Where do you get all those fancy Ideas? – opinion

I have been asked in the past where I get ideas from for my Writing. We’re talking fiction here, I’ve included in an earlier article an overview of how I research for facts for OP Eds, or Cuxton if I’m needing facts.

Shakur do I get ideas like squirrels with human-like faces? Or strange creatures? Or even an everyday person?

Reminiscing – opinion

I’m one to reminisce, sometimes at length.

Reminiscing moments in life, focusing on them. Seeing how moments link in to other moments. How they build our experience, our views, our life.

Today this set of memories linked to my Dad, that’s him above. I’ll tell you how.

It started yesterday, I was thinking about the Fanzine Dogbreath and editors Dave Evans and Richmond Clemens. Dave was well known by the name Bolt-01 and is sadly no longer with us.

Dave and Richmond commissioned me to Intervew John Wagner and Carlis Ezquerra, separately, about Strontium Dog. That was a delight. We lost Carlos too of course.

I then turned to thinking about Nigel Dobbins. Nigel illustrated The Gronk solo stories in 2000AD.

When I submitted a Gronk script to Dogbreath they paired me with Nigel. I was stunned.

That was published and a while later I was working on two new Gronk stories when I heard Nigel had died.

This sounds very sad, it is. But these are wonderful landmarks for me too.

Making Assumptions on Social Media – Opinion

I wrote recently about people sharing “Facts” when what they share is wrong. I focused on people sharing what they believed to be facts bit were speaking from a lack of knowledge.

Related to this is people making an assumption. The type I’ve seen a lot of recently are people assuming things known now couldn’t be known in the past. And kind of the opposite, assuming something we accept as normal was the same in the past.

Sharing Incorrect Facts Online – opinion

A lot is said these days about Fake News. Let’s be honest that’s not a new phenomenon. There have always been cases of someone bending fact to suit their needs, or literally making things up.

I’m not going to delve in to those murky waters.

There’s also when speculation or it’s cousin, gossip, is shared and starts being spoken of as Fact. This is prevailant in Fandoms, such as when the Internet exploded with news that Sony and Marvel had ceased talks about Spider-Man appearing in any more MCU Films – it was a rumour that was reported as Fact and spread fast. To my knowledge it was false and even close friends told me I was wrong. It took Variety publishing an article that the talks were still ongoing to stop the rumours.

I’m not going to go further on that here either. Or someone telling me ladt year that the Rogue Trooper film had been cancelled, when I knew it hadn’t as both Duncan Jones and Rebellion had strongly hinted it was still on preproduction (turns out it was in production lol).

I’m talking in this about unintentionally sharing something as a Fact when you are wrong and you could so easily be right.

I’ve seen it a lot and it happened yesterday. I’ll use that real example but to avoid shaming this that made what seems to be genuine mistakes I’m not saying where this happened – but it was on a major Social Media platform.

What am I planning for 2024

What I’m posting on the blog may seem a little random.  That’s not actually the case.

When I decided I was going to try to start writing regularly again I had a plan.

I wanted to get back to where I was submitting ideas for publishing. Where I was regularly doing Previews and Reviews of Comics. Where I was writing OP Eds, etc.

This Blog over the years has had all of the above and more.

So what was my plan and how I’d it going?

Table Top RPGs – and beyond.

I’ve been playing Tabletop RPGs since February 1984. I was 16 and in my last year of High School, we called it 5th Year then, now it is Year 11.

I started with Dungeons and Dragons. It was the red Starter Box, that’s seen a few iterations over the years. A friend at school had told me about the game, I was intrigued and I got it for Christmas from my older sister.

For anyone who doesn’t know most RPGs have one player who controls the game using defined rules. The other players work together. Using pencils, paper and dice. They create a character and this characters live in the gameworld.

Many Tabletop RPGs have Computer versions, often 1 person games but sometimes for multiplayers.

I’m still friends with 3 of the people I played the first game with, including the friend who first suggested it.

Over the years players came and left but my core group was 5 strong for years.

I won’t go much in to the politics of the hobby – yes every Fandom has them. Mostly this is about my relaid with the hobby and what I get our of it

My Approach to Previews/Reviews of Comics

On this Blog. and others in the past, I have reviewed a wide range of things.

Predominantly I write Previews or Reviews of Comics. I’ve also Previewed/Reviewed Novels and Factual Books. I’ve reviewed Film and TV – the first Review I wrote was for Dredd(2012). I’ve reviewed shorts that are on YouTube. I’ve reviewed Live Music, Dancing, Museum Interpretations, Jousts, etc.

Writing Reviews has opened many interesting avenues. From being a Guest at a Pre Joust banquet to being a Moderator at Comic Cons (in person and online). I’ve been asked by Actors, Writers and BBC Producers to write Reviews.

This Blog also has Stories and Poems I’ve written as well as Op Eds about History, Nature, Science, Mental Health.

This article deals with what I look for when I am deciding what the Preview or Review in the Comic world. It will also deal a little with how I put an article together. I am possibly going to write articles about how I deal with other topics in another article.

Imposter Syndrome – Judge the Evidence (trigger warning)

I’ve had Imposter Syndrome for quite some time now. It has had varying degrees of affect on me.

Imposter Syndrome is when someone has a deep feeling that they are a failure and a fraud.

Each person is different of course and how they perceive things can vary. They can think that success is due to chance rather than any ability they have. They may feel they will be “found out”. They may not see achievements as genuine. They may feel that praise they receive is undeserved, and possibly think it is given out of sympathy rather than how it is intended.

There are affects on my professional life in my day job. I have been a high prrformer yet struggle to “sell myself” to gain advancement in my career.

There are affects on my personal life. The worst is that I often feel I am a bad Parent.

There are affects on my hobbies and interests. Case in point, my Writing and everything connected to it. How this blog was once very busy and how it stumbled and fell.

My Writing, especially this blog, have opened doors for me. I’ve met some really interesting people. I’ve met heroes of mine in comic creators. I’ve made some friendships that mean a lot to me.

And though I’ve had some great times I’ve also had some very bad periods.

I’ve recently finished a period of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Imposter Syndrome is one of my issues we concentrated on.

Warning, this is a long article. It took a while to write and is fully honest.

Imposter Syndrome and other issues – my Mental Health

I’ve been struggling for a while.

Last May at Lawless, a comic convention in Bristol that I Moderate at, I had a huge bout of Imposter Syndrome. I wrote about it last year.

Lawless – A Celebration of British Comics – A Moderator’s view.

Well it got worse and until October that was the last thing I wrote for others to read.

Stress and Anxiety – How They Can Affect Us (op ed)

I am quite open about my health,  Mental Health and Physical Health. There are articles in this blog that talk about both.

I have written several Poems that deal with my MH. This article is, as the title states, an Op Ed. I usually simply say “article” but usually when I wrote an article there is some level of research done, often quite a few hours worth, in some cases over a long period.

This is simply my experience of Stress and Anxiety and is dealing with the last few Months.

Just to lay the ground my Anxiety and Depression started in 1998 when my marraige started breaking down. I became a Single Parent and only due to support from my Mum with childcare I remained in full time employment.

Despite acknowledging publicly the fact I was stressed due to the divorce I did not constructively seek help till 2008.

I now Cope much better but my symptoms are worse since 2016. That’s getting in to long story though.

I have Anxiety and Depression and symptoms include: Panic Attacks, Disassociation, Hallucinations – no, despite what some who don’t experience it Depression isn’t just being “sad” (and ut can be being really happy).