re-listen to when I need my spirits lifted. If you’re a fan of the works of Tolkien, you’ll probably enjoy it too: the 1968 full cast BBC radio dramatisation of the Hobbit. Enjoy!
Until next time,
- Penflower
I had this precise experience with Squarespace this week! I'm setting up a new online storefront for my games and was all excited to be able to stop paying Brevo for the privilege of sending occasional emails to my list, and then I too ran up against that hideous "1 of three trial emails" notice! I had to do some serious deep googling to even find the prices of the email service they'd be expecting me to pay for once my trial ran out. It's still slightly cheaper than Brevo and it would be integrated into my site, which is nice, but I'm so irked by the sleaziness of it that I may sit tight out of spite.