Hey. What's up?

Hello everybody! I went out of town for a couple days this past weekend and turned my phone off for an extended period for the first time in years. I went tent camping in a state park, did some hiking with people who are really close to me, and just... relaxed. My therapist and I have been working for a while on figuring out a good way to limit my intake of anxiety-inducing information. Technology has seemingly evolved into a perfect machine to facilitate a firehouse of content directly into our brains, and "content" has devolved into rage-bait and doomerism. So, it was really nice to go somewhere where my phone had zero reception and I could just sit in a hammock and stare at a leaf for a couple hours. Highly recommend. 10/10.

Anyway, I'm not making this post just to brag or take pot shots at the late stage capitalistic dystopia we all live in. I'm here because, once I got back onto the grid, I found out that according to my metrics, this blog had an unusual surge of visitors over the weekend. Like, a really big amount of traffic. (I also found out that the internet is suddenly full of weird Bubba memes and jokes about a "Big Beautiful Bill" that I'm currently out of the loop for, but I'm pretty sure that's unrelated.)

I checked to make sure Creep Cast hadn't done another episode on me. There doesn't seem to be any news article or anything like that to account for the traffic. My best guess is that it's something to do with tech companies and AI data-mining bots and things I'm not smart enough to talk about. Considering I haven't made a new post in ages, it really doesn't make sense for that many people to suddenly check in all at once just to see what's happening over in my weird little corner of the internet. But, in case I'm wrong (which, let's face it, is a bit of a pattern), let me give all of you who are interested a quick update on where I am and what I've been doing: Most of my time this last year has been spent working on the new book. As a rule, I don't like talking about my current projects unless I have a definite finished-by date in mind, but for this one, I have to make an exception. I've written close to 600,000 words on it, of which I might have about 30,000 that will end up in the final product (for reference, I was originally shooting for about 125,000). And to be completely honest, I have no idea when it will actually be ready to release. This book has been a huge labor of love and sometimes also a labor of hate. I made it about halfway through at one point before I realized that the thing I was trying to say was something I didn't agree with, so I had to go back through it with a sledgehammer and glue and then pick up the pieces that still worked. At one point, it was a direct sequel to "Tales from the Gas Station" picking up right after "Tales from the Road..." but that has changed... And that's probably about all I can say right now. For those of you who've been supportive and patiently waiting, thank you. I hope when it's all done, you won't be disappointed.

Then, there's the sequel to Bedside Manor / continuation of "Tales from the Road" which has, unfortunately, had to take a backseat while I try to gain momentum on the book. There's a complete arc plotted out and ready to be written as soon as I find the time.

Besides that, I've been overseeing the fourth full-theatrical audiobook in the TftGS series. That one I do feel okay talking about, even though I don't have a hard release date yet. It has been completely recorded and is at the QA stage of post-production. I'm aiming for a pre-Christmas release.

For those of you wondering about The Snake's Paw podcast, we're still working on new material, although it's coming together slower. All of us involved are spread thin, but we have a new script for a new show that we hope to start casting in the next couple weeks, and probably at least one more Basic Pitch before the end of the year.

Also, the Spanish Translation of "Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One" is out now on Kindle and Paperback!

I know a lot of you have been asking about the comic book. I can't say much now, but I'm meeting with the artistic director in charge of that this Friday.

Oh, and another thing: There's going to be a new merch store coming soon!

Okay, I think that about wraps up all the news I'm allowed to talk about. If you're one of the people who swarmed this site over the weekend, please drop a comment and let me know who/what you are.

I think that's everything... unless I'm forgetting something... which I probably am...

Ah well.

Hey, go fill out this survey about the newly announced film in "The Mummy" franchise starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz (and share this survey on social media, please).

Okay, thanks, love you, bye!

-Jack