345. Looking Back, Moving Forward: The 2018 Edition
https://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode345LookingBackMovingForward2018/Sandf–Episode345–LookingBackMovingForward2018.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadWow. It’s finally here! Our first episode on our new website, using our new feed! Hopefully everything works out and it ends up in your ears, because it’s time for the team to talk about what they loved in 2017 and what they’re looking forward to in 2018! We had reason to be a bit down about 2017. Last year was tough for many of us, but it still brought with it some amazing speculative fiction and some amazing growth on the Skiffy and Fanty Show. Our Patreon supporters allowed us to start 2018 fresh and shiny and new, and that brought with it a renewed sense of hope! For the last couple of weeks, many of our previous guests have been sharing what brings them joy. Hopefully, their joy has inspired some of your own. But sometimes it’s a struggle to find joy, to embrace joy. Our theme this year is “hope,” but hope often starts from a dark place, a place of struggle, fear, and pain. That’s where we leave 2017 and how we’re going to tackle 2018.
Month of Joy: A Few of my Joyful Things by Kay Kenyon
1. That feeling when I’ve done a good day’s work and I’m going to bed early with a good book that I have already started reading and so I know it’s a good book, unlike brand new reads that may disappoint me and then I have to find a new one and my evening routine is ruined. Oh, this was going to be about JOY and not crushing disappointment, so I soldier on: 2. When the snow all around the neighborhood turns blue for about ten minutes at sunset.
Month of Joy: The Love of My Life by J.A. Pitts
My friends over at the Skiffy and Fanty show are celebrating a new web site and a new year with a month of joy. To do this, they are publishing an essay almost every day in January. I love the show and think this is a wonderful experiment. I’m honored that they asked me to participate, so I thought I’d share the greatest joy in my life. On the one hand, I’m relieved to see 2017 in my rear-view mirror. Politics have infused every corner of my world with anxiety and chaos, adding so much stress that it’s impacted my writing. On the other hand, I’ve got a good job, a fantastic wife, and happy, successful, and healthy adult children. We have an empty nest for the first time and are enjoying the next stage in our lives.
Quick Note for Blog Subscribers
If you subscribe to the blog itself via the original feed (the one intended for podcasts rather than blog posts), you will need to update your subscription in the RSS reader to this feed. Make sure to do so ASAP, as we’ll start redirecting the podcast feed to the new Full Experience feed starting on Friday. This feed will also give you podcasts as blog posts, but it doesn’t operate like a normal podcast feed. Use the Full Experience feed (see Podcasts) for podcasts and the above linked feed for the blog proper. We forgot to mention this in the Welcome to 2018 post. Sorry about that!
Month of Joy: On Joy by James L. Sutter
When Skiffy and Fanty invited me to write a post about what brings me joy, I knew immediately that I needed to write about my wife, Margo. “Oh great,” you’re thinking. “Another generic, maudlin post about how much somebody loves their spouse.” Well, not exactly. See, eight years ago, Margo got really sick. When the two of us first got together, physical activity was Margo’s life. She was a national-championship-level ultimate frisbee player. She’d recently completed the Pacific Crest Trail, living in the woods for 5 months as she hiked from Mexico to Canada. Our first date was a 6-mile walk around a lake. Girl liked to move.
Welcome to 2018: New Website, New Feeds, New Annual Theme, and New Everything!
2018 has arrived, and it brings with it gifts a-plenty! We’ve left 2017 behind, strapped to a thermonuclear teddy bear bomb on a one-way trip to Hell. All its friends were quietly dispatched by an army of invisible badgernauts. In its wake, the Joyous Interdimensional Fleet of Happypants Space Wizards brought us a new year of new things. A new website (see the shiny!), a new annual theme, new podcast feeds, new design, and new everything. And we’re here to tell you all about how 2018 is going to be a year of ch-ch-changes and joy. So strap in, folks. This post is going to be a doozy! Here’s all the stuff in this post:
