Substack Alert and Sneak Peak from Screaming Into the Void

The first “real” article for my Substack, Screaming Into the Void, went live at 1130 today. Unfortunately, I forgot to set up this post to automatically go live at the same time. I’ll rectify that mistake in the future. The article, “Screaming Into the Void,” explains the (twisted) logic behind the name of the Substack and gives an idea of the direction in which I intend to take things.

By way of short update, the podcast debut is currently delayed due to my only working space being a complete train wreck right now. I’ll give a little more in my regular update this coming Tuesday along with corrected information for regular Substack postings.

Exert:

Since I released my self-published novel, The Aos Si’s Gift, I’ve found a need to promote myself, my work, and my ideas. This is one promotional avenue for me. However, I don’t want to be sitting here posting article after article begging people to buy my book. What I wanted instead was a place to discuss a myriad of topics, allowing an audience to get to know me, my thought processes, and my methods. After careful thought, I also decided to make this about more than just a bland series of discussions on writing process. This chain of thought led to the rough concept of Screaming Into the Void. See, I also decided to extend this to whatever happens to pique my interests to discuss.

So, why call this substack Screaming Into the Void? Is this some sort of crybaby space where I sit here and feel sorry for myself? No. It isn’t that at all. In fact, the logic for the title is quite a bit more silly—and somewhat sarcastic—than anything like that. Screaming Into the Void comes from two thought processes:

1. I can remember a time when the user-base for Facebook was less than 25 million people. Then again, I can remember a time when MySpace was growing…even when AOL came with that annoying dialup sound. The algorithms were still in their infancy, I think, so—at the very least—your friends were pretty much guaranteed to see your posts. For a variety of reasons, I dropped off of social media entirely in 2019. I’d never had a Twitter account, never been on Reddit…Facebook was more or less the extent of my social media use. Imagine my shock when I stepped back onto social media and started learning how much things have changed. Facebook feels like a ghost town, despite sporting over 2 billion users. I’m not sure who among my connections there even logs in much, let alone noticed I was back. So, in a way, it feels much less like the social media I was familiar with and more like shouting into a void and seeing if anyone actually replies…or if they’re out there. Of course, I’m also on X and Instagram, now. Who knows what will happen in the future. What I do know is that I am basically a Boomer in a Millenial’s body shouting into the void because I have no idea how social media works…yet.
2. They say that opinions are like assholes: everyone has one, and they usually stink. This has what to do with Screaming Into the Void? Well, often, one can follow up a strong dislike (or, more accurately, disrespect) of someone’s opinion with the line, “take a flying leap off a tall cliff.” So, calling this page Screaming Into the Void is also my means of reminding myself that I’m not all that important. I am not someone who enjoys a great deal of influence past my immediate social circle. And, even if I do gain enough traction to have any significant, I hope that I will have the humility to remind myself to, “take a flying leap,” now and then. Basically, it’s just my way of reminding myself that, no matter what happens, I’m just another person shouting into the social media void looking for customers.