Happy 100th Blog Day Everyone!
As the the above proves, this is the 100th Blog post I've done. It's a big milestone that should have been reached sooner if life hadn't interfered. To celebrate, I've decided to go back through the archives and talk about my favourite subjects.
Before that though, let's see what the Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz have in store for us...Why do I hear copyright lawyers mobilising?
The Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz
While they say you can't blame a guy (rat in this case) for trying, I think that, yes, here you can.
I do wish I'd put more effort into drawing the Riztubbie costume as I had done bluey-ifying Riz. Also wish I hadn't made mistakes again, some easy to spot mistakes at that. Still, a fun idea that can be added to in the future. I'd just have to think of more shows that Riz could put his stamp on...if they want it or not!
100 Blogs and Counting
10th March 2019...An auspicious day for most, but it was on this very day that I published "Hello World". Blog number 001. The publisher had suggested starting a blog as a place to put a lot of extra things I'd written for Brennan and Riz (things that were originally going to be printed in the books as additional content). This mission statement eventually widened to more writing topics that I could think of and a place to share samples of my other stories.
The title of that first blog was a reference to the infamous first lesson that many programmers learn, how to output the text "Hello World" to the screen (cout = "Hello World"; for C++).
What did I talk about in this historic first post?
Not a lot as it turned out.
It was literally three paragraphs of an introduction, but it was quickly followed up by a proper post a few days later (the shortest gap between blog posts). This second blog post, and the following two would collect the first essay that I'd hoped would have been in the print version of The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1. The format was a bit closer to what I have here but largely rough around the edges.
From then on, the topics usually followed a pattern, if a book release had just happened, there was usually a look at the folklore that inspired it, and if wasn't that point, then I'd try to fill the void with either a writing essay or a look at my old work. The first post for the latter was the debut of my Lost Writings feature, where I dredged up some old text.
This all continued, with some bumps to the schedule till 26 September 2019, where it stopped for seven whole months.
Things restarted with an ambitious project in April 2020, when Lockdown was in effect. With more time, I decided to write a new Brennan and Riz short story, inspired by the question of what would Brennan and Riz do during Lockdown. It would be blog exclusive to boot as well. It managed four parts before the wheels fell off and the finale never got written. That was it for the blog till January 2023 when I brought everything back with the Comic Tales of Brennan and Riz.
With all that said, let's look at my Favourite Five from the past one hundred.
The following is presented in order of publication:
This one is on the list because it's a couple of firsts, the first mention of Orphans War (with links to where it first appeared) and even better, to Creator Chaos! A podcast I made with some insanely talented people. No idea if the links work, but if they do, please give it a listen.
This is the first one where I did a writing essay, and provided two examples from the before times (it was thirteen years ago when I wrote that blog, it's now eighteen). Now if only I could remember the writing opportunity I spoke of!
I absolutely adore the essay in this one, even though I think I could have gone more in depth as even now, music still sways a lot of my words. My playlist is full of songs that make me want to write.
The Strange Tales of Brennan and...Zivo?
I wrote this blog to mark two years of Brennan and Riz, bringing to light the first ever incarnation of the pair, in a vastly different setting. It was great to revisit their origins and to imagine how things would have turned out, had I stuck with them.
#58 Perfect Date Guide + Short Diversions: Valentines Date
Most current blog to make it on this list. I had so much fun writing the short story attached to this one. It was nice bringing Isabelle and Robyn to a wider audience, I think it went down well enough, wasn't sure about their second featured story mind but that's the highs and lows when writing!
Really, I could have gone on and on here. There's been so much I'd forgotten till I went back into the past posts. I'm interested in seeing if some of the old links are working, particularly in Orphan's War case. I'm doubtful that I'd restart it there, as I'd already begun the process of going back over it again, trying to tighten it up. That's just another Work In Progress in the long list of many.
Will the blog make two hundred posts? Guess we'll find out in two years time, so it's certainly something to look forward to.
That's it for this week, I want to thank everyone for sticking with me after all this time and hope you'll continue to do so.
Short Diversions will be back next week so please return for that.
Till then,
Keep on writing!
Peter James Martin
Quick Links
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 1
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Book 1: A Boy and A Rat
The Strange Tales of Brennan and Riz Volume 2
Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Volume 1
Malarkey's Imaginomnibus Fade to Noir
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