I realized this past weekend that I had missed Weird Adventures' tenth anniversary on December 15, 2021. We are also not too far away from the twelfth anniversary of my introduction of the City on my blog on April 18, 2010.
Blogging about that setting was where my blog really took off, to the extend that it did. While Strange Stars eventually proved to be the more popular setting, at least in terms of sales, I've always felt like Weird Adventures was the more unique setting. While Bloodshadows had been around since 1994 with a combination of high fantasy and noir, I think Weird Adventures works I bit differently, drawing form not just surface level noir or pulp conceits, but a whole host of early to mid-20th Century pop cultural material. Weird Adventures could sort of do Cast A Deadly Spell, but it's just as much Thimble Theater and Wellman's Silver John stories and American folk- and fakelore--plus whatever period pop cultural ephemera I came across at the moment.
In the past few years, I've been recycling some older posts on my blog, but I've mostly been avoiding Weird Adventures posts because the book exists and an index linked from the blog main page. I think I will start revisiting some of my favorite posts from that series, though, particularly ones with material that didn't make it into the book.
The folklore and the Great Depression era history are both elements that don't show up very often, certainly much less often than their neighbors, the Western genre and the Roaring Twenties.
ReplyDeleteBoth those elements bring in kinds of characters you don't see as often either. They're about poor people, working people, people who are down on their luck and using their wits to survive. They contribute to the surprisingly grounded feel you achieved with The City.
Happy 10th anniversary for Weird Adventures, Trey! I can't believe it's been that long already. By coincidence, I was re-reading it just last week, and it was just as much fun now as when it was first published.
ReplyDeleteWow, ten years!
ReplyDeleteSome of us are still looking forward to that Companion!
@Sean - Thanks!
ReplyDelete@Deadstop - Not to get your hopes up too much, but this anniversary has made me think about putting that out. Maybe not with the same content as originally intended, but in some form.