An Epiphany: 12 Meals With 12 Writers
This 'wandering writer' bucket list may take years to achieve. But the passage of time might improve the experience. I'm counting on enthusiasm, but I will also require permission...
This year, Sunday 5th and Monday 6th January is the Twelfth Night after Christmas, and can be celebrated with Epiphany, a Christian festival which is a time for feasting, games, plays, and singing carols. It’s also the final day for even the hypocritical yet surprisingly superstitious to take down any Christmas decorations and store them away.
In many countries Epiphany is seen as a time to overturn convention and have some fun, whereas the wider definition of epiphany is a sudden realisation or discovery which offers a new perspective on a stubborn problem. Think of Archimedes jumping out of his bathtub.
For myself, Christmas was a quiet affair and I’d already taken down the decorations by the weekend. But I've also had my own epiphany for 2025, and likely beyond. It combines several of the themes mentioned above in a non-religious way, involving the number twelve, shared food and perhaps overturns convention for naturally reclusive writers. It will also necessitate something of a drawn-out pilgrimage.
I hope you’re sufficiently intrigued to read on…
“I have a dream…”
I’m neither famous nor notable. I’ve done nothing particularly special. I’m of average height and weight and live in a very average English village. I conduct a very normal – and perhaps boring – life.
But when my mind slips inside my computer screens into the wider world, full of other people’s writing and thoughts and opinions and experiences, particularly of places I might never have visited, then I’m often infected by a crazy idea: I want to meet them in real-life, in the flesh, look them in the eye and talk about whatever we like. This is what Juliette Sartori decided to do - and the real tragedy is that what was seen as a mundane act even two decades ago, is now notable and even newsworthy in the present age of ‘connected, yet humanly disconnected’. Because being human should mean you can talk and smile and laugh; that you can ask and discover, and you can even question and disagree. You can find a richness in life which you’ll never have by sitting and staring at a screen, no matter how enticingly its pixels are arrayed.
“Don't try to impress anyone. Be simple, be direct. Nothing fancy.” — Silgar
Towards the end of last year, I ran a little experiment to test my idea with
. My message went something like: “Hey Simon, I’ll be travelling through your neck of the woods next week, how about we meet up for a coffee/drink/lunch? My treat.” Being a gracious, social (and I think naturally curious) individual, he agreed. Up to this point I’d only been a virtual manifestation who’d taken on board his excellent serialisation and other practical writing advice. But, for me, it was a start and I felt it was a success, given the limited time we had. I learnt new things and enjoyed our meal together, as I hope Simon did. The feeling was shared that ‘open-house’ Substack writer meetups, especially for the genre-based tribe outside of the usual epicentres, were sparse on the ground.Nothing fancy. Start small. Start how you mean to go on:
The meals I’ve had with the writers I’ve met:
- — Serialisation & City of Stories & comics ✅
This lunchtime then led to my creating a list of the other twelve writers in my epiphany. A list to aid me visit each of their chosen habitats to meet and eat and talk and drink and then be on my way. Because I’ll be a stranger in a strange land, and I shouldn’t outstay my welcome. After all, I might be tedious company compared to those below who I want to meet and eat with, if not downright presumptive. Because here’s the rest of my list, both eclectic and deliberately disordered:
The meals I hope to have with the writers I’ve yet to meet:
- — Books as a business, going wide, British English and hidden Liverpool.
- — A million ways to tell a story using Fictional Science Magic.
- — A tea ceremony, dusty European Pirates & climate positivity.
- — Connecting hidden nodes, weird shit & random stuff.
- — Communes, cassoulet, conspiracy & pruning.
- — Ramen, cats, Tokyo alleyways & reasonably-paced writing.
- — Science, going solo & circus swinging.
- — Rebel reveals & written journeys.
Sally
— A woodland forage, a missed Worldcon & chopped wood.- — A walk, a pint, a talk with the animals & staunch independence.
- — Hope, utopias, Utah & nomadism.
- — The Singularity & foretelling Far Futures.
I’ve tried to second-guess the possible reactions, which might be expressed publicly or privately:
That’s it? People meeting up is now a thing?
What a great idea. Let’s meet!
You’ve placed me on a public spot to overturn convention. Hmm…
Not sure. Maybe. Let’s wait and see.
Thank you, but no thank you.
No way am I meeting some rando turning up in my neighbourhood!
Why didn’t you include me?
Or not expressed at all: the dread silence of a literary faux-pas.
No matter what may be said, this is how I feel I must start in order to begin at all. As another Substack writer recently said : “we are losing the ability to look people in the eye, carry on a polite conversation, and interact on an emotional level.” So let’s see if rocking a boat can overcome such risk aversion. After all, the actuaries and government statisticians tell me there’s only another thirty years left on my tick-tock.
Until next time…
Can confirm that Johnathan isn't a weirdo. No more than the rest of us, at least!
I’m waiting for you in Vienna with tea, dust pirates and all 🙌!