Welcome to my monthly update, where I bring you up to speed with some half-baked thoughts and general schemes, and point you towards some great content you might not have seen before. Let’s begin!
October has come and gone… ruddy hell, that was fast! It didn’t help that our entire household was struck by whatever mysterious disease appears to be infecting each and every home in the UK. Was it Covid 2? Possibly. I suppose Covid’s sequel would be called Covid-20, but who’s counting? Or even Covid-24? Sounds a bit too omnipresent. Maybe we had a retro one, like Covid-84. Have you had it yet? Sounds like a slogan for an advert.
Anyway, despite all the illin’, ultimately restricting my writing, I still quite managed some ‘output’, which I hope went down well? I am still should I write more confessional/blog style articles? Or focus on more constructive coherent stories with less frequent updates? I’m all ears community, I’d love to know.
One thing I did note, a lot of my posts are related to breakfasts. It happens a lot more than I’d care to admit. More on that after I talk to my therapist about that particular revelation.
There’s me all dressed up for hazzowizzle
So this month closes with a final scare, which is the upcoming American election. I can’t help but feel a dreadful fear, hence why above I am pictured in a suitable costume (not my actual guiysing suit, for which this year I dressed up as an upstanding member of the community, the greatest hoax any of us could imagine). Expect political themed words next month as my brain is dipping my thoughts into the putrid river of what will then be current events. What a terrible sentence.
Anyway, I will keep blowing this bloody trumpet but I am very indebted to you for sharing the word about this thing (points in all directions) - it’s always a joy to see something I’ve written ‘liked’ or ‘re-stacked’, so please keep that up. Ultimately, this whole enterprise is to be able to have an outlet for my ‘unique brand’ of humour and an audience to hear/read it, and given that I don’t have any profile or reach elsewhere on this rancid computer network, these dreams are in your hand. And so, especially if one of these posts has tickled you, please share where you can - even privately offliine in a whispered message to a friend or loudly through a megaphone while drinking coffee with a friend. I really am not fussed.
But, in case you missed anything, I’ve written up a quick recap of what was published in the last month, with some commentary to enjoy, a bit of a behind the scenes if you will/won’t.
Original Writing
Horror Story - a short story that is a parody of an ‘orror. I wrote this a while ago but it was quite a joy to look at it again and share it for Halloween. The final words especially brought me so much joy when writing ‘em. I actually wrote the whole thing outside on a bench on Castle Terrace. It’s quite a weird thing to write outside now that I think of it… maybe I should try it more often!
Designing for Euphoria - a guest essay on my altstack, Dee Dum, Dee Doo!, about the potential highs and lows that can be baked into a board game. This took me a full three weeks to squeeze out. Who knew it was harder to be serious than be funny..? I’m hoping the repeated practice might help streamline the process…
4deWrds
Some new words or redefinitions of old words which I am pitching as an at least weekly word a day. For word lovers and word despisers alike. Would be approved by Susie Dent
Pot Hole- this was a lot of fun to write. It’s quite difficult to put across the tone of these definitions, but this is a good example of how the ideas themselves aren’t the only things at play - it is a parody of pomposity. And then with a couple of solid ‘gags’ at the end, in quite a short entry, I enjoyed this one.
Fredd-O’s - trying to come up with something horror adjacent for my words, this one was re-written so many times but I’m happy with the end product. The concept of OFFBREK, a government agency that oversees breakfast cereals, is my personal highlight that barely gets a mention. Actually, there was quite a lot to enjoy in this, despite the rather harrowing image
Nighter - I have to admit, this one was written by my 4 year old daughter. Not the post, you understand, just the word. But the concept of a dictionary entry spending 80% of its space talking about other words was a fun concept to explore.
Chapters
These are extracts from my previously released Alternative Wordbook, and in future months, other to be released written works.
The Letter A - interesting behind the scenes titbit (tidbid?). When working on something, it is always best to front load the end product, you know so its funnier at the beginning, that this album you’ve made has the best songs on first, or else in the Salons of 19th century Paris you have the most paintiest paintings by the front door. But, given the other gag previously referenced of wrestling with a brand new alphabet order only to realise the original order is probably the most convenient, I had to put the essay for the letter A at the beginning of the book. And no matter what I tried, I just couldn’t find a good idea for it. But it’s fine. There are much better chapters to come, I promise.
The Letter B - includes a bit of imaginary Shakespeare. I’ve heard it said that in any given encyclopaedia you are never more than 6 paragraphs away from a reference to Shakespeare.
I wonder which letter will be next..! I will say, I am loathe to just publish everything from the book, so I might start to put the old essays behind a paywall, so these might not be available for free forever - so grab a read while you still can!
Quick Recommendations
What am I playing? Chance would be a fine thing, but I had that new Zelda on the go for a couple of well earned hours while everyone else was missing/in bed. It’s okay. Looks great. I need to play the old new zelda though.
What have I watched? Well reader, I’ve stumbled into a free Paramount + membership for a few months, so I’m watching whatever I can on it. And I’ve picked the Mission Impossible films as I’ve missed all of them. Just nice to see Simon Pegg on my telly eh? Oh and I watched Saw. It’s not scary at all actually. NB: A film called Saw, Actually would be a welcome entry in the series, anyone know any Hollywood types?
What have I been listening to? Pleased to hear Alex Goldman is back with a new podcast called Hyperfixed. I think the branding is completely weird, both the name and visuals are just not my cup of tea, but it can’t be denied, his voice is so fun and his dedication to solving the problems of strangers has been missed.
Can I stop reading yet? Okay okay, maybe I do like the sound of my own fingers tapping on a keyboard.
If you’ve managed to make it this far, congratulations. I’ll reward you if you mention it in person with a special hug? Very alluring I’m sure you’ll agree
Anyway, that’s that for October. November next. The month of forbidden moustaches. And Nanowrimo. Urgh. Good luck to all of us I suppose in navigating the treacherous transition from the joys of autumn to the dark, depressing hole we call winter.
