Pizza, Art Fairs, & Book Updates

The Very Observational Newsletter, Vol. 1

Welcome to Very Observational with Adam Rockwell. This is my Email-Enabled Newsletter & Blog. Thank you for being a subscriber 😄

This is the first edition of The Very Observational Newsletter. Okay, it’s not exactly the first—I’ve been writing a newsletter here for over a year. But I’m going through a bit of a rebrand at the moment. That said, I have been on a newsletter hiatus for the past two months… but now I’m back—with a vengeance. 😈

Every Saturday morning, you can expect The Very Observational Newsletter delivered directly to your email inbox. It will be (lightly) organized into the following sections:

• 📍 Observation Points: A few, sometimes humorous, observations about the previous week.

• 🌊 Staring Into The Abyss - Writing On The Oregon Coast

• 📚 Totally Recommended - Books, movies, art, and music that I’ve been into the past week.

• 📢 Unabashed Self-Promotion

In addition, I’ll still be writing essays which will be published randomly throughout the month.

📍Observation Points

Living in Newport, Oregon, brings many challenges. It is a town of only 10,000 people on the Oregon Coast. The biggest challenge for me? Food. Unless you like fried fish. 🐡

There are a couple of good restaurants here, but I’m a writer, not a thousandaire. So, when I talk about food, I’m talking about pizza. The best pizza we have in town is this quaint little place in a strip mall off 101 called: Papa Murphy’s. Mmm. (I can’t really say anything because we just had it last night 😹).

So, I’ve taken pizza matters into my own hands. I’ve been making my own pizza at home. I already make four loaves of peasant bread every week, and I had a revelation: pizza is just baking!

It doesn’t get much better than this! My partner-in-life says it does get better than this because she likes, nay, prefers sourdough bread (!), but why would somebody want to eat sour bread? It’s a conundrum.

To be honest, I started baking because of the lack of bakeries in small-town Oregon. Also, most places that exist charge ten bucks or more for a single loaf that isn’t as good as these. My arrogance is on full display today!

AND, I use the lowest-end flour I can buy, add a little salt and yeast and BAM! Perfect bread.

My various baking recipes are the Ken Forkish approaches. Recently (3 years ago) I found Mr. Forkish’s book on pizza called, The Elements of Pizza. Finally, it is starting to come together.

Using a pizza stone, I have been creating awesome twelve-inch pizzas. I’m just going to come out and say it: my pizza is just as good as Domino’s! Is it round? No, not yet, but I’ll get there eventually.

Here is my recent attempt at anchovy pizza. It tasted great, but looked like this 👇

An oblong anchovy pizza

The Yachats Art Fair & Book Sale

Last weekend

K.L. Rockwell

,

Fineas Rockwell

, and I drove south, to the town of Yachats. This little town just north of Cape Perpetua has more festivals each year than New York City. Honestly, how they keep up with all their festivals is a mystery, but if you like fairs, festivals, and shoppes (shoppes with two ps), you’ll love Yachats.

Personally, I’m not a big fan of art fairs, and

K.L. Rockwell

HATES book sales, so we thought this sale was the perfect place to go. Something for everybody, except Fineas who isn’t fond of either. (to clarify: I love book sales, she loves art fairs 😹😹)

The art fair and book sale was in the city’s strangely-oversized community center. I think it may have been a high school back in the day, but now the city only has eight children, all of whom probably go to Waldport schools.

The book sale was a bit of a bust. Never go to a second-hand library book sale on the second day of the sale, there won’t be anything left. That said, I did get a copy of the book, Gone Baby Gone, which I hadn’t realized was a book—just a convoluted movie.

Art sales always make me a bit uncomfortable because, man oh man, walking by those booths, knowing you’re not going to buy something is dreadful. The looks of hope from the vendors being dashed as you callously walk by their beadwork. There’s only one thing you can do: Do not make eye contact with the vendors. They appreciate this, I’m sure.

K.L. Rockwell

probably spent $150.00. Me? Two dollars. I don’t want to ask her how much she spent honestly.

🌊 Staring Into The Void - Writing On The Oregon Coast

My book, The Unexpected Exorcist: An Uziel Axe Novel, was unexpectedly pushed back by my publisher. Again! Over The Top Books, my publisher, informed me that there’s still a few typographic errors that need fixing, whatever that means. Then, it will go wide! (sell everywhere). If you’re a paying subscriber I promise to get you a link as soon as possible so you can get your SIGNED copy.

I originally published The Unexpected Exorcist here on Substack as a serial. I had to paywall it due to publishing obligations, but if you subscribe, you can still read it right here: Click Here To Read! The first few chapters are free to read. What a deal!

Currently, I’m working on a Disaster-Horror Novel. I can’t get into the details yet, but that’s the main reason I took my two-month newsletter sabbatical.

Writing.

Constant writing!

✒️

Typically, I spend six hours a day in the writing chair, and then go lay in bed and stare at the ceiling for an hour, contemplating the next day’s chapter.

The book is coming together nicely and I should have my first draft complete within the next month.

Once my disaster-horror novel is complete, I will begin work on the second book in the Uziel Axe Series: Lucifer’s Revenge. This is just a working title, but so far it is sticking!

📚 Totally Recommended

Last week I finished reading The Pillars Of The Earth by Ken Follett. I originally picked up this book to challenge myself: Could I still read a book that was a thousand pages long? You see, my brain has been turned into burnt toast with Swiss cheese on top due to TikTok and YouTube. Thankfully, it turns out I can still read! 👏

At first, I was put off by the “Oprah’s Book Club” sticker on the book, being the snob I apparently am. But it was enjoyable, and honestly, who wouldn’t want to be in Oprah’s Book Club (is that still a thing?).

The book was a little strange, using a modern vernacular stuck into the Middle Ages, but overall, it worked (except for the “romantic” scenes which were hilariously something else 😹).

The Pillars Of The Earth was so much fun that I ordered the DVDs. I didn’t even know it was a TV series until after I read the book. After watching the first episode, I’m not sure I’ll watch the second. It all depends how bored I am.

📢 Unabashed Self-Promotion Alert 🚨

In other news, The Midnight Vault IS NOW available for purchase at the link at the bottom. I was one of a group of writers paying homage to The Twilight Zone in a Substack series originally entitled, The Substack Zone. My story is called, The Swing Of The Pendulum.

If you go to the link at the bottom and buy one of these beauties, I’ll get 3.74% of the sale!! (all the authors are splitting the profits). Thanks again to

J. Curtis

,

Sean Thomas McDonnell

, and

Shane Bzdok

for taking the lead in getting this book together. I’m happy to have been a part of this project. Not only that, I LOVED all the stories.

I also need to mention

Nolan Green

, who even created music for The Substack Zone. Unfortunately, they were not able to include his composition in the book.

Here is one of my favorite pieces from Nolan entitled, Tone Poem.

Shane had a wonderful post about his entire process with The Midnight Vault:

From the Zone to the Vault: my creative journey through the 5th dimension.

Buy the book here, if you dare. There are a bunch of places to choose from; from Amazon to Apple, Google to Powell’s and more:

https://books2read.com/themidnightvault

Thank you for reading! I’ll be back next Saturday at the same time.

-Adam

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