The Obligatory First Post, in which the Author States His Intentions in a Humorous and/or Self-Deprecating Way, and Attempts to Convince the Reader to Like Him

Hey y’all! I will try to tick all the boxes for an introductory post, while sparing you as much formulaic boredom as possible.

What can you expect to read here?

My intention for this blog is to chronicle my serious attempts at writing fiction – not that the fiction itself will necessarily have a serious tone, but I am attempting to take the writing of it seriously. I intend to share some of my writing here – there will be some shorter fiction pieces posted here, as well as brief excerpts from longer things. On occasions when items are published, I will provide the appropriate links here as well.

What is it that I write?

Genre labels shift, but probably the best one for what I write is “contemporary fantasy.” Simply put, most of my stories are about extraordinary things happening to more-or-less ordinary people who live in a world that we recognize. Sometimes these stories contain supernatural elements, elements of what we’d call horror, or science fiction, or a number of other subdivisions. I don’t really like “fantasy” as a label, since to me it’s an awkward, clunky term – isn’t all fiction a fantasy of some kind? – and at the same time, it feels limiting. Too much of the time, “fantasy” is either taken to mean sexual fantasy, which I don’t write (because, frankly, ew), or some version of elves and dwarves frolicking through a succession of challenges as they Quest to the Mystic Cave of Wherever in order to fetch the Most Important Sword and/or Scroll of Thingy. Which, as much as I have loved stories like that in my youth (and still do, from time to time), I also don’t write.

What else will you see here?

This will also be a place where I will document some of my adventures in trying to “break in” to the business of writing. If you’re a writer (and I suspect a lot of blog-readers are), I hope that my successes and setbacks will provide some examples of what works and what doesn’t.

I will also talk about some of my personal journey. I am beginning the serious pursuit of writing (by which I mean, the attempt to turn it into a profession) somewhat later in life than most, and the reason for that is that I have had some obstacles to overcome. In many ways, this is an attempt to swim upstream from my usual inclinations. I’ll share a little about that, but I’ll try not to be a bore about it.

So, what won’t you see?

I’ll try to keep these posts as devoid of political commentary as possible. Certainly, I have strong political opinions (living in America in 2020, it is difficult not to have them – it’s a very polarizing time), but my view is that, if you’re already online, you’re already being mauled by political persuaders from every side. I hope that I can provide a vacation from that. If I feel that I can’t remain silent about an event or an issue, I’ll try to either take it somewhere else, or give you plenty of warning, so that you can skip it if you’d like.

You also won’t see posts involving my family, unless something really amazing happens that I feel I must share. My goal, after all, is that eventually, strangers will read this blog, and I am cautious and protective about what I share with strangers. No offense, of course – most of you are not axe murderers (it is widely known that axe murderers prefer watching TV news to reading).

In short, I will do my best to seduce you into reading what I write. It’s not my normal inclination to blow my own horn, but I am trying to rise above my normal inclinations. Besides, as we sometimes say in Texas, “If you don’t blow your own horn, nobody knows you’re coming.”

A toot / À tout!