Category: Blog Stuff

It’s Been A Good Run

On By coilerxiiIn Blog Stuff2 Comments

It’s time for a long, serious, big announcement. The short version is this: I’m going to be stopping new posts on the Creative Corner and focusing all my blogging energy on Fuldapocalypse now.

For the longer explanation…

 

As I’ve said many times, Fuldapocalypse has grown and developed beyond my wildest expectations. It started off as me trying to give Team Yankee/Red Storm Rising/The War That Never Was-style conventional Soviet/American-WWIII fiction a clearer look.

Of course, I quickly started burning out and read another cheap thriller, setting the stage to read more than that, which made Fuldapocalypse more and more of a general fiction blog, which meant that Fuldapocalypse took up more and more and more and more and more “jurisdiction” from this blog. And more motivation.

I’m not sure what this means for search engines. I’m not sure what this means for followers. It’s just that what started out as a small side project suddenly mushroomed. And it worked amazingly. But it’s also kind of split everything awkwardly among two blogs. And Fuldapocalypse has just taken up more and more of everything.

This is a problem because one of the reasons why I started Fuldapocalypse was so that the Creative Corner wouldn’t get clogged up with a lot of review posts around the “miscellaneous miscellany”. However…

  1. Fuldapocalypse has become a general fiction blog with some historical sidenotes.
  2. So was the Creative Corner, all things considered. I’ve made the occasional personal post, but as it’s the kind of thing I’m understandably hesitant to do on the internet, it had become fiction-centric by the time I started a separate blog.

So I have this feeling of competing against myself that’s grown and grown as the months and now years have gone on. I’ve entertained thoughts like “Oh, I’ll put fiction reviews on Fuldapocalypse and nonfiction stuff on the creative corner”. But it all seemed forced and arbitrary. Even when-arguably especially when-I actually posted it.

Juggling two blogs wasn’t the biggest problem in the world, but it still came across as more trouble than it was frequently worth. On the Creative Corner, I commented on history (often military history), wargaming, and fiction. Now on Fuldapocalypse I comment on history, wargaming, and fiction with considerably more enthusiasm. When I put the “Weird Wargaming” on Fuldapocalypse and not here, I felt that it was the last straw.

So with a heavy heart, I’m hereby closing the doors on the Creative Corner. It is NOT being deleted, I must emphasize. It’s staying up as an archive. But I just want to go to the place with more focus and more momentum in my mind.

It’s been a good four and a half year run. This has gotten me used to running a blog. This has gotten me the fun and experience of speaking my mind on everything from history to silly fighting games.

To everyone who’s read and commented on this blog, thank you.

temeraireforblog

And this blog goes into the sunset.

 

 

My 2019

On By coilerxiiIn Analysis, Blog StuffLeave a comment

I had a good 2019, all things considered, and had several major accomplishments.

  1. Completing the CMO manual. This was the biggest task and it’s my proudest accomplishment this year. In 2013, I was just someone watching a stream of Command: Modern/Air Naval Operations. In 2019, I’d completed three official DLCs and had the honor of writing the manual for the sequel, Command: Modern Operations.
  2. Getting my first Sea Lion Press book published. The Smithtown Unit, an alternate history homage to “men’s adventure” novels, was written in the summer of 2019 and published in late September.
  3. Revving up Fuldapocalypse. Now, I read incredibly fast, so I didn’t lack for books to review. Still, Fuldapocalypse really got going this year. I ditched the clunky format meant for differentiating very similar books and made all my reviews “unstructured”, enabling me to write a lot of of them very quickly.

Happy Thanksgiving

On By coilerxiiIn Blog StuffLeave a comment

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

I’m thankful for this blog. I’m thankful for…

  • The fun I’ve had writing on this blog.
  • The books and posts I’ve enjoyed reading, and the authors I’ve found.
  • The ever-expanding scope of Fuldapocalypse, going even more into a place to review even more types of fiction (and for me to experience that).
  • The release of Command: Modern Operations, which I wrote the manual for.
  • And so much more.

How Many World War IIIs?

On By coilerxiiIn Blog Stuff, MilitaryLeave a comment

My latest Fuldapocalypse post asks the question of how many “World War III” novels there even are. This has been a tricky question, but the answer is “not really that many”. Having to move past that original narrow genre has even affected the Creative Corner, causing a reduction in posts, post length, and, more importantly, my focus.

It’s gone like this: Fuldapocalypse is conceived of as a place to slide in the World War III reviews. Fuldapocalypse quickly (and rightfully) shifts to fiction in general, which takes up a giant chunk of this blog’s “jurisdiction” and a lot of my posting energy. What started as a niche side project to avoid clogging the general blog turned into something bigger and more involved.  But there’s trade offs, and, especially when busy elsewhere, I’ve been prioritizing the book reviews over the “miscellaneous miscellany”.

The Smithtown Unit is Now Out

On By coilerxiiIn Blog Stuff, Fiction1 Comment

I’m delighted to announce that my authorial debut at Sea Lion Press, The Smithtown Unit, is now out on Amazon.

It’s a short action-adventure[1] novella set in an alternate world where, among other things, the USSR still exists, there’s a “Republic of Oran” in North Africa, and (most importantly), weapons and vehicles that were only concepts/prototypes or limited in actual history end up being used en masse here.

[1]The biggest direct inspirations were the MIA Hunter and Cody’s Army series, although the intro is more based on the classic vigilante novels.

Writing And Blogging

On By coilerxiiIn Blog Stuff, Fiction1 Comment

So, blogging has served me very, very well. Especially my Fuldapocalypse book review blog. However, I’ve noticed my reviews on there have been getting shorter and more off-the-cuff.

For the circumstances they were written in, they worked very well, and I’m proud of them. I got to broaden not only my own horizons, but also (hopefully) to share obscure books with my readers. If the convenient situation is “just read a soft ‘51%’ book, then give quick thoughts on it”, it works well.

But now-not so much.

First, I’m going back to long-form writing. I need (and it won’t be the easiest) to get in the mindset of writing 2,000 word or more chapters and not 200-500 word posts. Shifting from “sprinting” to “distance running” is tricky, and going back to the quick and easy posts may be a bad habit in that context.

Second, I’ve had this weird “mediocrity addiction” recently, where I read the first installments of a series, find them to be merely all right at best, then go to the later ones. Meanwhile, I read first installments that I significantly enjoy, and then, somehow, don’t follow up on them. My internal justification is “my brain is too busy to appreciate good fiction, so I might as well go for the outright mush”. That’s kind of self-defeating.

Third, I’ve been in a patch where I don’t have the most to say about my review subjects, and I’m sure the second part has something to do with it-what can you really say about “eh, it was all right I suppose?”

So expect less review blogging. I won’t stop it completely, but I do intend to slow it down, especially once I burn through my pile of “mostly finished” reviews. I’m nervous about going fully into writing long fiction, but I’m also excited, because there’s so much in my mind I want to get out.