NASHVILLE, Tenn. - s4story -- Readers and aspiring writers may now glimpse into what it takes to move an idea from the blank page to a realized story between covers—and beyond!

Technical Writer by day and novelist at night, Southern writer Roy Burkhead uses his Substack publication The Old Man and the Manuscript to give readers a free peek into his process of finding a literary agent for his novel THE E-POSTLE or serializing the book (Dickens-style) from Halloween night to Christmas morning.

"THE E-POSTLE intertwines the lives of three lifelong friends amid 2006's Internet culture," Burkhead said. "In doing so, it overlays a human face atop all those Americans who have faced a Reduction in Force (RIF)…a layoff.

"Like every aspiring novelist, I would love to have an agent and see this story in a traditional bookshop, but if this story lands on Substack and in cyberspace, then that's where it lands."

"THE E-POSTLE perfectly captures the calm before the storm, the years between the bursting of the Dot Com bubble and the rise of the technological tsunami that followed," said Organizational Change Management (OCM) Consultant Jason Hunt. "The scenes and chapters about the RIF ring so true I had to resist the urge to start packing my personal items into cardboard boxes." Hunt was a casualty of the RIF at the turn of the century that helped inspire the story.

Who's Burkhead to tell anyone how to live a literary life?

"Okay: That's not what's happening here," Burkhead said. "I'm sharing how I carved out a literary life on this rock, and I'm hoping it might give readers some ideas as to how to approach their own experience."

Burkhead's latest short story, "A Pass for the Brokenhearted" appeared in the Spring 2025 issue of The Louisville Review.

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"I consider that piece to be a meditation on empathy and forgiveness…," said Burkhead, "…for others and for ourselves.

"All the characters throughout THE E-POSTLE could benefit from empathy and forgiveness."
"Roy Burkhead's story in The Louisville Review Number 95, 'A Pass for the Brokenhearted,' addresses the question of how to live after loss with compassion, empathy, and even humor," said Flora K. Schildknecht, editor of The Louisville Review. "Set in small-town Kentucky (and partly in a graveyard), Burkhead's story illustrates how radical forgiveness, not just of others but of oneself, can lead to much-needed healing."

In addition to being a technical and creative writer, Burkhead has taught literature at Western Kentucky University (WKU) since 2008—not long after earning an MFA in Writing from The Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing at Spalding University.

"Roy Burkhead's complementary talents—as fictioneer, technical writer, and educator—show in his skilled eye for detail and for the human experience," said Dr. David LeNoir. (As the WKU Director of Composition, LeNoir was Burkhead's supervisor from 2008 until LeNoir's 2024 retirement.) "His writing is meant to be consumed—to explain, instruct, and entertain—but most especially always to share experience and make his readers open their eyes to
that experience."

Portland-based author and book coach Charlotte Rains-Dixon agrees.

"Roy Burkhead's manuscript is a Southern story told with global sensibilities," Dixon said. "The first half of the story unfolds across London, England, and it picks up again in downtown Nashville, Tennessee, USA…eventually leading readers to small-town America twenty minutes east of Music City.

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"In every locale across the globe, THE E-POSTLE explores not only the technological and corporate concerns of the day, but it also does so through the prism of each local community and setting."

In addition to working with Burkhead one-on-one over the Covid lockdown as he re-envisioned and rewrote the story, Dixon has led creative writing workshops and retreats in Italy and England each year since 2013.

"And the reader is never allowed to forget about Santa and the season: This is a Christmas story, too, after all," Charlotte added.

"Like his characters, Roy Burkhead is forever navigating between worlds," Hunt said. "By day a writer in the belly of corporate America, religiously carving out an hour at lunch to work on his latest novel or short story. By night a creative powerhouse who somehow finds time to mentor fellow authors or share with young would-be writers his passionate, life-long, and relentless love of literature."

According to Burkhead, The Old Man and the Manuscript offers plenty of free features: "I refer to the free subscribing folks as bookworms, avid readers who may not be interested in the technical aspects of writing; these readers will experience the Saturday Night Message, a weekly recap of my progress, as well as a variety of feature story-style posts."

Burkhead refers to paid subscribers as e-postles: "I give this group some nuts-and-bolts tools, like spreadsheets to track submissions, a lecture on living a proactive creative life, posts on dealing with literary rejection, and a few other hard lessons I've learned along the way."

Full details on paid and unpaid subscriptions may be found at The Old Man and the Manuscript at royburkhead.substack.com/

"Above all," Burkhead said, "I want people who interact with this Substack experience to celebrate the written word and to have fun, fun with an uppercase FUN."

For additional information, check Roy Burkhead out online at: https://www.rlburkhead.com/