Thursday, July 21, 2016

Blogging about Blogging


When I started this site it was to prompt myself to read more, particularly new, swords & sorcery. I read old books, new books, scads, and scads of short stories. The more I read and wrote, the more I found my voice as a critic and promoter. It worked really well, so well, I ended up with a steady perch at Black Gate (thanx, John!). For nearly three years now, I've been reviewing three books a month and a stack of short stories each month. 

For a while after I started writing for Black Gate, I posted an additional piece here. I would expand on the article, write about the music I listened to when I wrote the review, or just rambled about tangential matters sparked by reading the book. I haven't done much of that for a long time.

Last year, I tried to mix things up. First, I wrote about HPL Mythos stories, until Lin Carter killed my interest in that. Then there was the Long 19th Century Project (greatly inspired by Jim Cornelius and his Frontiers Partisans site) which was killed by laziness. Reading a book a week for Black Gate takes up more reading time than I allow myself, so getting another book done for a weekly or bi-weekly post didn't work. Sure, I could have just decided to post reviews when I was ready, but that makes too much sense. Last, I went in for Epic Fantasy. That one just sort of faded away, disappearing into the general mix of fantasy I review.

Since the beginning of this year I've posted about a bunch of things, mostly cover art. That's sparked some fun conversations and comments, so I'll probably keep doing that in the future. After that, I just don't know. I want to get back to my add-on posts for my reviews. Between Jeffrey E. Barlough's Dark Sleeper, and James Blaylock's The Stone Giant, I should have more to say than I can reasonably write over at Black Gate. Neither's S&S, but they're both a lot of fun. 

And I'll get back to the music. In fact, I've been planning on putting together playlists and making them available as mp3s. My musical taste is pretty eclectic, so there'll probably be something there you'll enjoy.

I've also made some changes to my schedule (and, most importantly, deleted Civilization V. I have wasted dozens and dozens of hours on that game over the last year and a half) to get some more reading time in, so, with luck and fortitude, I should be able to get a few Long 19th Century posts up. Right now, in fact, I'm finishing off Geoffrey Wawro's The Austro-Prussian War. Together with Harold Carmichael Wylly's, The Campaign of Magenta and Solferino, it depicts Austria's fall to second-rate power, and her displacement as the leader of the German states by the dynamic Prussian Empire. 

I also found a library copy of Clarence Clendenen's Blood on the Border: The United States Army and the Mexican Irregulars. I'd like to get through that and then actually finish off the first volume of Alan Knight's The Mexican Revolution, subtitled, Porfirians, Liberals, and Peasants. I've gotten halfway through it in the past, and I like to get it done with and finally move on to the second volume, Counter-revolution and Reconstruction.

So why am I writing all this? Specifically, at the moment, I'm sitting at work, bored, and half watching the last episode of Stranger Things (it's alright). More importantly, I'm working out what I'd like to do here at the site. I need a platform to blather on about what I'm reading/watching/listening to, I just need to give it a little bit of consistency. I mean, I seem to do more writing about what I plan to do than actually any "doing" these days, and I'd like to correct that. As I say every time I make some sort of pronouncement about what I plan to do, we'll see.

12 comments:

  1. Sounds like you might be suffering a bit from blogger burnout. I feel your pain. I also understand what you mean in the last paragraph about writing more about your plans than actually doing them. Hang in there and keep writing. I enjoy your posts. Just make sure you're having fun most of the time.

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    1. Thanx! And I do still mostly have fun. Sometimes, the steady-every-Monday-nite-Black Gate-post gets a little annoying, but not nearly enough to walk away.

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  2. I hear you, I have a love/hate relationship with my own blog.

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  3. It's this weird place, where I simultaneously ramble on about stuff I like, try to hone my writing, and participate as part of a larger community of like-minded fans. It's a lot of fun until it seems like an obligation, and then I wonder at the seeming narcissistic need to have a "web presence" and making myself known to the rest of the world.

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  4. FWIW, I always read and enjoy your posts, both here and over at Black Gate. It's introduced me to some good reading that I wouldn't have tried otherwise. And of course I've especially enjoyed your posts on cover art, maps, etc.

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    1. Thanx! I appreciate your kind words (and I'd like to say them right back to you - your posts have got me itching to read some van Vogt, among other authors I've skipped over the years). I started doing the art/maps posts because they were easier than writing, but I realized they deserved some more time and thought than I had been giving them. With the advent of e-books (almost all I read these days. Shelf space and a wife opposed to clutter and double-deep rows of books being what they are), and publishers'desire to appeal to the widest demographic, cover art has become a terrible thing. I want to document the ones I love and call out some of those I consider failures. I admit to feeling pleased and reassured that my opinions aren't just belly-aching when the art posts get so many appreciative comments.

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  5. I enjoyed Stranger Things, wonder if they'll keep it up for the second season. Always looking for good music to read and write to so I'll stay tuned for your insights!

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    1. I finished watching it and think it's pretty good. The kids are all solid actors and I love Modine as a villain. My musical tastes really are all over the place; while I was listening to Bach at work yesterday, when I got home it was RJ Dio, from Rainbow thru Sabbath and then his solo albums.

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  6. Same here. At the beginning stages of my blog I wrote about my writing and about the authors that inspire me, but I posted infrequently. About a year ago I started a series on fantasy artists that I post once a week and I've been sticking to the schedule religiously. Still, I would love to add more to the blog but my time is severely limited at the moment, and like you I sometimes get stuck on planning mode instead of doing mode.

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  7. That's what I did several years ago, and focused on reviewing short stories published by e-zines. As I've transitioned to reviewing mostly at Black Gate, it's been a struggle sometimes to decide what to do here. I want to keep writing about "stuff" as it crosses my path, but I also know I need a little discipline and direction to keep me organized. Maybe griping out loud in public is all I really needed as I've already made two new posts.

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  8. Keep on keeping on, sir. Also the Civ games aren't a waste of time if you're having fun. ;)

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    1. Thanx, for the encouragement! As to Civ, it was too much fun and overwhelmed everything else. Man, is it an addictive game

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