When did I last keep a blog? Has it really been five years?
I thought maybe I’d turn to a blank digital page and start up a new web journal. It would be nice to have a space to yak about current events and pop culture and occasionally make with the funny. I did a lot of that over on Twitter, but eventually decided it’s not a very healthy space for me (it might not be for you either, but that’s for you to decide, amirite?). So now the @joe_hill account primarily exists only as yet another channel to peddle my ass.
I also had a blog over on Tumblr, where I once posted a popular essay about the summer of Jaws and the slaughter of an unidentified woman outside Provincetown (How popular? This thing went more viral than herpes). But then Tumblr decided to wipe out “The Lady and the Shark,” presumably in their great porno purge of 2018. Although maybe they had some other reason for deleting it: the piece contained no nudity, and although I often use salty language in my writing, I think that one was relatively clean. It was a reminder though of how much control you’re giving away when someone else controls the medium. This never happens to John Scalzi on The Whatever.
I still have a copy of “Lady and the Shark,” of course, and was wondering what to do with it and suddenly it hit me I need a space for my random thoughts. It can be my space or it can be MySpace; something I own or something that belongs to Mark Zuckerberg. I went with me. So look for the Jaws piece to resurface here in the very near future. Among other no-doubt entirely essential musings.
One thing the blog won’t do is replace the newsletter, Escape Hatch, which you can sign up for by scrolling to the bottom of the main page. The blog is for the occasional single-focus essay and the drive-by comment. Escape Hatch will feature previews of upcoming work, pictures, promos, exclusives, and oddball analysis of stuff like the latest Liam Gallagher album. Escape Hatch is a mini-magazine; the blog is a cafe, and I’ve got a table in the corner. Get a cup of tea and siddown for a while.
There IS a comments thread for those of you who want to chime in. A conversation is, after all, more interesting than a lecture. That said, moderating the comments thread on a blog can turn into a full-time job if one isn’t careful and I need to be careful — I’ve already got a full-time job. Don’t be hurt, but I’ll only be leaving comments open for 24 hours after a piece is published. Get your say fast or don’t get it at all. Better make your say thoughtful, considerate, and kind, too, or I’ll blast your comment out of existence. Don’t like it? Hey, there’s always Tumblr.
Thanks for spending some time with me, folks. We’ll have some fun.