Goodbye, Claremont

Signing off from The American Mind magazine for good.

…Unemployed?

Five years ago this fall I published my first essay under the byline “Peachy Keenan,” which is not my real name. (My “dead name” is still not public, if you can believe it. I guess the evil leftwing doxxers are all sexist pigs who can’t be bothered to dox a womyn. We don’t even register to them. Sad!)

But back in the halcyon days of October 2019 I was still working full-time for a Hollywood entertainment studio, cranking out heavily themed “storytelling” copy for their various properties and attractions.

I had an idea that I wanted to get back into magazine-style writing, which is what I did in my very early days as a writer. In fact, my very first job out of college was as an editorial assistant at Interview Magazine in New York under legendary tyrant Ingrid Sischy (RIP, b*tch). This was back when Interview was still considered very cool.

Then in 2019, I happened to watch some dumb political panel on television and I got mad. I pounded out a rant and sent it off to a friend I knew from L.A. Catholic circles—who happened to have founded The American Mind at the Claremont Institute.

This friend, the great Matthew Peterson, who is now editor-in-chief at The Blaze, immediately published it. Read it here.

Here’s an excerpt from that early piece, which was about the infuriating tactic of Godless atheists trying to use someone’s Christian’s faith against them.

Funny to see that I was already using my 2024 mantra. LOL. I guess it’s evergreen.

Before publishing it, Matt asked me to create a pseudonym so I wouldn’t get fired for being a rightwing religious fundamentalist. Those people don’t last long in Hollywood.

It just so happened that my latest Twitter account had a suitable name. “How about you just say it’s by Peachy Keenan?”

@keenanpeachy is my third or fourth account, since I’d been banned several times during the Trump years.

A few months after my debut as Peachy, the pandemic started, my years-long career as an entertainment creative ended, and I was free to be Peachy full time.

I soon became a Contributing Editor at The American Mind, which meant I was on the hook for a set number of articles a year. A few months after that, I got a book deal. I started writing for other publications, started this Substack, and more.

And this month, after five years writing for TAM, will be my last. But do not fear—you can still read my Substack, my X timeline, my new book (coming 2025) and maybe a few bonus essays for select publications. If you’re interested, here is a link to everything I wrote for them.

What’s Next, Peachy?

I am presently deep into writing a book for my friends at Passage Press, for publication sometime in 2025.

And then, starting in early 2025, I will be hurling myself into a start-up concern for real basically full-time. Very exciting things happening, stay tuned….

And of course, I also have the usual family obligations and all that that entails. The dirty laundry stops for no woman.

In case all that’s tl;dr: my last-ever article for TAM comes out next week. I hope you will read it.

Without me and my niche brand of prose stylings, the Claremont Institute will remain a wonderful organization that is keeping the fires burning for the good people on our side. I wish them all well and much future success!

Much love, and thank you to all my friends at The American Mind,

—Peachy