24 & Skylarking

I turn 24 today.

I'm writing this because I recently attended a webinar, where a few podcasters a lot more successful than me, talked about the importance of communicating with ones audience. A duty I've often shirked due to my unwillingness and inability to think of "good tweets."

So now, I'll try to communicate with you, dear Patron.  Honestly.

Often in July, I'm struck with a sense of discontentment. A feeling that also strikes in October, in December, in April, and in May. For it seems every few months, I accidently remind myself that I'm not doing enough. Looking back, this has been a problem my whole life. I'm beginning to suspect, it will always be a problem.

Before I dive into everything, I think I should first explain, I'm a worrier. I've always been one. Even now, I'm worried that this post will sound all too depressing, I'm worrying about what's on the news, and I'm worrying about what tomorrow may hold. While it is all too easy to hyper-fixate on the terrible things going on, I've had one tool to help me out. In a graduation speech, Kurt Vonnegut once said, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is." A little manifesto to highlight good moments in one's life. And they don't have to be big moments, a nice moment may just be the sensation of sitting down at home, after a long day of work. Or having a meal prepared just right. Or a cool breeze on a hot day. It's easy to find these moments when you're looking for them.

So, to counteract the creeping dread, I thought it might be nice to do a year in review. To highlight all the nice things, big and small that have happened in the last year or so.  Below, I'd love to hear your nice moments from the last year too!

Year in Review

2019

Let's start a little earlier than July 2020. For a moment, I'd like to go back to November 2019. After just one short year of working with Bloody Disgusting, our little show had gotten big enough to necessitate a full time job, and I was able to leave retail to focus on podcasts!

2020

Of course, just a few short months into my self employment, things started to freeze up. March was a hard month, it felt like the culmination of a lot of stress and worrying was being actualized, and things got grim. That same month, Bloody Disgusting partnered with Acast. I'd worked with Acast before, and they'd been great, so I was quite excited to team up with them again!

In May, we had our biggest month of growth on Patreon.

I moved into a new house. A bigger one, with a back yard, and a real office. Up until this point, I'd been doing all my podcast work at a small desk, in the corner of a room. My room was much too small to spend a day in, let alone consecutive days, hunched over a laptop. It was a huge relief, and I'm sure some of you recall how excited I was about this office!

June brings the beginning of Margaret's Garden! In March I'd begun writing the first script, and after numerous drafts, revisions, and late nights, BD gave us the greenlight. The hard part was done, all that was left to do was simply write, cast, and create the show!

In July, SCP Archives had a record high number of downloads! We'd been edging near our record since we migrated to Acast in March, but July was the tipping point!

August was even higher. September shattered August's record!

But I'm getting ahead of myself. In July, production officially begins on Margaret's Garden. I sat down with Jonathan Goldberg, and we began writing!

The original script featured Margaret as a single woman in the suburbs, who discovers her neighbors dead body in her back yard one morning. She calls the authorities, but before they arrive, the body dissolves! In this original script much of the story focused on two investigators (Washington and Harris) trapped within Margaret's garden shed, where a extra-dimensional leach had eaten them, and forced them into a strange eternal, and empty suburb. Eventually, the story changed quite a lot!

August is business as usual! But! I started talking to Ben Counter around the end of July, and he pitched a really interesting show to me...

September we begin casting Margaret's Garden! September also see's the infamous "Jesse Episodes" of SCP! Namely SCP-1437: "A Hole to Another Place". It also marks my selection of a bunch of sad scripts, like "Where The Dragons Went," and "Major Alexei Belitrov". Sometime in this month, I also reconnect with Travis McMaster and Mark Whitten, who you may know as the creators of the podcasts The Hotel and Theatre of Tomorrow! When I was just starting out in podcasts, these two had set the gold standard for sound design, and I'd gone too long without content from them! So, we began talking about a revival of sorts...

October brings one of the busiest months of my life!

• Out of Place premiers! Created by Ben Counter, it's an incredible show about divergent timelines!
• The Theatre of Tomorrow returns! With four special Halloween themed episodes!
• AND SCP Archives has it's biggest month ever! Of course, the season ends on a high note, with Jesse's greatest work to date: "Duke 'till Dawn."

And while all this is happening, I've secretly been recording Margaret's Garden and editing that insanity!

November.

Margaret's Garden airs. My first big writing projects since Lake Clarity Season Two! The first episode is just under an hour, every other episode is almost exactly an hour. It's insane. Tiring. Terribly fun!

The winter months I hunker down and work, but in January I get a really interesting email!

Chris and Blaine from RoosterTeeth replied to an email I'd sent awhile back, and they're up for a collab! This brings us to February's "All's Well That Ends Hell", and a really warm return to SCP!

Around here we begin recording all of Season Three (a little later than expected).

2021

March brings the end of Margaret's Garden, an emotionally intensive production, but one I'm incredibly thankful for. The story is deeply personal to me, and I even roped in my father to help refine and expand on the story. It's the best story I've helped tell.

But from one beast to another, I had, foolishly, agreed to make SCP-1730. Of course I knew it had too many characters, and was the longest SCP ever! But, apparently, that didn't stop me from making it. So, we release all four parts. At this point, I think I'm just about ready to never edit a podcast ever again! I was tired!! To help lighten the load, Jesse and I bring on Danny Sweet, who helped me edit Margaret's Garden, and created it's incredible soundtrack!

In May, Danny's first episode, "The Crooked Man" airs, and we hit 500 patrons! (For which I owe all of you pins- Another post about that coming soon!) I also get my second vaccination this month, and finally feel a little less stressed about going outside.

And June sees Out of Place: Season Two. It's somehow even better than the first season!

And that just about brings us up to date, folks. This last year has been the hardest, and most rewarding of my life so far. Couldn't have done it without my incredible cast & crew. Tom Rory Parsons, especially, deserves a lot of credit for countless late nights going over episodes together, and being a consistent rock in my life.

Skylarking

I read a lot of Vonnegut, in another graduation speech, he spoke about the importance of Skylarking, which he defined as the "intolerable lack of seriousness." If there's one thing I can set out to do this year, it's to have a little fun. To keep telling stories. After all, stories are important. Sometimes they can be a means of much needed escape. Sci-Fi however, I find fascinating, because it's a means to convey possibility.

This year is full of possibilities. As I head into 24, the road ahead looks arduous, but I'm excited, and I hope you are too! And what is ahead? Well, first finishing shipping May's packages (I swear,  I'm working on them! And I'm so sorry about the delay)! I've just begun working on two new shows, in August, you'll hear my work on Creepy! I'm becoming the new sound designer for Sunday episodes!

I'm also working on a pilot for a super secret project. If it goes well, I'll be doing a lot more writing this year too! And that's just August! Sometime this year, I'd love to return to the world of Margaret's Garden, in whatever form that may take.  I've also been drawing. A lot. Most of it's terrible, but I'm getting better and working towards creating something cool.

As of writing, the day is just beginning to warm up. It's not too hot yet, the skies are blue, and there's a light breeze. If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

- Pacific