Yup. The Pretend Blog has been around for 16 years now. It hasn’t always been on my own website, but it’s always been mine, for better or worse.
These days the creativity is still a struggle, but this place contains various parts of my musings, criticisms, art and general nonsense. More than 590 posts in all. That’s not a lot when spread out over sixteen years. That’s about 36 per year (or around 3 per month) on average. Thing is, “average” took a big hit from about 2016 through Covid reaching endemic stages. There was a lot of depression and inability to create during that time frame. That lingers, even now.
Creativity, and the mindset that comes with it take a long time to recover when suppressed for too long. Much like muscles that have atrophied from lack of use, creative things need practice. They need to be flexed and worked out. Sometimes they even need to be taken out and shown off to others.
I’m going to consider it work in progress. I’m going to stick with it and keep at it – after all, I am still pretending people still read blogs.
I genuinely did not recall that was the official starting point of the Pretend Blog. Yes, my blog was not always on my own website. I moved it here so that it would be totally mine and I could post, list and keep whatever crossed my mind. History lesson – I named it the Pretend Blog because I knew I was going to be pretending that other people would be reading it. I planned to write whatever came to mind or whatever I found amusing at the moment. I believe I posted a link to a music video that amused me (it still does – check it out here).
I didn’t click on the link. I’m afraid of what LJ may or may not have turned into. I noticed the advertisement that LJ is “in” social networks… I thought they were a social network? It was confusing and one of the red flags that made me thing clicking any link there was suspect.
Here we are 15 years in. Somehow I thought it would be more… something?
Maybe I’ll be able to track anniversaries more accurately moving forward and we can post some kind of fireworks here for 20. Just have to get there.
I have said for a long time that I don’t like the ‘wrap up’ posts or lists or resolutions whenever the calendar flips at the end of the year… and I have posted a similar sentiment for a number of years in a row. I guess this passes as my end of year wrap up that I hate to see everyone else do. Can’t escape it, might as well run with it.
Once again, I missed the date. This past Sunday was the 14th anniversary of my blog. It hasn’t always been hosted here, but it’s been going on all those years. It’s a challenge to think of it in those terms. I’ve been operating the Pretend Blog (and pretending I have followers / readers) for almost as long as I’ve had a daughter. I would like to think that my writing, style and commentary have advanced and gotten better over that time, but I’m not a great judge of that. I tend to believe most of the words I toss into salad are a struggle. Writing is work. Finding, selecting and using the exact right word(s) is a constant challenge to me. There are a lot of days when I really wish I were super prolific, I just can’t seem to figure that out. A few hundred words at a time seem to be my best level of output ~ just need to string some of those together and keep putting stories out into the world.
Also, artwork. I still do that too. I’ve put a couple of pieces out there this past year, including a contest entry or two. It was good to have some projects that pushed me to get better at particular parts of art that I enjoy. The contests pushed me to be willing to show off my art as well. I know that I was somewhere around 8th place in the one competition I entered. Maybe some day I’ll place higher. I’m going to keep doing various artistic projects. It’s part of who I am. Art is a thing I do.
Bob The Skull
Being a fan. Yes, I’m a fan. I have gotten back into watching various forms of science fiction and fantasy. My reading has picked back up too. I had been in a terrible slump for a long time. This year my Goodreads account popped up a little message that told me how many books I’d managed to finish during this calendar year. I was surprised at the number. It’s not 300+ (yes, I know people that read that much) but 39 is respectable. That’s just over three books a month on average. Hopefully I’ll keep finding good stuff to read over the next year and that number will stay up around there.
The totals
I expect that 2021 will bring big changes in the world. I stay away from the political and world news type things on here as much as I can. I tend to agree with the general opinion that 2020 has been a colossal dumpster fire, but that’s an opinion based on the difficulties of others. I have, very thankfully, avoided a lot of the effects that have made 2020 such a difficult year for so many. My day job field was deemed important enough to allow me to keep my job and keep getting paid this year. That wasn’t the case for everyone. My health (and the health of my family) has been shaky, but that’s nothing new. I admit it’s been a while since we’ve been impacted the way we were here at the end of this year, but we’re working on it. Not our first rodeo as the saying goes.
Will I make predictions about what’s going to happen in the coming year? No. If nothing else this year has taught everyone the folly of that. Will I make resolutions? Nope. Still keeping the resolution to never make a resolution again. Totally winning at that one. What I will say is this:
I hope you have a happy and healthy year (and more) to come. The changing of the calendar is a convenient marker for such things, but it shouldn’t be a limit. Start something on the 30th. Keep something rolling until February. Create. Do things. Be awesome, and help others to be awesome too.
This article was originally published in the November issue of the Watch The Skies Fanzine.
