Alex Van Tol September 20, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing This morning I hosted my Saturday morning writing circle, and while I try to stay in integrity and actually, you know, write my book while I'm holding space for everybody else to do the same, today I needed to use part of the time to organize my ass for these amazing retreats at Rowland Cottage. (Guys, I'm so excited!! 🤸 I'm dying over here...we leave tonight at 10:25. By the time you're reading this, we'll be...
18 days ago • 4 min read
Alex Van Tol September 6, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing Welcome to my new subscribers who have come by way of Rowland Cottage retreats! I hope you love reading The Infinite If, and exploring the publishing world through my strange and ever-changing mind. Let's get right to it. Want to be a YouTuber with me? Kay guys, dead serious! I've faffed about long enough, telling my writers that YouTube is one of the smartest places to establish a content well online. Yes,...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Alex Van Tol August 23, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing why yes, I DO want to write my book here, Alex It’s been a full and bananas-fun-fire-horsey summer with my trip to Shambhala, a quick gig of cat-sitting, and a recent weekend in Calgary at When Words Collide with a bunch of other Canadian book coaches...and now I'm delighted to invite you to gather with me in person this fall. We gonna drop it down a notch, go within, get quiet, and spend some holy time with our...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Alex Van Tol August 2, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing TLDR: Let go and let life. Because your fullest life is trying to find you...if you'll let it. Where you're headed is nothing like where you've come from. ✨ 🦋 They said 2026 was going to be fast and full. I sort of didn't believe it, because I live like a turtle: slow and quiet and tucked deep inside my comfortable shell. It'll be fast and full for other people, but not for me, I thought. My life is quiet and...
2 months ago • 8 min read
Alex Van Tol June 14, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing Year of the Fire Horse. It's asking me to simplify. The kids are grown and both will be in a different city next year. So I'm simplifying. I gave away almost all my furniture and a lot of my clothing, moved house, deleted over 100 books. Said goodbye to 25 years' worth of journals, poof: to the landfill. Old stories that have done their work. I'm trying out a friend's Kindle because I want to travel more, mostly by...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Alex Van Tol May 3, 2026 The Infinite If: The chess of writing & publishing I'm seven weeks into my fiction blueprint. Had one meeting with my book coach so far. I've already overhauled the whole story. Is this feeling familiar to you? OMG the chess is real. I've rewritten my entire blueprint, all the way down to the why—at least in my mind. During tomorrow's Saturday writing session (I'm writing this on May 1), I'm going to put my new thinking down on paper. Map out a whole new...
5 months ago • 3 min read