Introduction After the Fact

Yeah, yeah, I know.  The introduction is traditionally your first post, not your second.  Deal with it. 

Who Am I?

My Blogger user profile name is Battlegorilla, but my actual name is Mike Snethen.  I used to always hide my identity behind pseudonyms, but most of the reasons for that no longer matter.  The one remaining reason to use a pseudonym is that nobody ever pronounces my last name correctly.  (Pretend that it’s got an extra ‘e’ and say “Sneethen”.) 

Between zines and blogs I’ve written under the bylines of S. Christian Michaels, Maestro Takatak (the Cosmic Buffalo), Zeitgeist the Clown, Battlegorilla, and possibly others (who can remember?) 

I firmly believe that I was put on Earth to write novels, but I’ve had crippling writer’s block for almost 25 years now.  Lots of stories to tell, but no ability to tell them. 

I’m chronically ill, and was pretty much a shut-in even before Covid hit.

About the Blog

The title of my blog is “Writer’s Blo(g/ck)”, which is actually the title of a blog I thought about starting last year, but didn’t for various reasons.  When I decided to start this blog, I couldn’t come up with a decent title for it.  Then I happened to be looking through notes for previous unwritten blogs, and saw the title.  I thought it was too good not to use at some point, so why not use it now? 

And while I’ll no doubt cover the topic of writer’s block to some degree, that won’t be what the blog is actually about.  So what is the blog about?  It probably won’t be specifically about anything, and therefore generally about everything. 

Pretty much anything going on in my life is fair game for a blog post. 

Potential Topics

Right now I’ve got a document entitled Blog Topics which is over thirty-five entries long.  So, I’ve got potential material to last me for a little while, anyway. 

I expect to write about LEGO.  I’m an AFOL (Adult Fan of LEGO) or ‘LEGO hobbyist’.  I attend a LEGO convention or two every year, where I display some of my mediocre models in between works of magnificence created by more competent builders.  Several years ago I used to do a LEGO blog. 

I have a multitude of health problems, so I’m sure that you’ll read at least a little bit about that here. 

There’ll be a post about my experience playing the Starfinder RPG.  And posts about writing projects (things I wrote prior to writer’s block setting in, and things that I want to write going forward).  I’ll write a post about karaoke.  A food post from the POV of the world’s pickiest eater.  And, of course, a post about sex.  (Plus much, much more.)

Frequency and Duration

The next questions are, “How often do I plan to post?” and “How long will this blog run?”  Which are both good questions, especially considering my blogging history. 

With previous blogs, I posted way too often and generally for way too short a period of time.  I’d blog three or four times a week, and then after a month or two I’d burn out and it would be a post or two a month.  Another blog had a goal of five posts a week, and that one lasted a couple of months before it abruptly stopped. 

This time around I’m shooting for just one or two posts a week.  And with the decreased frequency, I’m hoping for an extended duration.  I can see myself writing a blog post or two a week for a long, long time. 

The Introduction Blues

I hate writing the introduction post to a new blog.  You’d think that as many of them as I’ve written, they’d come more easily.  But…no. 

This one isn’t even going to be that long, and it’s taking forever to write.  So I think that this is where I sign off.  See you all next time.