There are plenty of reasons that being the sole contributor to a website is difficult. For one, the effort to research and compile the necessary tools to write and edit pieces is very time consuming. While I don’t think that The Memory Tourist as a whole is overbearing, especially in relation to its planned bi-weekly structure, plenty have noticed that the output hasn’t been what it could’ve been – especially between March and May. Yes, there has been plenty to keep readers entertained in that time, but anyone longing for structure may be sorely disappointed so far.
Those reading into my previous news that school has been very time consuming wouldn’t be wrong. In fact, it’s been difficult to make much time for anything because of how many major assignments were due on seemingly a weekly basis. The need to throw all of my attention behind it was necessary. As a result, certain columns have fallen a bit behind, such as Short Stop, A24 A-to-Z, and Make It New. While I am very proud of where those columns have been going, the effort needed to make them what they could be wasn’t there for me. I understand that this can be seen as a lack of professionalism on my part, but let me extrapolate.
The Memory Tourist may hopefully be designed as a calling card for potential work or simply connecting with other fans of weird media, but there’s more to it. As much as I want to use this space to create a better understanding of self, my goal is to not beat myself up for missing deadlines when justified – and a lot of them lately have been such. All that would happen if I stuck to a regular schedule would be an exhaustive burnout the likes I haven’t experienced since December 2020, which would not only impact the quality of work here but may whittle away at my academics. Speaking as I’m very close to the finish line there, I think some losses are more than understandable.
So what does this all mean? Why am I writing this now and not several weeks ago? To be honest, there are not a lot of certainties that I had even in April. I needed to let life play out so that it could take shape into whatever things would be. Now that I’ve had time to process everything, I can present a clearer picture of what is about to be heading down the pike.
As of Thursday, I will officially be done with school for the next few months. All of the hard work is in the books and I couldn’t be prouder of getting through this exhaustive period. I am ready to take a break, kick back and enjoy the fine things in life. In my case, that includes picking up V.C. Andrews’ “Petals of the Wind” and trying to lose myself in a story that’s not going to require me to write a six page essay on it (though I kinda did with “Flowers in the Attic,” which is a different story). Yes, I’m ready to breathe for a little bit.
Though don’t get too concerned, dear readers. The vacation isn’t necessarily one of hiatus. If anything, it’s going to be more of an effort to make at least the next three months look closer to what The Memory Tourist was intended to be. I’m sure there will be conflicts emerging that upset one or two days, but for now, I want to go back to bi-weekly starting in June. I don’t exactly know if everything will be in the same order as they have been, but for now, I want to try to make something substantial.
The most that I can say at this moment is that this weekend will be the soft relaunch of everything. Starting on Friday, I hope to knock out the overdue Short Stop entry of William Faulkner’s “Elly” and a Best Movie I Saw This Week which, spoilers, will be on the great new Sean Baker movie Red Rocket (2021). Also, I will be seeing local productions of Newsies and Avenue Q, so watch out for reviews. Anything after that is speculative, though do watch out for LGBTQIA+ content for June, including potential essays on Marilyn Monroe and Milk (2008). I have some interesting ideas there.
With that said, I do want to make a special announcement about Short Stop. It has always been my goal in 2022 to read and critique in its entirety William Faulkner’s “Collected Stories.” Obviously, the setbacks would suggest a difficulty to stick at a weekly output at this point. At least for the next three months, I plan to release two per week, having them run Wednesdays and Fridays. It has been one of my favorite columns and I hope that this puts me at a comfortable place with the series come Fall when I start getting busy again.
It should be noted that along with work on the website, I am going to be trying to place attention around my fiction writing as well. I intend to release a few short stories in the next few months, so keep an eye out for potential news. I am also hoping to finally create an e-book version of my second novel “Downtime,” which I believe is long overdue but another victim of management dysregulation.
This is all of course barring any potential crisis that could upset the order of life. For now, I think that I have more than enough to properly relaunch and produce work that I will hopefully be proud of. I don’t know necessarily what I will be writing about, but I do plan to have some oddball picks for Monday Melodies and maybe cycle in some old columns that are deserving of consideration. All of this is up in the air. For now, I’m going to try and have something ready for the week of May 23 that will move things in the right direction. Everything up until then is going to be fun experimentation.
I felt that I owed everyone this “apology,” if just to explain why I haven’t been as vocal as I have been. There’s been plenty that I would’ve loved to have written, but life gets in the way. It’s one of the perks of having columns like How I Live Now that serves as this moment to decompress and look back on the past month and its many highs and lows. While I don’t believe they’re ever my most successful columns, I like to believe it gives a better sense of self, of showing what is keeping me interested and moving forward.
In closing, I just want to say welcome back and I hope to be sharing with you soon. It’s going to be an exciting time. I’m out of school, The Warriors are hot again, Heartstopper is warming my asexual heart, Holey Moley is about to save yet another summer, and there’s new Lizzo out there to pick things up. Sometimes that’s all you can hope for. Fingers crossed that this month has been treating you kindly and I look forward to seeing what everything is like going forward. Take care.
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