HeyJaredBeatin' Paths
The Journey to the Great American Novel, now on Substack from Beatinpaths.com. Essays, stories, and poetry written across all 50 states. On my quest to understand America as deeply as possible, I hitchhike and live in a school bus full of books.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 11
- Latest publication
- Sep 29, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 9, 2026
Latest issues
I discovered something terrible (opens the original)
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I discovered something terrible recently. For the first time in forever, I opened my Spam mailbox on Gmail. It’s hidden from the main screen— I’d never thought to look.Inside were a handful of email replies from you, my dear readers, to some of my recent Substack posts. The replies were lovely. But the fact that Gmail had filtered my email list replies into Spam made my heart drop. Because it means that, for the last two years, I missed out on any number of friends’ and readers’ responses to my
Waldo Wanders (opens the original)
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The other day, when I posted my list of The Books I Will Write, I forgot one very important one that I’ve just now added: the children’s book, Waldo Wanders. I would like to write a small book for kids based on my dog Waldo’s adventures around America. Waldo is a very lucky dog— he’s been to almost every U.S. state. He’s lived in just about every major biome from the forest to the desert, and peed proudly across the continent from sea to shining sea. He’s hitchhiked cross-country twice, rides ar
The Books I Will Write (opens the original)
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As I’ve been building my life as a writer, I’ve started to think more and more about publishing. When I first started hitchhiking, and then living in my converted school bus, I didn’t think much about publishing real books with a serious publisher. I was focused on improving my craft as a writer, while reading and adventuring to gain the experience that would make my writing worth reading. But now, I have a pretty good vision of certain books that I know I’d like to write and publish before I di
Temple Burn (opens the original)
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Four quality posts a month— that’s what I promise you here at Beatin’ Paths. So, after a big essay a few days ago, and a lovely new poem yesterday, here I am again in your inbox. Hi!I’m at my sixth Burning Man. This year, I was blessed with an Artist Ticket; I’m here to add my poetry to the most creative city on Earth. You might enjoy reading five poems I wrote last year, at Burning Man 2025<
La Plaza (opens the original)
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I’m posting this from Gerlach, Nevada, just before I go onto the Black Rock Desert playa to wait in line for Burning Man. Read more
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