“A Curtain Falls”

tyunglebower ♦ October 11, 2018 ♦ 2 Comments

A few days ago, I published the final post in my blog, Always Off Book. I had only posted on the blog three times this year, but it has been officially active for 13 years.

Thirteen years.

That’s a long time for me to do anything, not to mention a long time to keep anything alive on the internet that isn’t somehow subsidized or sponsored  by a third party.

It was bittersweet, I won’t deny it. Sure, with one single exception in all of that time my posts about acting and community theatre made somewhere around zero impact on the world. Regular readership with low to non-existent. Engagement there (much like here…) was rare. I posted less detailed thoughts as the years went on.

Still, whenever I found myself in a production, I would keep those I called my “loyal blog readers” in the loop with my experiences and observations. Some years I was in more shows than others, and hence built-in content would ebb and flow, but there hasn’t been a year since the blog’s inception wherein I posted nothing.

It will be odd to be in my  next show and not think about what to post there after any given night.

The very same night I signed off on that  blog, I went to Amazon to make a purchase. (About which I had done my research.) It is supposed to arrive tomorrow.

What did I purchase? The first basic equipment needed to podcast. The old closing a door, opening a window dance. Or in this case, potentially closing a window and opening a door.

I will continue the thoughts and conversation about community theatre by way of this podcast. It will involve discussions with other local community theatre participants, sometimes one on one and at other times as a panel. They don’t know it yet, but I’ll be asking a lot of people to take part in it around here.

I’ve already got a good name for this podcast picked out, though you can probably guess what it is.

The title will also belong, in all likelihood, to my first non-fiction book I will publish late next year, wherein I share advice and thoughts about the world of stage acting for (not) a living.

Both projects are new territory for me. By no means will they replace my status as a novelist. In fact, I hope that both will enhance my both my novelist and actor tendencies. Along the way, of course I hope I will engage with people, and make a positive impact on their lives and minds. This time around, I hope to accomplish what the labor of love that Always Off Book was could not.

And if I do not? I will be disappointed. I will be discouraged and I will wonder what it is all for. Again. But I haven’t failed yet. I’ve only just now begun to embrace these new projects and approaches. The future of them are still rich with potential.

Yet like all of my previous (and there are many) failed creative attempts to make a difference to people, I hope that a podcast and a non-fiction book, if less than successful, will in the very least add on to my list of things worth attempting.

Stay tuned.