Of hells bells, a satisfied subscriber once said:

This has been a very enjoyable read and easily more engaging than much of the more popular newsletters I subscribe to.

Another subscriber says that hells bells is:

"incredible thoughtful long-form weird New England reporting"

Maybe that’s all you need to know.

Why subscribe to hells bells?*

A subscription gets you access to each and every newsletter and the hells bells website. Subscribing means you don’t have to worry about missing something—every edition of this newsletter will come directly to your inbox.

Some newsletters follow a specific beat or thread. Not this one. I never know exactly what an edition of this newsletter will contain, thus readers never know quite what it will contain but we all seem to be handling this well.

I am a writer, parent, and human living on unceded Penobscot land in rural “Maine.” I often share B-sides and backstories related to recently published work, research, or current obsessions (lately: eels).

Previous hells bells content has included:

abandoned houses, abandoned quarries, AI, ancient ancestors, audio storytelling, civic engagement, community organizing, death, drooling yellowjackets, eels/elvers, fascism, freelance writing, golden tortoise beetles, grocery shopping, historical societies, how to make your dreams come true, losing one's diamonds, “Maine,” mysterious insects, mystique, Penobscot River, porcupines, quitting, resource distribution, retirement, rockhounds, rural living, scuba diving, snakes, spaghetti, storytelling, tarps, Wilhelm Reich, wives, and writing.

Who writes hells bells?

Me (Michele Christle).

Outside of this newsletter, I write about culture, ecology, and place.

My work has been published in Eater, Down East, Insider, The Kenyon Review, and other publications. I served in the Peace Corps in Cameroon, received an MFA in Creative Writing from UMass Amherst, and have worked extensively in nonprofit storytelling and communications. I am a producer and facilitator for StoryCorps’ One Small Step program through WERU Community Radio and a founding member of Torchlight Media, a community-based multimedia studio. In 2024, I was awarded a Bodwell Fellowship and a residency at Hewnoaks. I live in midcoast Maine and am currently working on a book and an experimental documentary (with filmmaker Eli Kao) about elvers/glass eels.

“hells bells” is not a reference to AC/DC but the expression itself, leaning more toward surprise than anger.

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*Maybe you shouldn’t! I dunno. You’re the boss.