Turn out the lights.
So I was sitting there trying to work up the gumption to write a review about Sandra Bullock’s Premonition when it hit me: I’m not blogging the way I really want to.
Recently my wife was looking back through some (years) old blog entries and marveling at how much she shared in those days. Details of family and work that would be inconceivable now that we’ve both weathered a terrible cyberstalking incident that left us permanently scarred. She hasn’t been able to blog more than an entry or two in the intervening years. I’ve done about three years’ worth of work, but it hasn’t been the same.
Part of the problem is all the second-guessing that goes into blogging now. I have people who know my name and wish me and my family harm so I can’t really talk about them. Likewise I can’t much talk about myself for fear of letting slip some piece of vital information that’ll start a whole new stalking nightmare. And then there are the professional missteps I’ve made when blogging about this thing or that thing related to books and/or publishing. Frankly, it takes the fun out of it and it’s one of the reasons I’ve taken the safe route and just done a bunch of reviews.
But the issue is this: I’m bored with writing reviews. I want to go back to blogging about the stuff I used to blog about before there were so many worries. And the only way I can do that is either: 1) lock down this blog from general readers, or 2) blogging somewhere else anonymously.
I’m going to wait a bit before I make a final decision. If ever there was a time for those reading to speak up, this is it, because the potential for this blog to go poof is very high.
Backlog
It may seem like I do a lot of reviewing on this blog and it’s true, I do. But at any given time I have a backlog of things I have yet to review and it gets longer every week. If I don’t stay on top of things, it can get out of control.
Right now I have:
- Aliens Omnibus, Vol. 2
- House of Flying Daggers
- The Expendables
- Aliens vs. Predator
- GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
This is a fairly manageable list thus far, but if I let it go for too long….
Of course, I don’t have to review anything at all. It’s not like people come from far and wide to read my thoughts on video games and movies and comics (or anything at all), so I could give it up and no one would probably notice. As I’ve said before, I use reviews as a tool for sorting out my own thoughts, though sometimes — like with the execrable GI Joe — I have no confusion about what I feel about it.
Occasionally I feel badly that the blog turns into a cavalcade of reviews without any solid content backing it up. The truth is that I get a little tired sometimes and the first thing that suffers is the blog. Reviews become an easy way to produce content and keep the daily pace going. I don’t like it when days pass without anything for people to read and reviews are better than nothing.
So you can look forward to another big block of reviews headed your way!
How many days?!?
How many days has it been since I posted anything here? However long it’s been, it’s been too long. And it’s not like I’ve been short of things to review.
From time to time I go through these blogging slumps. I can’t think of something that’s worth 250-500 words and so the day slips by. And then another and another. Today could easily have been lost if I hadn’t been so overwhelmed with guilt at neglecting the blog that I felt I should post something.
Part of the problem is that I have no news to share. Work on my latest manuscript is kind of stalled out so I can’t tell you about that. There’s been no further activity on the Dead Women front — no new covers to show off, for example — so I can’t gush about its impending release. In all it’s been very quiet, and quiet doesn’t make for exciting blogging.
I will say that I’ve been spending more time reading (and reading about) roleplaying games. There’s a two-day mini-con in my area coming up and I’m thinking seriously about attending. To play, of course, but also possibly to run something. Now, bear in mind that I haven’t run anything in ten years and you can see the pressure I’m putting on myself.
I suppose I could do some writing about my “process” when it comes to such things. How the ideas come together. How they’re implemented. And then how it all turns out. But I’m not sure that’s anything anyone wants to read.
So how about it? You want to read that?
10 more icons.
Since people seem to be mildly interested in these things, I went ahead and made the next 10 Ninja Assassin icons I threatened to. Enjoy.
These are not great, just like the other 40, but I figured I’d give it a shot. I’d love to see what one of the better iconographers at LiveJournal could do with these images, or with screencaps of their own.
Who’s watching me?
One of the things I’ve learned in the last couple of months blogging is that you never know who’s dropping by. When I had the unfortunate incident involving a crime writer and the bad review I wrote for his novel, I was amazed that people were actually reading my blog. And I mean people outside the little circle of regulars that I’ve cultivated over the past two years.
I was reminded again of the wide-open nature of the internet this morning when I woke up to a comment on my Ninja Assassin icons. It said in part:
I run a unofficial U.S. fan site for Rain. Do you mind if we do a post featuring your Ninja Assassin icons? They are pretty cool.
Now consider that I posted those icons yesterday and yet somehow their existence was advertised through search engines or whatever so that they could be found by someone totally new. That’s both remarkable and a little daunting, because it shows how even the littlest things are propagated well beyond whatever tiny audience you think you have and into the big, wide world.
Of course I said it was okay to point people directly toward the icons. As middling as I think they are, it’s nice to have the work recognized. I may even take some time today and do those extra ten screencaps I talked about doing just to make a round 50.
It’s just new to me, this idea that a wider audience is reading the blog. I hope they like what they find.
