Adventures in Lo-Fi

Greetings from Lois-land

Hola amigos

It’s been a while… I’m clearly a bit slack at this newsletter lark, as I looked at my mailing list, and discovered I hadn’t sent one since 2017! Well, the good news is I’m still here, rockin’ in the free world, and I hope you are too. Some of you go way back to the Lois on the Loose years, so thanks for sticking around. Many of you came on board via my motorcycle travels in Iran, so a big salam سلام to you. And others have come via our Adventure Travel Film Festival (we miss you guys!)

With the film festival now come to an end after ten glorious years, and social media scattered across various platforms (and becoming something of a brain-rotting hellscape), I wanted to create a way of connecting with readers of my books, attendees of the film festival, and other like-minded souls. So this Substack newsletter is a way of keeping that vibe alive. I’ll be sharing the amazing human stories we used to feature at the film fest, plus mine and Austin’s adventures, pics and tales of river life on the Thames, book, music and film recommendations - and invariably something involving banjos (natch).

Why Lo-Fi?

Friends and family call me Lo, and I’ve always led a lo-fidelity, analogue life, centred around old boats and motorbikes, vinyl records and real books, river swimming, chopping logs, making fires, and playing the banjo. With human connections increasingly controlled by algorithms, and with the grim threat of AI-created ‘art’, it seems more important than ever to get down and dirty in real life. But this ain’t some luddite manifesto, or smug preachy lifestyle blog. You know it will be maximum fun.

Let’s hang…

If you’re already familiar with Substack, you’ll know it’s a newsletter but also a way of connecting directly with authors and writers and supporting their work. There are no ads and no algorithms, so you get the real deal - straight from the horse’s mouth. If you like the sound of all this, please do subscribe, reply, and share with anyone else who you think might be into it.

Fear not, I won’t be spamming your inbox on a daily basis. I’ll be creating these newsletters every few weeks, and there will always be a free option. As time goes on, I’ll add extras for paid subscribers but for now it will just be a fun place to catch up, share cool shit and chat with my readers. Writing is a solitary business so I would love it if you used the comments section to check in and say hi.

Image: Austin Vince

Thank you/Gracias/Grazie/Merci/Danke/Shukran/Cheers!

I’m grateful to have readers and friends all over the world, so if your lingo is missing ^^, let me know.

Lois

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