Hello…hello…(tap, tap)…Is this thing on?

Ahem.  If anyone is out there, I’m starting this blog, Adventures Fantastic.  The focus will be on, well, just what the title suggests.  Adventures of a fantastic nature.  Mostly fictional, but with an occasional factual post thrown in.  I know, I know, you’re probably thinking there are already a number of websites and blogs out there that have a similar focus.  Why another one?

That’s a very perceptive question, and I’m glad you asked it.  It’s true there are a number of other places you could go on the web to get a fix for this kind of thing, such as Black Gate, REH: Two-Gun Raconteur, or REHupa.  And you should.  But ever since the Cimmerian shut down, I haven’t found exactly what I’ve been looking for.  That blog was one of the few I’m aware of that regularly mixed posts about heroic fantasy with articles on history and historical adventure.  Few, in this case, being defined as “only.”  Maybe that last sentence just shows my ignorance, I don’t know.  Anyway, someone once said, and I think I’ve seen the quote attributed to George Orwell, that writers write what they can’t find on library shelves.  The same holds true in this case.

While hubris may be high on my list of personal characterics, I’m under no delusion that this blog will approach the high water mark of The Cimmerian anytime soon, if ever.  For one thing, The Cimmerian was a group effort, while this is going to be strictly solo, at least for now.  For another, I’m taking a slightly broader definition of “fantastic” than what is usually meant when someone talks about fantastic fiction.  I’m speaking of fantastic not simply in the context of supernatural or science-fictional elements, but anything that is out of the ordinary for most people.  The majority of Americans, it seems to me, live their lives in such a way that any adventure they experience has an element of the fantastic to it simply by its very novelty.  This could include, but is not limited to, other cultures and historical periods or experiences and narratives of an adventurous nature.  Using such a broad definition would include historical fiction, historical essays, and even the occasional thriller or detective yarn as appropriate things to blog about.  In other words, the pulp content on this blog is going to be high.

I think that’s a good thing.

I’m new to the blogging scene, so I’ll be starting out slow.  There  won’t be a lot of bells and whistles at first, but I’ll be adding some flash as we go along.  What you can expect are book reviews, essays, factual articles, links to other websites, and anything else I find cool or interesting that I might feel like writing about.  One thing I’ve never seen, and I was surprised one of the bloggers on The Cimmerian didn’t do this, is a series of articles on Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis stories.  Look for the first of those in the next few weeks.

Keith