Even before AI became an always-present burglar in our electronic homes I have been somewhat guarded about posting my writing here. That’s why I mostly seem to post pictures of my cat, dog, skateboard wheels, and other stuff that is still easily stealable but really doesn’t matter (Yes, I know about the “robots.txt” file and all that. No, I don’t believe it is respected. Anyone who trusts the tech bros is an idiot).
This was less the case when I started this blog in 2006, but has become increasingly so. I have a folder on my computer and Dropbox of writing that I’m actually kind of proud of, that I have never published anywhere. Stories about things like 1) the time I shot a bird when i was a kid and felt bad about it, and 2) a “friend” who was a bully.
I’m not a “real” writer. I’ve never been published anywhere. Still, I value these unpublished works. They are MINE. No AI could have ever written them, and they are not going to be stolen by Google, OpenAI, or any of the other scumbags out there stealing people’s creative work.
I’ve considered putting them in an actual print ‘zine. Maybe when I’m retired I’ll do that. I have a small collection of what I’d call long-form ‘zines. Stuff never available electronically, that I ordered from varous ‘zine distros because they looked interesting. Honestly, some of them are fantastic. I don’t really collect things other than music (LPs and CDs) and Traveller RPG gaming books (the Classic version of the game, with the small softback book size). However, I’ve kept a small collection of ‘zines. I’ve probably got about 30 of them. All super good, all classic xerox-copy foldover style. They don’t take up much space, so I’ve never gotten rid of them.
One of the ‘zine makers I really like is Aaron Lake Smith. He did a series of ‘zines called Big Hands. They are brilliant. Until I started writing this post I hadn’t thought of him in several years, so I looked him up. You can find him on his website. He also seems to do most of his writing (according to him) on Substack now, which kind of bumbs me out. I hate Substack, and I hate seeing anyone with talent posting their creative work there, but I also understand that if you are a professional writer you need to be where people can find you, and the sad truth is that big shitty silos like substack are that place. So, against my normal ethical blockade of Substack-hosted writing, I checked out his stuff there and read one of his articles and it was really good. I still hate Substack though.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what I want to do during retirement. Yes, I am planning to retire at the end of 2026. It seems weird to say that, but the years are flying by, and our lives with them. I am one of the fortunate few people I know who can really consider it and I’m going to take advantage of that fact. I’ve been a librarian now for 30 years. That’s enough.
Over the last 20 years, at least, I’ve become an compulsive writer/blogger. I want to continue that. I want to increase it. I want to spend time every day writing. So I really am kinda torn on what to do with my writing. We’ll see. I am probably going to start a new website/blog and post there since I don’t need to make any money. I’d like to have a few readers though. I will not, however, be using one of the big silos. Whatever I do will be mine, entirely.
