Welcome to you all!
Now, what is this?
Welcome to this new Strange Creation, friends and enemies alike…
To begin with, the essence of my goals as a writer and a thinking and feeling human being—this page you are reading being a part of that—is that I want to be the kind of person that I would like to see all over the place. That being: a person who strives to nurture and hone and strengthen, even cultivate and populate, those passions and talents that they’ve discovered within themselves and then to use those passions and talents to help create a better world, even when it seems like you’re (dancing/painting/singing/writing/acting) against the (current/grain/society). Because, let us be honest and real(okay?), the world we have now is not the world we grew up in(you can debate among yourselves, for now, about whether its better or worse, but I think we all know) and it is not looking good and it is not looking as if it’ll really be around much longer. No matter how literal that statement may be and regardless if you believe the current paradigm collapsing is a good or bad thing, this all means that we must begin to build a new world now!
I’ll get into the work that I’m doing and/or going to do, to make it clear what my plans are going forward, but first, let me talk about something I’ve talked about before(and will again): For me, I’ve always been a writer; always wanted to be, and it’s an incredibly large and engulfing part of who I am—it is the what-I-am that provides a structure for the who-I-am to build upon, you get me?—and I must make that very clear, because it informs all that I do. I am a writer and I’m going to write. I suppose this inherently means that I want to reach readers, the yin to the writer’s yang, but even more than that, I want to CREATE; not just readers, but the worlds and ideas they can dance their reading hearts amongst. I want to use that which I love and feel strongly about—something I’m told I’m rather decent at, as well—and I want to make a difference, which, yes, I know how trite and cliche such claims can seem, but I think interacting with my work may convince you of my sincerity.
Sincerity, you see, is a funny thing, in the context of, you know, “our time”. Everything is, let us say, over-seasoned. Irony, sarcasm, satire, and the like, have always been—I truly think—more like bits of decoration, or seasoning; they have been meant to add variety, flavor, and a little spice to the world and our perspectives and opinions of that world. Nowadays, I think you’ll notice, these tools—these spices—are seemingly all that’s left. The dish has become naught but salt and pepper and chives, the world has been pushed into a dangerous—and delirious—soup of narcissism and nihilism. We can barely even talk to one another about arbitrary notions, much less actually discuss the real shit. Any new world worth living in, would bring back sincerity; isn’t insincerity just another word for dishonesty?
This paradigm is obviously a product of capitalism and the glorification of individualism—exacerbated by social media culture and the pop media culture that grew up with it—which has built up this idea that what really matters is how the world sees you and creating an image you want them to see. One doesn’t recognise all the holes and flaws within that worldview and how such a narcissistic and nihilistic world can easily foster fascism, and all the other problems I’ve discussed in the past and will analyze more, unless one truly looks for them. Such is the danger of only tasting salt and sugar and syrup and never just eating the fruits and veggies.
You see, the Wordpress blog that I’ve been tinkering with for, hell, 15 years now recently has come in the form of two interconnected series of pieces of a larger project. Those two series—The Theory of the King and the Poor Man’s Journal—are both coming to a natural ending point. They are demanding, now, of more specific and detailed work, being a kind of mapping out of the spaces I wish to dig in; and maps are eventually finished and ready to be used in a great adventure, right? So, while I am finishing up that series and slowly adding annotations and an introduction and afterward to form it all into a book, I shall build upon that here by starting a kind of self-analysis, to refine my map, you might say.
I’m also working on other projects—like more of these!!
But, also; I’m working on the first few of a series of ten-twelve novels. This world/series has been in the works in varying forms for over 20 years and it is very alive, evolving, growing, spreading—and other words one might use to describe a fungus/infection/disease. It has altered me, I feel, just about as much as I’ve altered it. It holds within itself so very much of me, my philosophy, my desires and fears, and right now it is further along than it has ever been, more healthy and realised than it has ever been. I hope soon, to be able to share it with you. Primarily, we’re talking about, right now, a big, big novel and a collection of short fiction, as well as a couple of other books that have a good start and just need to be finished.
As a lowly kitchen worker with a dream and a few skills, a person who dropped out of high school(twice) and dropped out of college(twice) because of my position as a working class weirdo in a very poo, working class family, in a conservative and poor, working class state, well, it’s always been hard to find the proper time and energy to finish such projects, or even the time and energy to do the reading and writing required to even have the capabilities to do them, much less finish them. So, these are things I wish to talk about, but mostly in the context of someone with passions that I cannot, nor want to, shake, you feel me?
What this means for you, dear reader, is that you can expect an increasingly more regular fountain of exploratory writing, experiments, poetry and fiction updates, and(once the first book of blog posts is finished and published) a new series, based on my podcast(The People’s History of Horror)and the expanding nature of my analysis. It will be called The People’s History of Speculative Fiction and it will follow the same, but expanded model, of this first series/book, where I put out each chapter as I write them and then go back, do a self-analysis, and put it all out as a single book. This is the plan, anyway, and I’d love it if you joined me on this journey.