I almost overlooked Étienne Bimbenet. He has changed how I think about what it means to be human & respect animals. While others focus on similarity and intelligence, he quietly encourages us to open our hearts to difference. The Difference Between Us is now live. open.substack.com/pub/heavycro...

The Difference Between Us

What phenomenology reveals about animals, ethics, and ourselves

open.substack.com

A $165,000 pen in a cluttered drawer is funny until it becomes a theory of the world. I wrote about Montblanc, Jane Austen, Wes Anderson, luxury objects, and the strange moment when a writing instrument stops being a tool and becomes a story. open.substack.com/pub/heavycro...

Montblanc: When the Pen Becomes the Story

From Captain Wentworth’s quill to Wes Anderson’s Schreiberling, the writing instrument becomes more than a tool. It becomes a myth.

open.substack.com

*The Signal Between Us* is now included with Prime Reading. Amazon Prime members can read the complete ebook at no additional cost—no Kindle device required, just the Kindle app. A quiet story about fathers, daughters, absence, discovery, and the signals that pass between us. Link in comments/bio

The Signal Between Us library.biblioboard.com/content/0238... Great news! If you have a library card, you can use it to read my book on Biblioboard.

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... Philosophy Is Waiting. A new essay.

Philosophy is Waiting

Giving attention to the signals between

open.substack.com

youtube.com/watch?v=dYoc... What am I in between?

Betweens // Conférence de Siri Hustvedt

YouTube video by // Philomonaco //

youtube.com

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... Literary dispatches from the French Open made me think about the rhythms of tennis, and whether imagined experiences are any less real than lived ones. New essay: The Game Is Afoot: Notes from Roland-Garros

The Game is Afoot: Notes from Roland-Garros

On Games, Stories, and Experience

open.substack.com

15 hours left on the Goodreads giveaway for The Signal Between Us. The signals are still out there. www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sho...

Book giveaway for The Signal Between Us by Ashley Rovira Apr 25-May 25, 2026

Enter to win one of 100 free copies available. Giveaway dates from Apr 25-May 25, 2026. A daughter he never knew. A summer of firsts—and the fragile begi...

goodreads.com

My quietly renovated home for fiction, essays, literary criticism, and stories about memory, fracture, and human connection. www.heavycrownpress.com

I'm all in for the support and love for the veteran authors! www.goodreads.com/list/show/41...

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... Bob Dylan locked up my phone for 90 minutes and I didn’t die. In fact, something strange happened: I had to actually listen. Wrote about it—attention, absence, and a hoodie doing quiet philosophical work on stage. He Played the Music

He played the music

His show, his terms, and what remains unseen

open.substack.com

My novel, The Signal Between Us, is part of the Goodreads giveaway stakes right now. You can enter to win 1 of 100 free kindle copies until May 25. www.goodreads.com/giveaway/ent...

Goodreads

See what your friends are reading

goodreads.com

Just me and Pete Buttigieg, out here posting notes like it’s a joint venture 🤝 #substacknotes

The signal just got clearer. I’ve redesigned my Linktree to bring everything into one place—books, essays, and Heavy Crown Voices Literary Magazine. 📣 Submissions open for Voices 2026 Deadline: June 24 If you’re a writer, I’d love to read your work: linktr.ee/heavycrownpr...

One of the advantages of the Second Term is being able to pick on Barron. Just saying. It is nice to find an advantage in the free for all that is adulthood.

What a Spy Novel Knows About Love open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... A spy novel about love is already a strange premise. But Graham Greene understood something we’re still living with: systems don’t need truth—only plausibility. New piece:

What a Spy Novel Knows About Love

Satire, Sentiment, and the Cold War

open.substack.com

A lot of people are cracking up today. What is interesting about crack ups is that they reveal the truth. You either become more aware or you get worse. You face the crack and open up, or you avoid it & let it crack you quietly under the surface.

Last day. FREE ebook promo! The Signal Between Us is free on Kindle through tonight. www.amazon.com/Signal-Betwe...

Ashley Rovira 🇺🇦@heavycrownpress.bsky.social · 4mo ago

The Signal Between Us is free on Kindle—today and tomorrow. A father. A daughter. Eighteen years of silence. March 24/25 only! www.amazon.com/Signal-Betwe...

The Signal Between Us is free on Kindle—today and tomorrow. A father. A daughter. Eighteen years of silence. March 24/25 only! www.amazon.com/Signal-Betwe...

The Signal Between Us: A Father/Daughter Discovery Story

Amazon.com: The Signal Between Us: A Father/Daughter Discovery Story eBook : Rovira, Ashley: Kindle Store

amazon.com

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... Wake Up Dead Man is structured like Agatha Christie— but what it reveals feels closer to something older, and harder to name. I wrote about the pattern beneath the mystery.

Wake Up Dead Man (where the devil awaits)

On power, faith, and the making of a scapegoat

open.substack.com

Donald Trump thinks people with learning disabilities shouldn’t be president? Dyslexia is disqualifying? Not insurrection. Not dishonesty. Not corruption. I’d take a leader who’s open about struggle over one who weaponizes it. It’s hard enough feeling different. Leaders should empower, not belittle.

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... The Frankenstein movie is about what happens when we create life and refuse to love it.

Playing God, Refusing Love

Frankenstein (2025) and the Moral Cost of Neglect

open.substack.com

We call the intact life a success and the cracked life a failure. But only one leads to transformation. More Notes from the Loft on Fracture open.substack.com/pub/heavycro...

More Notes from the Loft on Fracture

Still obsessing about the crack-up, one fragment at a time

open.substack.com

It’s fun to notice things no one else seems to notice. Even more fun to notice that they don’t notice that you notice. Then it becomes almost a secret garden. Anyone could find the key.

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... The poetry of an eerie calm. Old friendships resurfacing — scattered. And a dream that refuses to stay buried. When the Wind Turned (13) 🔗👇

When the Wind Turned (13)

A Katrina family saga / After the Storm / Briarhaven

open.substack.com

🎁🔗👇 www.theatlantic.com/internationa...

The Death of Khamenei and the End of an Era

His life’s work was to preserve a revolution that is heading for the ash heap.

theatlantic.com

Representative James R. Walkinshaw (D-VA): “My fear is we’re here today as part of a political exercise, part of a long-running fever dream where Republicans want to lock up Secretary Clinton.” THEY ASKED HER ABOUT CONSPIRACY THEORIES 🎁🔗 www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/u...

In Tense Deposition, Hillary Clinton Denies Knowing Epstein or His Crimes

nytimes.com

This should be a bigger story. Ethical AI bullied by Pentagon to be unethical. Growing industry willing to do it without pressure. 🎁🔗 www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

Anthropic Takes a Stand

The company is refusing to bow to the Pentagon’s demands.

theatlantic.com

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... They don’t call it starting over. They call it unpacking. Chapter Twelve — Brookside. A loose stair. A pipe that knocks once. Enough.

When the Wind Turned (12)

A Katrina family saga (Part II: After the Storm)

open.substack.com

open.substack.com/pub/heavycro... “What was shattered in the trenches was not merely flesh but illusion.” On the Somme as Fitzgerald’s master analogy in Tender Is the Night. #booksky

High-Explosive Love

Romance, Illusion, and the Somme in Tender Is the Night

open.substack.com