It’s Been A Good Run

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.

And this blog goes into the sunset.

 

 

My 2019

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.

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers

To all the readers of this and Fuldapocalypse-Merry Christmas!

The Backlog Is Even Bigger

It’s one of those times when my book backlog keeps growing and growing and growing.

As I’ve said many times already, I don’t necessarily view this as a bad thing. The few times I haven’t had a big backlog are times when I scramble around for new books. If I find a new book in a time without a backlog and it turns out to not be very good, then I have to scramble anew.

Yet if I read a backlog book and that turns out subpar, then, well, I can just grab the next book out of that. And frequently that turns out a lot better than the previous one. I try to balance my book purchases, even within the “cheap thriller” types so that I don’t get too overloaded by any one genre. It may be counterintuitive to have a big pile of unread books, but it works for me.

 

The World War III Blog On Red Dawn

The World War III 1987 Blog has been doing a series on Red Dawn, the classic 1980s invasion movie.

The three entries (to date) are available here (part 1), here (part 2), and here (part 3).

Naturally, it’s making me want to do a Fuldapocalypse piece on the movie specifically and/or “invasion fiction” in general.

Happy Thanksgiving

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?

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”.

500 Posts

This is my 500th post on the Creative Corner. Four years, 500 posts.

It’s quite something. Blogging has been great for me.

My new review at SLP

I reviewed Chris Nuttall’s “Storm Front” (wish the title could have been a bit less awkward, oh well) on the Sea Lion Press blog.

My Writing Influences

So, two of my biggest nonfiction writing influences are two contradictory people. The first is Shamus Young, a video game critic. I like his stepped-back style with a touch of wit that can really dive deep into literary analysis (particularly his longform analyses of Mass Effect and Grand Theft Auto V).

The second is classic Bill Simmons, the sports commentator. I said “classic” [2000s] Simmons because he became a victim of his own success. But the sort of irreverent, “talks like a real fan attitude” in his early columns and The Book Of Basketball I read and loved growing up has also rubbed off on me.

Trying to balance the two influences can be tough. I can remember some Fuldapocalypse reviews where I was trying to be literary and analytical, and others where my mind was snarky and over-the-top. But they’re there, for better or worse.