Out of the Frying Pandemic Into the Fire

Well . . . 2020 kinda sucked didn’t it?

With that belated understatement out of the way, my last post came way back in October 2020 when I celebrated the completion of the first draft of The Darkest Fate. Since then, I’ve been in the editing weeds, occasionally changing it up to write a short story or work on a script or comic (follow my collaborator John Vitale on Instagram for his amazing art).

It’s been nice to switch up my focus after working on the first draft for two-and-a-half years. As it stands, I am a third of the way through my second draft. Impressive? Well, my original plan had me done by summer so I’m quite a bit behind schedule. A big reason I’ve been able to make progress is the feedback from my beta readers (you know who you are) which has helped me refine and reshape the narrative as I desire.

As fired up as I am to work on other projects, I won’t feel truly fulfilled until I complete one, namely the novel. The book needs to be done for me to turn my attention to anything more than short comics or flash fiction. Thus, I continue to hack away at the iceberg. Some days whole chunks come loose like I’m wielding a flamethrower. Others, I’m reduced to chipping away with a scalpel, one centimeter at a time.

Outside the creative sphere, me and the missus are fully vaccinated and excited to travel once more this summer. We have a big cross-country road trip planned, a very old school/beat generation journey I’ve yet to experience, introverted hermit that I am. Getting back to movie theaters is high on my list too.

Beyond that, I also feel the need to hold myself to account for previously published articles floating around the web. All are almost a decade old, but the internet is forever, as they say, and in my youth I heeded that warning exactly zero times. Time has done them no favors. All are either embarrassing attempts at provocation or self-immolation disguised as “honesty.”

I believe that people need to be responsible for their actions, especially in the public space, and I need to walk that walk. To that end, I’m writing a post to go over what was wrong with those articles and how my perspective has changed thanks to the intervention of peers and the positive influence of loved ones. I’ve been ashamed of these pieces for a long time and exorcising that demon is something I feel I must do to move on into a better tomorrow (which hopefully includes more regular Slog updates as opposed to bi-yearly).

Onward and upward into that better tomorrow, friends.