Friends,

Ever look at your Internet presence and feel “cluttered?” It’s a weird vibe, particularly since it’s all digital, but I feel it nonetheless.

For context, I have an Instagram, a Threads account, a Bluesky handle, a Reddit account, this website, TWO Substack newsletters, a budding YouTube channel, and a StoryGraph account (I ditched my GoodReads and traded for something non-Amazon).

This does not account for my work published in various Internet magazines, nor my comic reviews, podcasts, and interviews at The Batman Universe, as well as my comic reviews, podcast appearances, and interviews (forthcoming) at Chronicle Chamber‘s website and YouTube channel.

Team, I have a lot of virtual… stuff. It’s exhausting to read back that list (and not have it sound like a stanza in Weird Al’s “Hardware Store” song).

But I’m trying to consolidate and link these various pieces of me together. I’ve spent more time within the last month working to web my “digital presence” together, with this site as the hub.

My YouTube is the newest piece. I started it because of my Chronicle Chamber work, which is mostly hosted on YouTube. It seemed like a great way to channel those comic reviews and videos toward a new space where I can stretch BEYOND the pages of Phantom-related books, as well as add a video to my “Books & Boards” newsletter (which was just spun off onto its own list).

Anyway, it’s a lot. I’m still here. I’m still working on book two for my Space Opera series. I’m also struggling to find a home for a short story that covers a sensitive, but important, topic. It’s received some phenomenal feedback, but no takers so far. In the coming months, I’ll be stringing things together even tighter.

For now, if you want to see what I’m up to, I would point you two my Substack newsletters. “Because We Can” is my monthly motivational newsletter (new issue dropping in a couple days). “Books & Boards” is my adventure newsletter of visits to bookstores, game stores, etc., with reviews of books or games I purchase.

Also, StoryGraph (handle is writer_scott) is a really neat, well-conceived GoodReads alternative. You can download your GoodReads history and port it over, too. There are some features behind a paywall, though there’s plenty of cool free features.

I recently had the chance to interview one of my personal heroes. He’s a big supporter and nurturer of the comic book community, and during his college years, he bought the film rights to Batman. He spent the next decade trying to pitch what would ultimately become the first Batman film starring Michael Keaton.

Feel free to check out my interview with writer, professor, and movie producer Michael Uslan here.

For those who want to watch the video on Youtube, the video can be found here.

It’s been two months too long since my past post. This isn’t a unique statement, but the pandemic caused me to bunker down a bit more than usual. Work picked up, and I ended up spending more hours at the day job (working from home, of course) because ad rates were low and the revenue return was good. This led to a chain reaction of tiring myself out, which was fueled by how little sleep I allowed myself night after night. As a result, I fell into a funk (and not the good kind).

When overtired and without sleep, my mind goes to dark places. I bear the weight of my role within society. That is to say, when I’m tired, I’m suddenly aware of how inconsequential I am to the world at large. But I’ve been writing my way out of it. After a week or two of wallowing, I threw my feelings in my robot character that I’ve been working and retooling over the past three or four years. I’ve introduced him before. His name is Rocket, and he is a machine cog in a human world. You can read more about him here.

Continue reading →