2000th Post

Wow.

2000 posts.

As I'm typing this at midnight of 27 August 2009, I'm feeling a bit surreal.

I had originally expected the 2000-th post to come at the end of 2009, probably December. However, it seems the last month or so some eerie convergence has come together. It's been Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Lovecraft nearly every day and several times a day. I google HPL, and some obscure news columnist, some rock group, someone somewhere is mentioning the man. So I feel a bit of a compulsion to keep up with it. I suppose I've morphed into some arcane chronicler of Lovecraft, which also gives me mixed feelings.

I do this as a mild hobby. I started out a few years back just trying to learn how to blog, and how to learn Blogger. I figured since I'd just crossed paths with HPL at the time I'd go ahead and post up stuff about him. Then a few noticed and read - mostly my writing pals. Then a few more, and suddenly as time marched on a few thousand a day noticed. Like reading the morning comic strip, almost. Very cool. I've tried to make fewer typos knowing that so many people do read this, but that's still a work in process. :)

Then, a few months ago, along came facebook, and many multiplied more folks have noticed my small blog, and have joined the group.

Thank you all.

I'm in awe, and unsure really how to respond to this growth. But I do love getting your messages, your emails, and your posted comments.

I'd toyed with the idea of just stopping and going cold turkey on Lovecraft at 2000 posts. I thought, sheesh, how much more? After all, I do have other promised obligations with many colleagues - reading stories, reviewing stuff, associate editor at Arcane Wisdom, writing for Dark Recesses, sometimes collaborating on stories, doing my own researches into antiquarian horror, UFOs, and ghostly things, and I still write my own stories. And playing Farmville on Facebook. And folks, that's all in my spare time.

I have family, and church obligations, too. I do have a a demanding day job - one reson why I turn to Lovecraft and Horror to assuage my stresses of day to day angst. But Gods of Pegana, this blogging thing has always been so much fun. Part of me loves to uncover hidden things - it's what drove me to become a scientist, I suppose. HPL is so fascinating, and like some odd-Jesus, his disciples are sometimes even more interesting.

At this point, with 2000 posts and I suppose more to come, this blog is more encyclopedia than anything else. I really have tried to index everything the best I can. There's nearly every year of HPL's 119 year legacy either listed in the index, or searchable in the search field.

In case you wondered, nope, I make nothing on this. I think I made $3.41 in google ads, and pulled them down as a distraction. I'll never collect it. Yes, I typed all 2000 blog posts myself. Some of YOU sent me stuff and I'm so delighted to get that information or occassional essay and story to post. But yes I do it all everyday. No one else to blame for errors, missteps, typos: It all lays on me.

Where do I go from here? With YOU, hopefully, but even alone there are still a few mysteries that have not been fully opened to my satisfacton:

*Was Lovecraft a Spy for Houdini?
*How deeply infatuated was HPL with all those blue pencil and amateur journalism ladies?
*Did C M Eddy, Jr. play a much larger role in HPL's mid-1920's career than assumed?
*How did J C Heneberger really discover HPL?
*How deeply influenced - as a kid - was HPL by Alphaeus Packard, Jr.
*Are all those mentions of "black, deep, dark" stuff in his fiction a result of seeing Grandma Rhoby buried?
*How deeply was the final version of Beast in the Cave influenced by the Easter week death of his grandfather?
*What was HPL thinking - or dreaming - when he put Sam Loveman into Statement of Randolph Carter?
*What was the sociology and psychology in play when HPL bolted (some might say got kidnapped) to Brooklyn?
*And how will 2010 play out with Hollywood mainstream now discovering and exploiting HPL?

I wanna stick around and find out some of these answers.

I hope YOU stick around, too.

Thank YOU!