It’s a mind blowing number when I sit and really think about it. I have taxed my brain and attempted to remember how exactly I heard about the science fiction reading group at the big book store down the road from my house and I don’t recall. One of the clearest early memories I have of the group was getting the opportunity to chat with the author of a book called Red Moon. He had an endlessly fascinating set of stories about Soviet era space medals and theories on that program. That was way back in May of 2001. Red Moon stands out, but I still have physical copies of all the books from that year and I remember reading all of them. I can give details about what was in them and tell you if I enjoyed them. Not too shabby for something that started so long ago, but that’s not all.
20! Almost old enough to drink!
Over the years WTS has grown and changed and had manner of excitement. The books have been our constant. The good, the bad, the ugly we read and discussed our random (or not so random) selection each month, and then dove into whatever other subject struck our fancy from the world of fandom. We’ve had authors, artists, editors, cosplayers and actors stop in to visit with us. Live readings, staged events, book signings and parties. We’ve gone to the movies and watched old movies at members’ houses. Myriad members have come and gone, but many have stuck around and have become long time friends. We have helped at conventions and worked at charity events. We have celebrated and we have mourned. Our group has stuck together.
When trying to decide what to write about and how that sense of togetherness was the stand out piece. The most important thing I have found is my tribe. My people. I go out of my way to be at every meeting I can. I am upset and out of sorts if I can’t actually get to a meeting to see and hear from my friends… my science fiction family. It means a lot to me.
We’ve moved locations. Severing ties with the book store of origin we’ve relocated two (maybe three?) times. We’ve landed at a library now, and that seems fitting. We’re in the middle of a pandemic as I write this. Our group is undeterred and meets virtually now. It lacks some of the more personal aspects of meeting in person, but it sustains us. I suspect that even when we are able to meet in person again we will attempt to keep some form of virtual presence available.
We publish a fanzine. This is one of my favorite aspects of the things we do. It gives us a place to put our news, celebrate the work of friends of the group, talk space science, recommend movies or even get some advice. The fanzine has provided me with valuable lessons on working to a deadline and given me the confidence to put my art forward. Not all of my cover art for the fanzine is display worthy, but I am proud of having produced more than 140 pieces of art for it. That experience gave me a supply of work to display as part of a convention art show and helped me get one of my pieces published. We have an archive that allows us to look back on all of this.
Looking back is not the only thing I want to do here. I also want to look forward. We have a lot of history, but we also have a mountain of potential. Being part of the library book club groups gives us new channels to attract more members. We’re still hunting up amazing works of fiction to read and discuss every month AND still getting out there in the fandom community. I’ve thrown a couple of suggestions out there to extend our reach in the coming year. I’ve got requests out for new voices to join the fanzine. Hopefully we’ll get to return to in person meetings. I really hope we get to return to in person conventions as next summer the World Science Fiction Convention will be in our back yard when it takes place in Washington DC. I look forward to another twenty years of this crazy, awesome family we call a fan group.
Finally, but most importantly, Watch The Skies would not be the same without the true foundation of it all. I want to put a special thank you here for Jeff Young. Jeff is the leader, editor and book seller extraordinaire who is our anchor point. Without Jeff this group does not survive, and I for one am delighted that he hasn’t chucked me yet. Jeff, thank you for all you do. It matters.
It has been a year. Today isn’t a
specific anniversary date, but it has been a year since the company
that ran a number of conventions including ReGenerationWho imploded.
I wrote about my feelings in Death of a Convention last year, but now
I’ve had significantly more time to reflect.
That time to reflect has both helped
and hurt.
Time away from the chaos, rushing and
stress has given me the chance to really enjoy all the fun we had and
the amazing things we accomplished over the years. I have so many new
friends because of the things we did. We were part of something
amazing and wonderful. It has helped me to see just how cool the
fandom community really is.
Time away has hurt too. I don’t get to
see many of those folks on a regular basis. We’re connected via
social media, but sometimes an in person get together is needed. It
has also hurt to see folks that did not handle any of this well. I
will not name people here, but I have generated a deep and abiding
anger toward some parts of the collapsing mess that was. It hasn’t
gone away. I don’t think it will any time soon.
I think that’s the key to it all.
Keeping the memories and the feelings we all made together. There
will be other conventions in the future (not this year of course –
2020 the plague year) and there will be more chances to make that
magic.
Keep doing amazing things, even when they hurt a little too. It’s part of what makes us who we are.
A date slipped past in the midst of all the holiday goings on. Back on December 27th The Pretend Blog became a teenager. Yes, this blog has been around for 13 years now.
It has not always been on my own web site. I started this whole thing back in the days of LiveJournal if you can believe it. Thirteen years of putting stuff I want to get out of my head up here.
I am forced to admit that I haven’t built the sort of readership that people who pay for their own web sites normally want. I have NO intention of stopping this however. I will continue to keep my own content, thank you very much.
So – all these thousands of words later – teenager. Let’s hope the site gives me less attitude than most teens give their parents!
For any fans of nostalgia, the LiveJournal posts are still live. I don’t remember how to get into that site, but all that stuff can still be found here.
I’m also consistent about a lot of things. I still laugh every time I watch The Ultimate Showdown (from the second ever blog post by me!).
