Yet Another Update
Hello again, beautiful watchers!
We are drawing down upon the last of the articles on WordPress that I wish to copy onto SquareSpace, including several holiday themed ones for Halloween and Christmas. Therefore, I feel it’s appropriate to give you guys a sneak preview of what’s coming to this blog in the next few months.
For October, I have three “archive” posts. Two are about the writings of cult horror author Thomas Ligotti. The other is about the French avant-garde black metal band Deathspell Omega and the apocalyptic Satanic philosophy of their lyrics (as well as their suspected vocalist’s involvement in fascist movements in Finland). I’m also working on the first SquareSpace original article for this blog, which is the first in a series of articles where I look at obscure cryptids from every U.S. state, starting with my home state of New York. That article should be up sometime next weekend, and I’ll close out October by looking at the cryptids of Vermont.
For December, I have two reviews of Christmas movies I found to be rather terrible: Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas and the 2018 adaptation of A Christmas Carol. I’m also considering doing a year-end retrospective of the animated films and TV shows that came out this year, either at the end of December or the beginning of January. I’ve previously said that I wanted to talk more about animation on my blog, and I figured that this might be the best way to do it. I have vague ideas of also going through the decades of the 20th and 21st century to see what I feel are the best animations of each year. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Aside from those, the only other WordPress articles I wish to repost are the retrospective I did on the Long Island-based power metal band Virgin Steele and the “Complete Noob’s Guide to the Left” entries on Marxism-Leninism and the early history of communist Russia. I’m definitely intimidated by the task of the latter, as it promises to be very research intensive, and I want to be absolutely sure I’m not falling for any Western anti-communist propaganda in writing about it. I figured the best way to approach it would be to divide the history of Marxism-Leninism into the six phases mentioned on the Libertarian Socialist Wiki and talk about each country as it turns to communism. I know it’s not exactly a scholarly source, but it’s the best idea I have.
As for the Virgin Steele retrospective, I suppose I could save that for the May retrospective, but don’t think I want to hold on to the WordPress site for that long. I suppose I could repost it sometime in November, or maybe as the first post for the new year 2024. I’m still somewhat interested in talking about The Shannara Chronicles. I’ve also considered doing a Watership Down style retrospective for the Jurassic Park franchise. Maybe I’ll save that for May 2025.
Before I go, I should probably give an update for those on SquareSpace and on DeviantArt who are wondering about that Divine Conspiracy story I was supposedly going to write. I still haven’t done much with it. I haven’t even touched it since last May. It seems that the more I try to actually write the damn thing, the more I feel that I’m not good enough to meet the task. I keep comparing it to the other fictional works that inspired it (The Lord of the Rings, Studio Ghibli, the Disney Renaissance films, H.P. Lovecraft’s writings) and deciding that there is no way I could ever hope to write a story coming even close to matching the quality of those works. I think it’s safe to say I have a really bad case of imposter syndrome.
However, there may be a ray of light. Earlier this month, my church held its annual chicken barbecue, and I went to lend a helping hand like I do every year. Incidentally, my church’s previous pastor and his wife also came to help. When my mother got home later that evening, she told me they remembered that I was an aspiring writer and wanted to read some of my work. So I printed five of my short stories off on her printer; “Melonheads,” “Skookum,” “The Wind-Walker,” “Brainstorm,” and “Love Is Love,” to be exact (I also wanted to give them my Divine Conspiracy writings, but the printer started running out of ink). I went to church the next day (I’ve stopped going regularly since COVID happened) and gave them the folder.
I tell you all this because in the course of our conversations over coffee hour, they suggested I should look somewhere to publish my work. And I must confess that I’ve been strongly considering going forward with the idea ever since. I’m currently waiting to hear back from the pastor before I take any concrete steps, but somehow, with their encouragement, I feel that I could manage to beat back this overwhelming tide of self-doubt long enough to actually approach a publisher. My parents have said they’re here to help if I ever decide to take that leap. Granted, I’m worried about any awkward conversations about politics that might ensue, especially since I’m way more honest about my beliefs in my writing than I am in real life. But I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it.
I hope this wasn’t too much to dump on you all at once. I just wanted to get it off my chest. But, yeah. I hope to see you next week for the first installment of “Cryptids of North America.” Take care of yourselves out there, beautiful watchers!
