THOUGHTS on Writing and Gratitude
By Alex Ness
November 6, 2022
WHEN I ANSWER, MORE QUESTIONS ARE SENT
These are the most common:
What Do I Believe In:
Bigfoot or Yeti? Sort of. I think there are likely many phases of human development that saw niche, remnant vestigial groups. If intelligent and having a breeding population, they might well avoid contact for safety reasons, modern humans are probably here because wiped out any other competing human species.
UFOs? Well not like some my think. I think there are many phenomenon we do not understand, so something might be going on, but what, exactly? Is it a secret tech project, is it technology that developed from the advanced German science tech of World War 2 and somehow kept secret, or is it visitations by alien, that is, non earth life? I think saying aliens is to make a vast sort of assessment and statement, with far less than vast evidence. Do I believe in intelligent alien life? Yes, but I think it is rare, and unlikely to be discovered or made contact with in my remaining lifetime.
Champ, Loch Ness and Ogopogo? Lake monsters are possible with giant lakes. Underground lakes and feeder rivers might well allow thriving environments for large sized eels or sturgeon. Outside of that, all I can say, is that however great our ability to know, with accuracy, the earth's wild population, the expanse of the earth and oceans is even greater.
Alien Intervention in Human History? Not much, if at all. But who knows.
A Physical God as a White Man in a Beard? The concept of God to me is so large that the physical limits of a being who is god is even less my thing than a massively powerful spiritual being.
Which Politicians do you or did you most like? I don't know. Ross Perot I guess.
I'M THANKFUL
I'm grateful to those people who still read my words here. My thanks to you. Gratitude also goes out to those people who have contributed works for review. I am thankful for Lys Fulda and Sphinxgroup for support over the entire length of my writing about comics, games, books and more. I am ever grateful for those who buy my work, and buy books to support my writing life. My son has allowed me to find new areas of interest, within music, comics, books and film, and has kept me younger, by far, than I should be if one looks up my date of birth. More than anyone else, my wife Beth is responsible for allowing me to write as a career, and while she isn't going to read this, I am thankful to her. My cats keep me happy in other ways, and I am grateful for them as well.
THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY OF ME
It has been a long journey to get here, and life is good, but complicated. I've written for print and online since 2000. My first book is technically my published thesis when I graduated from NDSU as a graduate of the history department of North Dakota State University in 1996. I loved going to Grad school, if it was hard it was rewarding in numerous ways. And holy crap I truly loved Fargo ND. But, the book I wrote, and thesis paper isn't as good as it could have been. Without going deep, I had used an editor who had retyped it and left some hard to find errors. I used and had more than one crappy word processors and I wasn't used to reading every word and punctuation mark in search of errors, as it wasn't a machine aimed at that, it was for letters and such in a semi professional setting. I was and remain very happy to write, but editing sucked balls.
My thesis paper was a three subject work, to show I understood how to write within the areas of discipline where I was getting acknowledgement of field expertise. (Those areas, btw, were Asian History, American History and European History.) I wrote upon the concept that writer and social critic Yukio Mishima attempted to inspire a reactionary response to modern life in Japan, but was very Western in his outlook. I wrote upon the internment of the Japanese and Japanese Americans in the US during the Second World War, and how media and the law were used to expose the terrible choice to do so. And lastly, about the similarities and differences between Nazi Germany and Japan in the Second World War, and why Japan's government might have done bad things, but was not Fascist.
I
loved teaching, and learning, and writing about Japan. I tried to get
Japanese language and couldn't do so in the 8 week summer course I
attempted, so my goal of getting out and moving into a PhD course had
come to an end. I did have a competency in French, and that was enough
to graduate, but to go forward in the field of Japan or Asia, I'd need a
language to read primary documents and perhaps take courses, visit and
study in Asia. Ultimately I learned a lot, regardless of language. We
live in an era where a great deal has been written in English, about the
subjects I am interested in. I was fortunate to go to grad school, as
I'd truly screwed myself by bad grades and issues in undergrad years and
I had an opportunity and used it to make something good happen, where I
might have blown all my chances. My parents wondered what happened. It
was being in love and having my wife's support that allowed me to find
victory in this area.The
point of bringing this up, is that my life's work and writing began, if
not perfectly, 25 years or more ago. And it isn't going to change
anytime soon.
