In which I contemplate my navel once more

I mentioned this blog's first anniversary a few weeks ago, but that milestone is really observed this week. I backdated some of those early entries for reasons I should explain someday, and maybe I will eventually. It's been an interesting year of ups and downs for this B.W. Richardson fella, the biggest ups probably being a chance to explain myself in an interview with Sunni Maravillosa and the successful launch of The Imaginary Bomb - maybe not successful in a Harry Potter kind of way, but successful in the sense that the darn thing sat in a box in my basement for most of two decades. It was refreshing to overcome my fear of rejection and say, "Here, Warren, put this out there," and somewhat exhilarating to have three-and-a-half dozen people (so far) like it enough to download and listen to the whole story. (We just celebrated the 100th download of Chapter 1 - Yippee!) (Hey, like I said, it ain't Harry Potter.)

Yep, I confess, the guy who wrote "Refuse to Be Afraid" across the top of his blog often copes with a pathological case of Fear of Rejection. It's one thing to rail against the empire and encourage friends in the name of freedom; it's a whole 'nother thing to create a labor of love, investing a piece of one's soul, and then expose it to possible ridicule or, even worse, indifference. Just the existence of that podcast is a major triumph in that sense. And the upcoming sequel, which I'm building from a half-finished manuscript that was next to the I-Bomb in that box, gives me a chance to invest more current pieces of my soul and explore themes that might ring a bell with regular visitors to this space.

Mr. Bluhm has some thoughts about where we could go from here, and I'm a little excited - no, actually I'm fairly stoked - about the prospects. The Imaginary stories are only a small part of those thoughts - shouldn't put all the eggs in one basket and all - but they're a vital part. We'll tell you more as we figure it all out.

Thanks to those of you who've been in on this from the beginning - you know who you are - and thanks to those who've come along, taken a look around and liked it enough to come back. It's fun to have a whole set of friends I've never met - although this summer has gone a long way toward eliminating the last three words from that description. Montag itself is a labor of love for me now, and I'm tickled to have you along for the ride.