Randy Cassingham's Blog

I'm pleased to announce my new project: a new e-mail publication with stories about interesting real people. It's a spinoff of the popular "Honorary Unsubscribe" feature in True.

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I briefly considered doing an "all obituaries, all the time" publication, but that wasn't really what I wanted. The point of the H.U.s, to me, is to celebrate interesting people who made a contribution, but didn't really get much press when they died. But why wait for them to die? And why, if they are dead, do we have to honor them immediately, then move on?

The new e-publication, then, HeroicStories, is about upstanding things real people have done, whether they're alive or dead, and whether the story is fresh or old -- the only thing required is that the stories are interesting, and told by someone who knows about it first hand.

You always hear about the people who do wrong, hurt others, take advantage, rob and steal. But they are the minority. HeroicStories will be about everyday real people who step up to the challenge and do right when things go wrong. It's not just the people who save lives or stop a crime. It could simply be a restaurant manager who "saved the day" by hosting a birthday party after the restaurant next door lost the party reservation. They're stories about deeds that positively impacted someone's life, done by others who didn't "have to".

I spun HeroicStories off in early 2003 to a new publisher, but it still runs according to the manifesto I wrote for it. But, again, I do not have anything to do with the publication anymore, not since 2003. (Which I mention because I still get e-mail about HeroicStories!)