"Let me explain...no, there is too much. Let me sum up."
Dispatches from the Forgotten Stars, #24
Wow, you’re all still here? I’m glad to see you all. When I launched this newsletter, I really didn’t know what frequency I was going for, but “four months of silence” was not the plan. Why the silence? The usual, of course—regular demands of life and insufficient time to get done everything that needs done. So, this will be a “bullet list” of a letter, with links to some stuff on my site, a few thoughts on recent daily life, and at the very end, if you scroll that far, an ANNOUNCEMENT and PRESENTATION of SOMETHING COOL!
We’ll start with the way 2024 began: we had to make the deeply difficult decision to move my father into an assisted living facility. I’m not going into the details, but that has been a tough transition and an even tougher pill to swallow. Both of my parents deserved better in their final years.
Moving on:
I finished the first edits on the fifth book in my Song of Forgotten Stars series. Do I occasionally regret envisioning this series as a nine-volume epic, now that I’m 13 years or so into writing it? Maybe a little…but I would miss these characters terribly if I were already done with them. I’m hoping to publish in 2025, right around when I start writing Book Six. (Oh, the title of this one is Embers of Future Flames.)
I’ve also mostly finished the first draft of a Star Wars essay book I’ve been tinkering with, tentatively titled Fixing the Prequels, Dissing the Sequels, and Other Thoughts from Almost Fifty Years in a Galaxy Far, Far Away. Much of this book is derived from blog posts I’ve written about Star Wars over the years, though I basically rewrote a lot of it from the ground up. Having neared the end of this little project’s rough draft, now I’m wondering if I should do the same thing with James Bond.
Hobbes, the greyhound we adopted last fall, hurt his leg not long after we adopted him, and it’s been something of a saga ever since. As I write this, he’s finally done making regular trips to the specialist in Pittsburgh (I wrote about this here) and is starting—yes, starting—physical therapy here. Sigh!
I’m maintaining a draft post in which I write a paragraph about each movie we watch this year, which I’ll publish on my site at the end of December. But there are a few movies along the way which will inspire longer thinking, and two such movies hit me between the eyes in January: Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga and La La Land. I adored both movies. Read why here.
I like to note interesting instances of character illustration and development in movies and books, and I should actually write those observations more often. I wrote about one such moment in Schindler’s List, here.
If you want to read me at my most schmaltzy, here’s my annual roster of reasons I love my wife, posted on her birthday.
My collection of bib overalls continues to grow. The newest thing? Brown duck! Why is it called “duck”? I answer that, here!
How about photography, my newest passion in life? Well, I’ve continued working on that and learning about the art and the craft of it. I’m going to have much more to say about it moving forward, but for now, I’m having the time of my life making photographs with my new camera, even if this particular time of year isn’t best for that sort of thing in my neck of the woods. You can see my recent work on my Flickr stream, here. (A word about my Flickr stream: I use it to both feature my photography, and to host images that I intend to use on my site. So stuff that isn’t mine will appear there. I always mark such posts there with “For use on the blog”. I do not use my Instagram as any kind of photography feature anymore, because the folks running that app have made its algorithm so impenetrable that relying on it as a showcase for one’s photographic work isn’t a great idea, sadly.)
Oh, and here I am, slightly vexed that the girl sitting next to me has a shark’s head:
Finally, I promised an ANNOUNCEMENT of SOMETHING COOL, didn’t I? So, here it is: I have started vlogging!
Yes, I am a real-live YouTuber now. I’ve had a channel for years, but I’ve only ever posted there very sporadically, just when I have some video-based weirdness to post (which usually involves me getting hit with a pie or two). I’ve decided this year to add vlogging to my Content Creation Regime, after having been inspired by a bunch of creators I’ve started following over the last year or two. My first video just went up the other day, as I write this. I have a lot to learn about talking to a camera and whatnot, but for now, I think I’m off to a good start. Please watch my Channel (Re)Launch video here, and please Subscribe to my channel and click the “Like” button and comment if you want and…is that it? I think that’s it. I already have some other videos shot and I’m starting to edit the next one, so onward and upward, as they say. Zap! Pow!!
I think that’ll be it for this letter. My plan is to get the next issue out quite soon (it needs to happen soon, as I want to write about baseball movies and the season is about to start…or has it already started? One nice thing about being a Pirates fan is that you don’t have to really pay a ton of attention to things like Opening Day, the team’s roster, the standings…sigh….)
Anyway, I hope this letter finds all of you in a good place and that you are all doing well. Until next time!
Exeunt,
—K.