We here at Midnight and other beasts would like to take this occasion to extend our gratitude to those who have recently visited our site for the first time. We're kind of hoping that some of you may revisit us and find this thank you. Okay, full disclosure... we're also hoping that maybe you found something you liked and know others who are of a like mental disability to appreciate the same. Maybe give us a plug, huh?
I know what you are thinking. "This isn't a thank you. It's shameless pandering!" Well, you're not wrong. It is pandering, yet it does not come without shame. If you'd allow me to explain...
Recently we had an individual contact us with this question: "What is your blog supposed to be about?" I was instantly struck by what I considered to be an unusual phrasing of this question. "supposed"? Well, I pondered this a moment and considered it to be a fair question. After all, there is no "mission statement" or manifesto of any kind. Absent that sort of guidance one might easily just wonder "what the hell is this bloke on about?"
So, not wishing to leave this party in the dark any longer I spent a few minutes trying to compose a brief reply. Which resulted in the following:
hmm....supposed to be.....that's pretty subjective, one supposes. In a word I would say random. I don't meme, I don't podcast, I'm old school; I write. Poetry, short stories, things that come after midnight. and other beasts.....
That was the best I could do. Well, not really. I mean if had put more time into it I might have been able to come up with something more...profound? Or just answer the question directly? Where's the fun in that?
So, for any of you still pondering it.... now you know. It's short stories, essays, poems, on rare occasions even the bizarre and random ramblings of a full manic episode (we usually save those for holiday editions). And... as noted above, I don't meme, don't have a podcast, I have zero social media presence. Unless you count Disqus. Does that count as social media? You know what? It does; it doesn't...I don't really care one way or the other. The point is I am an old school writer. I am a product of the analogue age.
Maybe Midnight and other beasts will migrate to other platforms. There are other ideas of what we might do. I am not a naive person. I am full aware that the media landscape today is quite different from that in which I grew up. Most of today's platforms are predicated on monetization, mostly through ads. Journals, in all of their varied forms, no longer measure their worth in building readers. How many likes do you have? How many subscribers? And while some of that translates to actual readers, well, that just isn't our metric.
Whether we should gain ten regular readers or ten thousand the content will be the same. Maybe enhanced with some audio. Who knows? At any rate, if you happened to enjoy anything you found here we certainly hope that you will share it with a friend. Or an enemy, really whatever suits your purpose. Please keep checking in on our direction and progress.
Coming attractions are:
The Fall of Otto, King of the carnivorous rabbits - A tragic tale of a rabbit who dreamed he could be King
and...
Tales from the Awful Waffle - no teaser, but trust me. it's disturbing
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