MY FUTURE HERE
I
get asked if I'll still write here if I stop writing at my poetry
blog. I'm not stopping my poetry writing, but even if I would or
had ever, I would not stop writing here. The fact I'd write here or not
due to my poetry blog isn't a concern, at all, since it isn't related.
I've written here as a means of promoting various works, creative
talents, and the comics industry in particular. I've believed that the
field of comics has been poorly served by the two typical sorts of
coverage it receives in the fan press. I say fan press to begin with
because the chances of academia covering comics is not nearly so likely
as that by fan press. Professional media rarely gave two shits for
comic books. Only success in the movies restored interest in the term
comics. In the fan press are a number of interesting blogs and
websites. But, those that make the most noise are from two distinct
groups. They are either
the whiners who have access to a computer in their parent's basement
and think the more muscles and powers the better, and why not make the
women heroes have bigger breasts, or there are the people who are bitter
since they themselves can't get published but have an attitude about
what comics should be like and about aim to attack anything they
dislike, and critical lambast anything outside of their taste. CBR, I
think, is or was the best popular site, and I won't go into who sucks.
However for those wondering, I read and enjoyed the Comic Buyer's Guide,
and I pretty much hated Wizard Magazine and similar works.
MY CURRENT PROJECTS
As
well as my poetry blog and this blog, I've been writing on blogs, Lost
Kingdoms and Cthulhu Darkness. There are many public domain images for
use on both of the blogs. I've had thoughts of creating another long
form poetry blog similar to the two mentioned above and linked below,
but I've far too many projects incomplete already. I want to complete my
projects that are in process, before I add to the blogs I will begin to
write.
I have mentioned in this blog that I was going to write a
book with a complete cultural, political and military history. After
considerable efforts to gather resources and write a guide to that
world, it seemed to me to not be possible with the computer I had, (and
still have) and until I have updated all of my technology and even my
schedule, it won't happen. However, the goals I have are to complete that, if not for
print then for my own use. I've been doing very well creating images
for that work, even as I rarely think I am any kind of a great creative
talent.
I do have three different projects I can't begin to
discuss here. The reason for which is that I do not wish to promote a
project and get excited about it, and by doing so set the stage for my
failure when it doesn't happen. One of my worst experiences happened
when I had two books already written and an artist wanted to create the
art for them and publish them. After I signed a contract, basically
limiting me from considering other artists, he then took great efforts
to avoid working on them, and actually tried to create a website with me
involved, while he avoided work. He had/has talents way beyond most,
but it was a disaster. While I am excited about the many possibilities of current projects, I'm going to try to say nothing. In a different realm of media, I
was asked if I'd contribute to a podcast. As much as I appreciate the interest, and enjoy the subject matter, I kind of doubt I will do
anything regarding it. I admire the creative people involved, but I
have so many things creatively to consider, I don't want to fail,
anyone, especially me. Time will tell.
About Getting Reviews from Me
I
can be found on Facebook, Twitter or through email
Alexanderness63@gmail.com. I accept hard copies, so when you inquire at
any of these places, I'll follow through by telling you my street
address. If you send
hard copies for review I will always review them, but if you prefer to
send pdf or ebooks to my email, I will review these at my discretion. I
don't share my pdf/ebooks, so you can avoid worry that I'd dispense them
for free to others.
MY LINKS:
My Poetry AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com
Published Work AlexNessPoetry.Blogspot.Com/2007/01/My-Work.html
Amazon Page Amazon.com/author/AlexNess
Cthulhu Horror CthulhuDarkness.Blogspot.Com
Atlantis & Lost Worlds AlexNessLostWorlds.Blogspot.Com
Support: Poplitiko.Blogspot.Com/2022/06/for-sale.html
All works and art remain the property of the owners/creators and nothing more than fair use is asserted.
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