Gabbling Into The Void 2: Drinking From The Firehose

*turns around dramatically in chair* OH, HELLO, I didn’t see you there. How’re ya now? Once again I return from the wasteland, emerging from the apocalyptic veldt, with an awkward fusillade of mini-blogs. Less a single boulder catapulted through your castle wall, and more a crate of pebbles dropped unceremoniously upon your head.

First things first, where’s Wendig? I’ve got a series of appearances lined up over the next week or two. I recorded with Slayerfest 98 over the weekend, joining a panel of rad humans to talk about the Season 6 finale of Buffy (“Grave”). Not sure when that lands, but I expect sometime this week. Then, tonight I’m at the Bethlehem Public Library reading from and talking about Wanderers. Tomorrow, I’m at Greenlight Books, talking to Ilze Hugo about apocalyptic fiction (her new novel is The Down Days, also about a pandemic). Finally, next Wednesday I’m chatting with Josh Malerman via the Doylestown Bookshop online. Very excited about all of these, and I hope to see you there.

Why yes, Virginia, Twitter is a Hell Realm. This past weekend was a fucking delight on Twitter, which is to say, apparently I became the poster boy for the publishers suing the Internet Archive due to the IA’s overreach on copyright. I’m guessing it’s because people just don’t like me, because, to reiterate one last time, I had nothing to do with the suit. I didn’t contact my publishers regarding it, I am not named in the suit, I do not control publishers with my mind, and I wasn’t even the only author talking about this thing on Twitter when it happened back in March. I appreciate people think I wield more persuasive power than, say, Neil Gaiman (with 2.8 million followers on Twitter), but I assure you, I do not. Regardless, people have since gone on to doxxing me, threatening me with death, and assorted other standard awfulness. As such, I locked my account and took a weekend off of Twitter and it was very nice, so you can expect that to continue. I’m not deleting the account or anything, but will be considerably more scarce there over the summer. I’d rather devote time and energy to writing this big damn SECRET BOOK I gotta write. I will continue to be here, of course, and you can also find me on The Gram, as it were.

We’ve been watching Letterkenny. That, at the behest of a number of friends (including but not limited to, Delilah Dawson, Kevin Hearne, Rob Schnell), and finally we relented because hey it’s on Hulu, and that’s a Texas-sized 10-4, Big Shooter. It’s a show where I only understand about 80% of what they even say (up from what I’d say was about 50% when we started), but god-dang it’s funny. Ferda!

Other things on the blinky box we have enjoyed? Well, if you’re not watching What We Do In The Shadows, something is wrong with your brain. The movie was amazing and I knew there was no way they could do a TV version that equaled it — and yet, here we are, because it is as good. We’re also watching a lot of cartoons. Craig of the Creek is one of the best toons on TV. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts is back, and is the best.

Okay, I know, but bear with me. Sonic the Hedgehog wasn’t awful. I know. I know. It looked terrible. He had creepy teeth at one point. It was a whole thing. But somehow, it was actually kinda… fun? Is that okay to admit? It’s not gonna win any awards, and at no point was I moved to tears by it, but it was an hour-and-a-half of mirth. And Jim Carrey plays a curiously sinister Robotnik — I expected him to just be silly, camera-mugging Carrey, but the character was genuinely kind of evil? As evil as you can be for a kid’s movie, I guess.

I’m getting bored with Animal Crossing. The samey-samey comfort of it is wonderful, but also started to feel… well, samey-samey. Rec a new game? Also, I’m starting to feel like my life would be improved if I got back into PC gaming? Would it? Am I wrong? Hm.

I went to a park yesterday. It’s pretty out-of-the-way, a bit wild, not a lot of “facilities,” so it’s mostly just… nature. Which is great, because, ennnh, nobody was there? Okay, a couple people, but all at a distance, and we had masks. Took some pictures, listened to the babbling of brooks and what-not. Ooh, I saw a pair of orioles and their nest. Photos forthcoming later! Soon as they’re processed.

ANYWAY HERE IS A PHOTO