I write about what I’m living and thinking about, so this is what happens. By the end of 2022, I’d pulled those posts together, along with artwork, and self-published it as a book. The book was released in December 2022.

It was probably not the Christmas gift anyone was looking for, but I was certain it would at least serve as a reminder to me and others of what it had been like to live through that experience. While it is mostly from my vantage point in North Dakota, many people in other locations would recognize, to some degree, the description of the pandemic where they lived. And, knowing how quickly we forget traumatic and monumental historical moments we live through—which I believe has happened to many regarding the pandemic—I saw it as a necessary, tangible reminder, a documentation, both written and visual, of what it was like to live through a global, insane pandemic.

I still have a few paperback copies left, filled with the full-color illustrations. One of the ways I preserved my sanity, as I discuss in the book’s introduction, was to create art to help process the highly illogical behavior that characterized the pandemic.

Each essay, poem, or art piece is available to subscribers of this Substack in the section dedicated to this book.

Read the Book

The first book I self-published, back in 2016, was a book not really about dinosaurs but kind of: There Are Dinosaurs in the Fields. I made a little video for the release of the book because someone said books needed launch videos, a tough thing to do on my budget of $1 and “hey dad, would you help me with something?”

It’s an odd book, not necessarily in a good way. For starters, this is the opening page of the book:

That was followed up by this dedication:

Nevertheless, I am going to share this book with paid subscribers to this site. Some of it is pretty funny, actually, and I want to keep giving paid subscribers bang for their buck.

And the suffering ought to continue until morale improves.

Read The Book

For the world, it started quietly on April 1, 2016 when a small camp was set up along the Missouri River.

For me, it started with a spreadsheet.

The protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline was hitting the local news, and while it started small with Standing Rock members mainly, no outsiders, it caught my attention. Initially, I was favorable to their cause, based on what I was reading in the local news.

But the way the news was being reported began to confuse me.

It seemed as if facts were being reported out of order, and were more emotional than factual. When it became clear that the timeline of events mattered for understanding, I decided to build a spreadsheet timeline, plug in what I could find, and sort it to better understand. That spreadsheet still exists, though Google doesn’t seem to like it being shared.1

I began paying closer attention in order to add to my spreadsheet, and that is how I ended up, over almost two years, gathering 40K+ pieces of information (social posts, photos, PDF files, news articles, videos, etc.) of the protest. Because I had gathered so much information in real time, connected with people who, like me, were now very much against the protest when we realized the full context and were horrified at what it had become, it seemed logical to write a book.

No one else was going to tell the rest of the story, the one that didn’t make it into the media or have the celebrities fawning over the protesters.

So I wrote a book. 446 pages. Tiny print to get it all in there. Photos, maps, essays, timelines, and interviews.

Blue Like A River: Burning the bridge between red and white at Standing Rock came out within about eight months of the protest’s end, in the fall of 2017, and was sold mostly locally, particularly among law enforcement families, ranchers, and business owners who had been impacted by the protest. I didn’t sell a lot of books, but I know that the people who eagerly requested a copy wanted it for more reasons than just owning a book; many told me they just wanted someone, anyone, to tell their story since the media had not.

A lot has happened in ten years. Some of the players have died. Some have “switched sides.” Some of the websites that published the information and news of the protest no longer exist.

But what hasn’t changed is what I learned about activism and how the media frames protests, how it frames a simplistic version of who the good guy and bad guy are, and how we keep getting duped today. That decade-old book is as relevant now as it was then, and because of that, I decided to release it serially here on Substack in the coming year. You’ll see techniques that have become common among activists today. You’ll see the names of players, including politicians and celebrities, who were active or present with the protest (two of whom are now in the Trump administration), and you’ll realize that every time activism and protests hit the news, it’s in a twisted way that people keep falling for again and again.

Here’s how the release of the book will work:

1. Access to the book content will be available only to paid subscribers. The book itself is no longer in print since the cost of printing it has gone up so much that it is now over $55. The cost of an annual paid subscription to this Substack is only $50, and you get tons of stuff to read (or listen to). I think it’s a pretty good deal and fair.

2. The book content will not be sent via email. This is a very specific topic, not the general interest my usual blog covers. So, while it will be published on my Substack, I won’t force it into your inbox. I’m not going to assume you’re interested. You can find it at julieneidlinger.com (this Substack) or on the Substack app.

3. The content will be published serially. I will publish the content regularly until I get through the book.

That’s it.

Start Reading

Paid subscribers get access to the first book, The Crossword Puzzle Mystery. You can also purchase the audiobook, ebook, or paperback book.

In this first book, Helene, Marta, and Jimmy find out firsthand that newspapers and books can be tricky things.

When mysterious robberies start popping up in the region, they realize they’ve landed right in the middle of a clever scheme and some bold burglars. New friends can be hard to trust, and sometimes old friends can’t be trusted at all. But the mystery club members learn that not only can they trust each other, more importantly they can trust in God, even when the situation is scary.

Find out more about The Mysteries of Whisper Bay, and get copies of the books in print, audio, or ebook format at mysteriesofwhisperbay.com