As some of you may know, I’ve been a New Yorker all my life. I was born and raised on the North Shore of Long Island and despite the obscene cost of living increases in this state, circumstances have not permitted me to relocate to another part of the country.
Anyway, the point is that as a child I learned the New York State motto in grade school and it’s stuck with me ever since. That should come as little surprise because the motto is simple. . . and it’s also very cool — Excelsior!
Excelsior is, of course, a Latin word and it means “higher” or “upwards.” To Marvel Comics fans, the word is synonymous with late, great Stan Lee, who used it as his personal signoff over the decades in countless editorial columns and speeches.
Excelsior might also make a pretty decent motto for The Perilous Realms. Wonder, awe, and a spirit of adventure and discovery has animated this project just as it propelled my previous career in the natural sciences!
I hope to bring that same passion to all of my future creative endeavors. Thanks to your support and invaluable feedback, The Perilous Realms will continue onward and upward.
The podcast
Some of my longtime readers may remember that I had originally planned to launch a podcast companion to The Perilous Realms all the way back in February. Truthfully, I ended up being paralyzed by fear of failure, and I nearly gave up on the idea entirely.
In the months since, I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to host podcasts for the StarQuest network, which has done wonders for my self-confidence and skill as an audio presenter. Thanks in part to the unflagging encouragement of StarQuest CEO Dom Bettinelli, I’ve decided to revive my plans for a Perilous Realms podcast.
I’m almost done writing the outline/script for the pilot episode, which I plan to record this weekend. I’m not sure when the episode will premiere (Perhaps sometime before Thanksgiving?), but since I can release podcasts right here on Substack, you’ll be among the first to know!
Substack chat
In last week’s progress report, I announced plans to set up a private Perilous Realms Discord server.
Serendipitously, not long after that post was published, Substack announced their own plans to enable a subscriber chat feature!
This is a great decision by Substack! A chat feature on this platform will likely be much more convenient and simpler than directing my readers to Discord. Unfortunately, Substack Chat is currently only live on the Substack iOS app (and I don’t own an Apple device). Android and Web versions will supposedly roll out in the near future, and as soon as that happens, I will announce that the Perilous Realms chat is open!
I had thought to restrict access to chat to a paid subscriber tier, but I’ve since changed my mind. I have some different ideas for exclusive content. When this newsletter hits the 100 sub milestone, I’ll reveal more details!
LegendHaven 2022
In case you missed it, earlier this week I announced that I will be attending the LegendHaven virtual writers’ conference on November 26.
I really want to push my boundaries in 2023 and finally write that novel I’ve been dreaming about since I was thirteen! I hope that with the support of a vibrant community of Christian SF/F writers, I will be able to break the chains of anxiety, fear, and self-doubt that have too often stifled my voice as a fiction writer.
Look forward to a full report on the LegendHaven conference sometime in early December.
Until we meet again, “The Road goes ever on. . .” and (I’m sure Stan Lee wouldn’t mind) . . . “Excelsior!”