State of the Slog

Dear Readers,

Back in June, prior to my Chautauquan sojourn, I asked you what features you wanted more of from the Slog. The poll revealed that the majority of this blog’s visitors favor my reviews over other content so for the future I will be focusing on keeping more up to date with film, TV and possibly music and video game reviews.

I’m suspending the Sam Flynn’s 7 articles (ironic, I know) and introducing a new feature creatively called Sam Reviews which will focus on films that are not timely but I watch in my spare time (I just did a catch-up marathon of 2014 blockbusters Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, The Expendables 3, and Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit). Also, I intend to recap/review The Walking Dead‘s upcoming sixth season, premiering Sunday, October 11 (I meant to do Fear the Walking Dead but I needed a break from blogging, hence the last month). However, I don’t have cable so my posts will be delayed until Monday morning or afternoon in most cases.

My pop culture stuff is only half of what the Slog is meant to be though. What about the other half, where serials and short stories are supposed to reside?

One of most viewed posts continues to be Choose Your Adventure, published way back on January 12 of this year at the inception of the Slog. The Slog was a vessel not just for my journalistic endeavors but my creative ones too, specifically flexing my flagging fiction muscles. To my mind, the idea remains at the core of what the Slog is, even though my efforts have hardly matched up to that expectation.

The victor of that poll was the detective serial which I revealed will be called Caged. I can now reveal the official synopsis for the serial.

Caged is a series of short stories following detectives Hayden Eldred Cage, a shy genius with a dark past, and his partner Alexandria Ellison, a pragmatic careerist looking for meaning in the rain-soaked Harbor City. More than the violent killers he profiles and crimes she investigates, they fight the nihilistic and cynical outlook of the city brought upon by its corruption and apathy. Cage uses philosophy as a weapon against the darkness. For him, his cases are microcosms of the world around him, tales of gothic and cosmic horror, surrealism, and meta-realism to convey a reality that is both incomprehensible and inexplicably connected.

The series follows a) their investigations into the variety of violent crime in dark mecca Harbor City b) Cage’s personal investigation into his past and his sister’s kidnapping as he grapples with a cancer diagnosis.

I look forward to sharing the debut story “Fool’s Mate” very soon. I’ll also be revealing titles and plots for the following 10 “epistories” that will follow comprising Series 1, hopefully on a new schedule drastically expedited than the first. My first and only goal is to keep the Slog true to me, entertaining to you and let the chips fall where they may. I appreciate all my readers and look forward to continuing this journey in community-creation together.

Much love friends,

SPF

P.S. I continue working on my rap music and novel Tears of Elmaya in the meantime. Both are eternal tasks. I just love the process. But as far as end results go, check out my new Writing & Music Index where you can find (almost)everything I’ve published in the last four years professionally, including my three debut tracks as a rapper.