Author: Scott Waldyn

The Quick February Update

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It’s an abnormally warm Sunday in February. The sun’s out, the neighborhood is quiet, and I have a few moments for self-reflection. I wanted to write this “update” last month, but life keeps flying by, each minute faster than the last. 

In 2023, I wrote 58,446 words. That was personal time writing, not day-job writing. It’s about the length of a novel, though it includes short stories, work on one of my book projects, and reviews for TheBatmanUniverse.net. I mentioned in a previous post that I started keeping track of how many words I wrote at the end of 2022 as a form of self-motivation and encouragement. It’s easy to get down about how little you create when you feel like you have nothing to show for it (for example, I have a comic book miniseries, robot novella, and a couple of short stories in need of a good home). However, cataloging the words has helped combat that pessimistic outlook and keep plugging along. 

This year, my goal is to double that number. Currently, I’m tracking at 7,069 words. But that’s not what this update is about.

Since last I posted, my schedule has been busy with family holiday events, new podcast interviews, reviews, and deep thoughts about the future. 

The Quick Updates

  • I interviewed three people for The Batman Universe Podcast in the last month and a half.
    • Robert E. Eliot, author of Nolanverse: Exploring the Greatest Illusion in Movie History.
    • Lou Tambone, editor of The Man Who Laughs: Exploring the Clown Prince of Crime.
    • Ian Miller, creator of the much-beloved fan comic series Batman Enigma.
  • My comic reviews might be expanding outside the realm of Gotham City. I pitched reviewing the upcoming Moonstone The Phantom series to the fine folks at ChronicleChamber.com. For those who don’t know, The Phantom is another one of those comic characters I’ve been a fan of for many years now. 
  • My monthly motivational newsletter Because We Can had its first issue release of 2024. 
  • I’ve been looking into self-publishing my robot novella, and it’s this last update I wanted to speak to. 
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Pompeii

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A statue of Aphrodite as part of a museum display.

My wife and I recently explored an exhibit on Pompeii at the Museum of Science & Industry in Chicago. It was fascinating, broken up into two parts: What we know of Pompeii before Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption and the aftermath.

The artifacts on display were beautiful, paired with reproductions that simulated life at the time. The first half of the exhibit walked through Pompeii as a port city that flourished from the export of garum (a fish salt used in everything).

Because it’s the Museum of Science of Industry, there was focus on ancient Roman architecture and how thoughtfully designed it was. For those who don’t know, much of what we know about ancient Roman life also comes from the archaeological exploration of Pompeii’s ruins.

Leading into the second-half of the exhibit, there was a simulation of Mt. Vesuvius’ eruption, with time stamps detailing the waves the emanated from the volcano within a 24-hour period, and how it buried Pompeii with toxic gas, ash, and debris. The plaster casts made from holes in the solidified rock where bodies once were are what remains of the city’s people. Each one is mortifying. On some, you can even see faces preserved in anguish and horror.

The discovery of Pompeii influenced the creation of the field of archaeology. From this tragedy, this city literally buried and wiped off from the face of the planet, much was preserved for study centuries later.

What resonated with me most was how similar society seemed. Styles, technology, and architecture were different, but daily Pompeiians went about their business like we do. They ate out, put up pictures on the wall, socialized with a shared bottle, shopped at the weekly market on the public square, littered buildings with graffiti, and let the dog out into the yard. Irate citizens carved bad reviews into the walls of public buildings. Wealthy business owners lived in ancient McMansions while lower income Pompeiians lived in apartment-style dwellings.

Like any society before or since, they dreamed and created works of art – both beautiful frescoes for public display and lurid paintings for brothels and secret kink rooms. As I said before, style, technology, and architecture changed, but humanity has remained humanity.

We evolve. Our laws tend to arc more humanistic, but that need for human connection remains the same. We love to socialize, to share our top ten lists or let others know when takeout was subpar. The public square, forum, townhall, or whatever we want to call it, will always be there in some form, whether that’s digital or concrete.

It’s integral to us, and we are who we are. We see the same themes come up in our stories over and over again. Themes like greed, love, passion, and desires for acceptance and liberty are timeless.

I suppose it says a lot that a good chunk of the exhibit focused on daily life, and it says even more that I fixated on the similarities, the human connection through time. What happened to Pompeii was tragic and devastating, and maybe that sense of loss is amplified by understanding the little things that make up humanity, the needs, wants, and desires.

Don’t Call It “Content”

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Between all of our reading apps, streaming services, blogs, vlogs, books, movies, TV shows, etc., we’re adrift in a sea of entertainment constantly begging for attention. On paper, it’s a gift for people searching for entertainment, granting the opportunity to pick and choose what to engage with. The flip side, however, can doom viewers to spending hours scrolling through “content.”

