It’s been a mad few years. But when I think about it, my life has seemed a bit odd for well over a decade. In truth, it’s been hard for friends and family to keep up. And for most of that time, I’ve struggled to find the mental bandwidth to process it all (which has meant my fiction blog has suffered).
Lost and found
So much has happened, from the onset of chronic pain to near-death experiences to transcendent spiritual journeys and then marriage – two weeks before lockdown. Oh, and then fatherhood, sneaking in at the end there and changing everything further still.
But these are only the headlines.
Of course, the last few years have been tough for everyone. But when I look back to 2012/13, only a few things remain the same. Namely, I still write science fiction (and I’m still largely unpublished). Oh, and there’s the whole heavy-taste-in-music thing. But otherwise, nothing about my life looks the same.
Just recently, my wife and I moved into our first home, and maybe that event – along with the fact I now have a desk for the first time in ten years – has spurred me into kick-starting a new blog.
Let’s hope that it’s a case of third-time lucky.
Fail harder
My first fiction blog started twelve years ago and was a largely hit-or-miss affair. Mainly because I had no idea what to do with it. Undisciplined and lazy, the whole thing crashed into a ditch around the time my health troubles started in 2013. But you know what they say. No failed experience is wasted.
The second fiction blog started when I was in the middle of surgical treatment for a CSF leak and continued for a good few years after that. Then my condition miraculously improved, and my body began the long road back to rehabilitation. Since then, life has been one long headrush of events as I’ve scrambled to take care of my new family during a pandemic.
Understandably, spare time since then has been at a premium. So if I have found any, it’s been used to write fiction. Unfortunately, this has meant the second blog has also fallen by the wayside. But since I recently found a way to free up a few more hours, now feels like a good time to give a proper WordPress site a try.
The magic number
So, here we are. After fifteen years of writing but with only one story published, I have no audience. Oh well. That just makes this project more of a challenge.
As for me, my name’s Will, and I write a mixture of horror, slipstream, and science fiction. For the time being, this URL is where you can read about my work and what I find inspiring. I also hope to post some exclusive excerpts and the odd piece of fiction now and then. At some point, I’ll also share my thoughts on marketing myself as a writer with no audience (which may help others in the same boat).
Combined, this output should encourage some of you to return. Otherwise, I’ll abandon blogging and communicate solely through smoke signals and hieroglyphs. Which – given all the noise surrounding social media recently – sounds more appealing by the minute.