Beginnings and Transitions

Another New Year

It’s 5:30 in the afternoon, outside the sun is setting on a warm day after a string of uncomfortably cold weeks. I was off from work today because of the holiday so I’m reeling from a three-day weekend. Right now, I have my second attempt at Creme Brulé cooling on the counter, last night’s attempt didn’t set so I’m trying again. The past few days have been pleasant if uneventful. I spent most of my time at home with the family, with only occasional excursions to the store or a nearby restaurant for food. A morose feeling of irritation has me in its grips right now, I suspect it has to do with the poor decision to drink two bottles of wine this weekend. I’ve noticed that I no longer get hungover, instead whenever I drink, I get a day of being unexpectantly morose.

I didn’t read much this weekend, haven’t been in the mood, but I did watch a few movies. We watched Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, it’s one of the Ghibli movies I never bothered with before. My daughter liked it a lot, and I think it’s one of the better ones. Saturday night my wife and I watched Saltburn, the movie doesn’t live up to the hype about being shocking or original but it was entertaining with outstanding cinematography. Then to top off the weekend we caught the first episode of True Detective Season 4, a horrendous disappointment. It was such a turd that I’m going to have to write a separate review about all the stuff that irritated me about it.

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It’s January, a new year. January named after the god Janus, god of beginnings and transitions. God of the liminal space. In the past I would write down goals and plans for the upcoming year, this time I didn’t. I always over plan and by fall I become obsessed with the imminent failure of all my well laid plans and unachievable goals. This year, I’m going to roll with it. If I finish the novel I’m working on, I finish it, whatever. If I accomplish nothing besides getting my Creme Brule to set then I will be ok with it. I’m adopting a Lebowskian attitude towards life in 2024, the Dude abides.

But, it is the new year and I do have several beginnings and transitions that I want to share.

Insect Songs

I decided to break my fiction writing off of The Deceneus Journal. I want to share a lot more experimental fiction, crazy fragments, and all sort of nonsense that the average reader of this substack might not be interested in. I know that many of my readers care more about reviews and cultural commentary than my actual fiction work so I don’t want to cross those streams. Therefore, I started a separate Substack named Insect Songs that will be exclusively for fiction, and I will reserve this place for everything else.

So if you are interested in my current fiction project, please subscribe to Insect Songs.

Deceneus Review Podcast

The most exciting thing in the last couple days was the premiere of my first podcast. After prodding from friends I finally decided to jump in on the audio format and put out a regular podcast. The first episode, more of a pilot, got a lot of positive engagement. I even got messages from real life friends that I had no idea read my work saying that they listened and liked it. So, I’m going to continue writing audio episodes and very soon I will be hosting interviews and discussions with fellow substackers and other writers.

The podcast will be at home on Substack. Check the podcast tab below.

But I also opened the RSS feed and made it available on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and any other podcast platform that works with RSS feeds.

I don’t care which format you listen on but wherever you do please like and share it so it becomes more discoverable. I would appreciate it and you will earn positive internet karma.

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So, in the next few weeks expect some new fiction on Insect Songs, a lot of scheduled podcast episodes, and several book, film, and television reviews. Make sure to subscribe and share, 2024 will be a good year.