Three weeks ago I decided I needed a change in setting for my writing. No, not for a story but literally some new surrounding to kick start my creativity. So, I decided to renovate my basement so I could move the media room down there while converting the loft (a 16′x25′ space) into a dual office/reading/television sort of creature.  I’m within two days of being done and anxiously await tackling the notes I wrote down over the past three weeks. Nothing like home improvement to jar you back into creativity.

Launch day came and passed without much drama. I screwed up an author’s name on one of the images but thankfully I always save my images in layers. It was as easy to fix as select-replace-save-repost. If only all things in life where as simple. I lost my computer over the weekend. All my work is stranded on hard drives I can’t access at the moment.I have a new mobo ordered and will hopefully be back in business by the end of the week. It’s actually not that big of a deal since I’m renovating the basement and could use the time to finish putting up a wall and painting. Got the surround sound in over the weekend and spent quite a few minutes playing the THX sound over and over.

Biting off more than I can chew is one of my weaknesses. I’ve come to the realization that some projects are best left for quieter times. October365.com is being placed on hold. The family suddenly finds itself busy. The swim season has started. (My youngest is currently seeded first in the state for the 50 Breaststroke and his crew in the 100 Free Relay are looking to defend their win at the states and respectable 16th place in the New Englands.) Hockey season is here as well which takes up a few weekend nights between now and March. Go Black Bears! School and band and new webzines and a WIP that needs more attention all add up to needing to shove something to the side. We haven’t given up on October365, we’ll pick it back up in the spring and do it right instead of rushing something out. Whew… hmmm… still a lot there to chew.

Its been twelve years since my last publication was nominated for an award for best editor/best new magazine. “The Funerary Journal” was printed on a laser printer,  perfect bound (by hand) and distributed by the local post office. It was more art than publishing and I loved it.

I stopped publishing for three reasons.

1. I developed Type II Diabetes at a wonderful weight of 315.
2. My wife had surgery that woke us both up to that specter called mortality.
3. The baby that was the result of that mortal fear was on the way. (I simply needed a real job.)

So here I am, two degrees later, another kid (both are state champion swimmers), a wife that supports my bizarre interest in the written word and a new webzine in the final stages of development before hitting the world wide wierd on October 15.

Am I relly going back to publishing? Don’t I remember the hassles my first pub “NightWorld” brought to my life after national distribution? What about the mountain of submissions  to “The Funerary Journal?” Hell yeah!

I’m more than ready. The Feral Pages will hopefully tap into a whole new world of writing without walls.

Bring it on.

Some of you will find your way here with the Web map I left at Spaceraven.blogspot.com. Others will find your way here through chance. Some random search will lock onto some phrase in this blog and then you’ll be here. Welcome.

You’ll find a little bit of everthing here.  Mostly, the purpose of the blog is to provide news about my writing and disucuss elements of genre theory. You’ll also find  some of the inner workings of life, the universe and everything at least as it pertains to my world.

The title, “From A Barbarous Land,” is Edgar Allan Poe’s way of describing the lands from which the crippled dwarf “Hop-Frog” came. As many know, I find “Hop-Frog” to be one of Poe’s masterpieces. The title also means something different to me but that will have to wait until I have more time.

So… look around. Not much here at the moment.