Introducing Powder Blue Pulp
What we're all about.
Powder Blue Pulp is a new newsletter devoted to the fiction of Patrick Glancy. That’s me, by the way. Some of you might know me from my baseball history newsletter, Powder Blue Nostalgia, which I started here on Substack three-and-a-half years ago. I’ve built up a solid base of readers through PBN, and I love them, but I’ll be honest, writing exclusively about baseball can be a bit limiting. Fiction is my true love, and I’ve been writing it for a whole lot longer than I’ve been covering baseball. And now that I’m preparing to publish my first novel (more on that later), it felt like the perfect time to start a new publication and get more of my fiction out to the world.
Here’s the deal about the name. In many ways, I feel like I was born several decades too late. My writing interests aren’t exactly tailor-made for today’s commercially driven publishing market, but I think I could have made a nice living cranking out dime-store novels and mailing out stories to pulp magazines. Well, maybe not a nice living, but I probably would have survived, and way more of my stuff would be in print. For a little while, at least. So this is my attempt to make that alternate universe version of myself a reality, to a certain extent.
The stories you’ll find here won’t be limited to any specific genre. We’ll bounce back and forth between sci-fi, fantasy, fairy tales, historical fiction, autobiographical fiction/personal essays, and my personal favorite, crime fiction. You may even get a few book and film reviews sprinkled in from time to time. And like I said, I’ll be sharing news on my novel, which will drop later this year, published by Powder Blue Pulp. I’m not ready to share much about it yet, but that will change soon. Check back for updates, and I hope to have some cool promotions for you as we near its arrival.
Some of the stories printed here have been published before in various outlets, but most of them are brand new. I’m really excited to share them with you, in part because I think the latter are the best of the bunch. I hope I haven’t reached my peak as a writer yet, but I definitely think I’m getting better with age and hitting my stride. And I’m not sure I see the point in sending stories out to literary journals anymore. Not when you can put them directly in front of readers’ eyes on sites like this one.
The vast majority of the stories here will be free. I’m not expecting this endeavor to make me wealthy, and I definitely know what it’s like when money is tight. So I’m not looking to sucker anyone in to make a quick buck. There won’t be any bait-and-switch where I get you hooked on free samples and then jack up the price. I’m not a heroin dealer.* That said, I am making paid subscriptions available for anyone who is interested.
*This is probably a far more lucrative line of work than writing in 2026, but I’ve never been that skilled at making money.
My main motivation in doing so is the fact that Substack works harder to promote newsletters they can take a cut from. That’s just the reality of the situation, though I’m certainly not opposed to getting paid for my stories if readers feel they’re worth it. After all, I’ve got a kid who needs braces and a car on its last legs and bills like everyone else, and every little bit helps. But I don’t want anyone to feel pressured.
A free subscription will still get you access to most of the stories I print. But if I’m going to offer a paid tier, I need to make it worthwhile to the readers forking over the cash. So there will be bonus stories for paid subscribers every now and then, as well as other giveaways and goodies. I’m still working out what those will be, but I have some exciting ideas I’m kicking around. Some might be connected to my upcoming novel, but not all of them.
And for those of you who are also writers, which is often the case here on Substack, you might be wondering if Powder Blue Pulp is open to story or book submissions, or if it’s only limited to this Glancy guy. Believe me, I get it. I’ve been watching Sara Gran’s newsletter for months, waiting to see if she’s ever going to flip the switch and open Dreamland Books to works other than her own.* Unfortunately, I don’t think she’s interested in doing that anytime soon, and for now, neither am I.
*Sorry, Ms. Gran, I couldn’t wait around forever, even though I’m convinced my novel would be a perfect fit alongside your work. I can only assume you’re inconsolable upon hearing this news.
I’m not closing the door on that permanently, however. We’ll see how this whole operation and the launch of my novel goes, and if it doesn’t blow up in my face, well, anything could be on the table. But that’s a discussion for a later date. As of now, submissions are closed. Readers of this newsletter are stuck with my work, and my work alone.
I sincerely hope that you’ll stick around for a while and give it a shot. The world is pretty messed up and scary right now, but stories are among the greatest creations humanity is capable of producing. Regardless of their form or content or genre, a good story always makes the world a better place, and I hope I can contribute to that cause in my own small way by sharing mine. If you’ve made it this far, that’s a good start.
Please consider subscribing so we can do this on a regular basis. And if you want to share it with everyone you know and encourage them to subscribe too, all the better! I’m not above indulging in a little peer pressure, especially when we can build a whole community here, centered around stories. I can’t imagine a better place to spend my time.
Until then, I’ll see you on the next page.
Thanks for reading this introduction to Powder Blue Pulp. It’s my first post and not an actual story, so I don’t know that there’s a whole lot to comment on, but I’ll open it to comments anyway. I always look forward to hearing from readers, so if you have something to say, please don’t hesitate to share it.