2021 was definitely a crazy and hectic year. The global Covid-19 pandemic continues to ravage the world with multiple variants. Michele and I continue to play it safe: we mask up, limit us going out, and received our vaccines, though we need boosters soon. The move from Orange to Phoenix also required some normalization. There was also personal ailments, family issues, work woes, and lots of anxieties.
Despite all this, 2021 was a successful year on many fronts. I didn’t have any books published and outside my regular contributions to Exotica Moderne, nothing else saw physical print. However, Michele and I really ramped up the focus on our H. P. Lovecast Podcast. We launched an additional show and tweaked the format a little bit and the results so far have been quite positive. In 2022 we are going to concentrate on growing our audience, which right now as a cult following. But with 30 episodes published this year plus other podcast appearances, we were both successful on this front, and we hope the books and authors we featured also received a spike in promotion.
What follows is a break down of all major 2021 accomplishments.
2021 Accomplishments
Podcast Accomplishments
- 50 podcast appearances
- 30 episodes of HP Lovecast Podcast with Michele
- 18 episodes of Scholars from the Edge of Time (almost all with Michele)
- 2 guest appearances on other podcasts
- Scaredy Cats
- Burial Plot (appeared with Michele)
Publication Accomplishments
- 6 physical/print publications
- 4 articles for Exotica Moderne
- 2 book contributions
- Mark My Words
- StokerCon 2021 Souvenir Book (co-written with Michele)
- 16 articles at my website
- 7 interviews
- 3 book reviews
- 6 articles/essays
- Essay published at Academia Letters
Conference Accomplishments
- Co-chaired with Michele the 4th year of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
- 2 Conference Presentations
- AnnRadCon
- Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association
For some of the above accomplishments I’d like to give a shout out to: Brenda S. Tolian and Joy Yehle (Burial Plot Podcast), Sherri (Scaredy Cats Podcast), Hercules Invictus (Voice of Olympus Network), Ken Holewczynski (Exotica Moderne), Josh Viola (Hex Publishers), and Lee Murray (Mark My Words) who all gave me platforms and opportunities. I sincerely appreciate you all. Of course I have to think Michele for being my biggest supporter and partner in crime in these endeavors.
2022 Projections
Only a few days into the new year and 2022 is already filling up with new projects, opportunities, and publications!
Things to look forward to in 2022
- Publication of Kevin Wetmore’s The Many Lives of the Twilight Zone: Essays on the Television and Film Franchise which contains my essay “Strange Realities: Twilight Zone-sploitation in Encounter with the Unknown”
- Publication of Rachel Corazo’s untitled Gladiator book which contains my essay “Dance or Dēcēdere: Gladiator and Industrial Music Sampling”
- Issue of Exotica Moderne that contains my interview with New Zealand Pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair
- Other Exotica Moderne appearances will happen
- Essays and interviews co-written with Michele for the 2022 StokerCon souvenir book
- Co-chairing and presenting at the Fifth Annual Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference
- Secret magazine article (due at the end of January)
- More episodes of H. P. Lovecast
- More articles and interviews at my website
Projects I’ll be starting in 2022
Projects I anticipate to be starting on or working on in the next year:
- Composing a Highlander essay for Michele’s Highlander Book (see CFP here)
- My first monograph (which will be on Lovecraft and Rene Girard)
- Publishing a CFP for the Emmanuelle and Black Emanuelle films
- Editing my Acylum presentation into a journal article proper
- And others tbd!
Thank you everyone who has been along with me on my academic journey.