I know, I know, second email of the day. I never do this, but I am excited about a book I just read this morning (which you can read for free, no email signups or nothing) and I wanted to gush about it.
Never used that word before.
Tinker’s Dam
I got thinking the other day about why I made this Substack. I wanted to share stories and jokes and poems. Of course, these stories, jokes, and poems, were my own.
The fact that I had written these stories with my brain, meant that they had a consistent style, so you were signing up for some weird PHILLIP CARTER literature.
It’s awe-inspiring for me to consider that people will travel to watch my gigs, and will buy my books, and will be excited when I draw stuff in signed copies for them.
(Video from June 2026 Geek Fayre)
you might come to events and see my gigs and buy my books sometimes (it keeps the lights on in my brain and in my house) but what about the stories that I did not write, but which I think are close to my style, and which privately, I wish I wrote first?
I didn’t think about that much until today. I had thought about it with my friends sometimes. John Coon, admittedly, and a bit of one of AJ Pagan’s and some Aaron Frale tales (I hope he uses that as a collection title) and AJ and John have guest posted here before, but what of writers I never knew, never met, but whose stories I am inspired by?
So, here’s a new type of post.
I read Tinker’s Dam, by Joseph Tinker, on the 20th of July 2026, about half an hour before sending you this email.
The story was published in ANALOG SCIENCE FACT + FICTION in November 1961, as a novelette. It concerns a nestled web of psychic agents and counteragents working for, against, and diagonally with respect to each other. It has the usual world war theming, but with a brilliant espionage angle and characters that feel alive and clever.
And people said old stories were perfunctory…
It is fantastic.
It has waited on my desks, through three house moves, since around
I love this story, and I wanted you to read it too.
I wish I had written it myself.
I hope you forgive the double post. I missed fiction, and I wanted to show you some.