“And then, something happened. I let go. Lost in oblivion. Dark and silent and complete.
I found freedom. Losing all hope was freedom.“
—Narrator, Fight Club
I’m back. Where’ve I been? Doesn’t matter. You wouldn’t believe me even if I told ya the truth and, honestly, I’m not sure I would. Okay, that’s not fair: I wouldn’t believe me. I wouldn’t trust myself to know what’s real and what I’m twisting to not be “the bad guy” or…I dunno, some kind of fuck up? And even if I stuck to the truth, whose truth am I sticking to? I mean, they say there’s at least two sides to every story but I think it’s more like a kaleidoscope, shifting in real time and changing right before your eyes as an outside hand acts upon it. Everyone who looks through it is going to see things a bit differently.
I will say that I’ve missed Shoggoth Net. It’s kinda like the old Lovecraft Circle but without the racism. People writing in with entries for OctoberNomicon or Shoggoths in September. One year, February was all about vampires. Money wasn’t a thing. People were doing it for…I don’t really know. Just for the sake of writing and being part of the community or something. All I know is we’d put a call out for submissions and, bit-by-bit, we’d fill up an entire month with new community content.
Some people who I’d approach would ask about pay. I get it, nothing is free in this world. One even said something to the effect of “I hate Trollboy.” I get that too, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I never tried to convince people to contribute, though, as for every “no” I got, there were a dozen “I’ll see what I can dos” and at least half of those actually wrote something and sent it to us.
It was always nice to read those submissions while I formatted them for the site. It was nice to feel like I was a part of something akin to the old Lovecraft Circle. So I’m back. Thank you. But I am curious: why do you write?