As creators, being chosen in this ocean of entertainment is extremely challenging. Getting eyeballs or interactions is something of a game, involving the pursuit of a following and engaging with fans and others in the hopes that they’ll engage back. Unlike large companies, who rely on recognized brand identities to do the heavy lifting, individual creators often have to tie their efforts to a particular fan community or get creative in coaxing entertainment-seekers to give them just a few seconds of time. 

In the evolution of this weird world of entertainment we find ourselves in, we let a particular word take center stage, and it irks me. It’s a marketing word, but as both creators and fans, we’ve permitted its continued existence. It’s not uncommon to hear people reference things like “streaming content” or “blog content.” There even exists a group of creative people labeled as “content creators,” and their job is to get in front of the camera everyday to produce what even they label as “content.” 

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Short Story: “We’ve Come A Long Way”

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Note: This is a republication of a short story of mine that was originally published on Medium. Though more horror-inspired, I’m particularly fond of this piece, as I think it deals with some themes and ideas that have always and will continue to haunt us unless we learn to change our collective mindset and approach to the world around us.

“We’ve come a long way,” Dr. Vannevar said, his beady, sunken eyes fixated on the untamed bringer of war just beyond the viewport. 

Iris didn’t turn her head to look at him, but she could picture Vannevar stroking his little gray beard as he spoke. It was his way of breaking the silence between them, disrupting the descent as their five-person crew approached Mars. Vannevar liked to hear himself talk, so he often made broad observations with an air of scientific inquiry and pretentiousness. Iris wondered if this was how Vannevar talked his way onto this mission, if his sweeping generalizations impressed the executives back home. He certainly hadn’t added anything to the crew since he had come aboard, and Iris wasn’t even sure of what he held a doctorate in. 

As the finer details of Mars grew more pronounced, Iris searched its charmless surface. She wanted to size up the red menace, stare it down as fear settled into her stomach over what, if anything, they would find on the planet. Much like Vannevar’s pedigree, Mars was one giant question mark.  

Members of the Demeter-6 mission were only the second group of scientists (read: “pioneers”) to colonize the planet. The first crew, Demeter-5, had been on Mars for two years now. As of the moment, Demeter-5’s mission status was unknown. Contact had not been made, nor had a signal of any kind been picked up on Demeter-6’s long voyage. For all the crew of Demeter-6 knew, the original colony could have vanished in Mars’ tumultuous desert storms.  

“We’ve come a long way,” Vannevar repeated, this time louder. “From tribal warfare, cannibalism, disease… to this.” 

Iris felt Vannevar’s eyes on her. His hunter’s gaze unsettled her, as if behind the aloof, broadstroke of a personality lie something sinister and predatory. A snake in the grass. Something wriggled beneath her skin, and she hurried to come up with a response that would satisfy Vannevar’s hungry, attention-seeking stare.

“Yes,” Iris said, tugging at the sleeves of her lab coat and hiding beneath loose strands of her wavy, brown hair.

Satiated by her response, Vannevar swiveled his head back toward the viewport. His mouth opened to speak again when a voice erupted through the ship’s intercom.

“We’ve picked up a signal. All crew report to the central command.”

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I’m Training My Dumb Fingers to Get Used to Writing on My Phone

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One of the biggest barriers to me writing these days is that I have to sit down at a laptop, open it up, type in my password, pull up my writing applications, and just start typing away from a stationary location. In order to do this, I also need to make sure there are no fires to put out, no chores or errands to run, no people to respond to, no pernicious cats to bestow my attention upon, and check my calendar for any pre-scheduled date nights with my wife. 

I assume it was as exhausting to read all of that word-vomit as it was to write it out. 

Because it’s such a chore to check off everything listed out above (and make a piping hot cup of tea, which I simply must have when writing), I’ve been avoiding writing more than I’d like lately. Sure, I knock out all of my comic book reviews over at TheBatmanUniverse.net. I also am pretty active with the TBU podcast, and I’ve gotten into a good groove with Because We Can. But my own personal writing on short stories and the novel? Nah, man. I’ve been slacking. 

To help chew through the barriers and force myself to get a few words in whenever I get a minute, I’ve been training my brain to use my phone. For many of you, this is probably a no-brainer and a slam dunk. I know for writers who are also parents, finding time and space to write is a godsend, and they take it where they can get it. 

But I’ve always hated the idea of mashing my stupid, fat fingers on my phone. The screen’s too small, and my fingers are like giant worms lazily brushing up against the keypad, hitting two or three letters with each tap. Garbage spews out, and I have to tap that backspace repeatedly.

 Though I feel it’s harder to type on my phone, in a world where I might be able to eek out five minutes here, 10 minutes there, or maybe 15 minutes waiting for my food to finish cooking — it just makes sense. 

So I’ve been training. I’ve smiled through the pain. I’ve slowed down my mashing and worked on my aim. The taps come more slowly, but my accuracy is improving. Typing on my phone also means I hyperventilate over a word choice and edit less, as it’s way harder to edit on mobile than it is on a real computer. 

It’s working… so far. But I do miss the clickety-clack of the laptop though. The phone just doesn’t sound the same. 

The Long Goodbye (I Quit Twitter)

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A little over a month back, I quit Twitter. It had been some months in the making.

I’m not highlighting this to unleash a lengthy rant or decry Twitter’s owner, Elon Musk. You can find those hard-hitting personal essays anywhere. I’m noting this because if you’ve been looking for me on Twitter (or wondering why I’ve been missing), it’s because I terminated my account. 

I’m still around on Discord, Instagram, and at my personal site. While Twitter had been slipping for quite a while, what ultimately drove a stake through my interest in doom-scrolling was when my Substack links and links to my personal website stopped working. At first, it was just Substack, and while I wasn’t happy about it, I was willing to wait it out until Twitter rolled back a rather dumb decision. But then my personal site links broke. 

I was left with no choice but to presume that Elon really hated my writing. First my Substack links wouldn’t work, and then my personal site links broke? It could have been a coincidence, sure, but it’s easier to assume that Elon recoils and seethes at the mention of Night Sky, a story of mine that I believe is an absolute banger (you should read it). 

As mentioned earlier, it’s been over a month. And I don’t feel bad about it. I don’t miss Twitter. I may no longer be hip on pop culture news, but life only improved when I ditched the bird app.

Finding the Groove in Gaps

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It’s been a weird month. I just opened up my writing log for only the second time this month. Today, it is May 31, 2023. The last time I entered anything into my log, it was May 1st. In between my last writing session and now, my wife and I suffered a loss in the family. We also hopped on an international flight and took a two-week trip throughout Germany and into Poland. It’s been a few days since our return, and we’re just not finally settling into old grooves. 

I despise long gaps between writing sessions. Even if I only chip away with a few hundred words here or there, the consistency makes me feel accomplished. It reinvigorates my spirit and feels as if life flows through my veins, fingertips, and breath. This has been the longest gap in quite a while, but it’s been a gap overwhelmed with emotion — stress, pain, anguish, love, connection, and self-reflection. 

My wife and I have experienced utter exhaustion and grief, as well as jollity and that epiphanic sensation that comes with discovering something new about yourself. The gap brought us closer together — to each other, as well as with our family. 

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Project Bellamy: My Next Work-in-Progress

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Never would I have thought that my to-read book stack would be loaded with nonfiction accounts of both The Golden Age of Piracy and the Age of Exploration.

My fascination with these eras began a few years back, when a friend gifted me a thrilling read called The Republic of Pirates. It’s a captivating tale that weaves in the histories of famous pirates like Blackbeard, Black Sam Bellamy, and so many others, telling their stories to the backdrop of this surge of piracy and the formation of a literal pirate island in the early 1700s. I won’t go too far down the rabbit hole, but it was easily one of the most gripping nonfiction books I have ever read, and it created a complex, rich, and complicated understanding of the many different types of pirates who existed in that era.

Fast-forward a couple of years and another of couple pirate books later, and my wife and I are at a maritime museum in San Diego. The big draw of this museum is the collection of ships from WWII and later, but I’m hung up on maps and accounts from the Age of Exploration. The peril. The danger. The toll that life at sea took every single day and the fabled promises of riches that kept explorers going.

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Happy New Year!

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Happy New Year, friends!

Whatever you’re working on, I wish you the best.

Here’s to a year of growth, rejuvenation, inspiration, and creating what we want to see in the world.

Here’s to our dreams, our fixations, and our desires to be more than we are. Here’s to manifesting something that doesn’t yet exist, to creating a work of passion and beauty and releasing it out into the wild.

Whatever you’ve got cooking, I hope it brings you joy, happiness, and wonder.

We’re all in this together,

Scott

Short Story: “The Corpse Door”

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The following is “The Corpse Door,” a short story I submitted for a 50th anniversary collection celebrating Kolchak: The Night Stalker. This story made it all the way to the finals, but alas, it wasn’t accepted for publication. You win some, you lose some. I highly encourage you check out the Kolchak: The Night Stalker – 50th Anniversary Graphic Novel. Look for updates on its release and where to purchase both the regular edition and the deluxe edition.

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