Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The future of Sound and Fury

A serene stretch of the wild and raucous Deschutes River
Funny, isn't it, how things change?

The Sound and Fury blog has been running for nearly 9 years. As of this writing, there are a total of  1387 posts. However, over the past several years, posts have been a lot less frequent.

There are a number of reasons for this:
  1. When first I conceived this blog, the idea was that I would produce 5 posts per week. I held more or less true to that goal for six and a half years. Frankly, I don't know how I did it. The burden to write something original, that revealed genuine insight, was huge. Sometimes I succeeded, as with this post: Witchery. Other times, I mailed it in, as with this post: Teem. Well, the truth of the matter is that, with increased responsibilities at home, in my social life, and at work, I simply don't have time to throw together (an accurate description of my writing technique) 5 posts per week.
  2. Whatever it may say about my passions, much of the drive for this blog came from my utter rejection of Junior Bush. Anger and abhorrence fueled most of the political posts that I wrote. Some of the more successful political posts included these:
    Senator Gordon Smith: Moderate? Hardly!
    The Problem with Hillary
    Junior Bush: Still cashin' in on Iraq

    But Junior is gone now. And while an even greater demagogue is at the helm of the GOP, I (perhaps foolishly) view Donald Trump as a joke and the final nail in the party's coffin. (By the way, for what it's worth, I've been predicting the crack-up of the GOP since at least 2011: GOP Crumble.)  Watching the GOP die in such an ugly and obvious fashion doesn't inspire passion so much as disgust. And disgust is not the most inspiring of emotions.
  3. This one is painful to admit: I committed so much of my credibility to writing and completing the story, River, that when I hit a creative roadblock that, try as I might, I could not overcome, my confidence as a writer plummeted. Everything I wrote after that seemed trite and empty.
However, I've made the decision to continue this blog. When it was going successfully, when I was producing mostly quality output on a regular basis, I had as much self-esteem and sense of purpose as I've ever had in my life. Further, certain folks (I guess I can accurately refer to them as "readers") have expressed disappointment in my decreased activity.

So, for those interested, look for new posts. They will appear less frequently than before. (I won't be producing 5 posts a week.) My goal is to produce on a weekly basis. Subject matter will be as it has been: Politics, movie and book reviews, verse, travel logs, Advanced Squad Leader replays, posts in Spanish, posts about family and friends, short fiction. I might even resurrect the River story.

And so, dear reader, please forgive the self-indulgent nature of this post. There will be more, and better, posts to come. In the meantime, please know that I am deeply honored by your interest.

With gratitude,
Dade