Oct 29, 2015

125

my Blogger profile
I started using Blogger on October 29th, 2005. For this blog post, I'm going to pause and reflect on my years in the blogosphere.

I actually started blogging 20 years ago, before the term "blog" even existed. Back then, I used my Mac IIcx to put some webpages on the internet using MacHTTP server software. In the old days, blogging was an activity for computer savvy nerds only.

Carl Sagan
In the previous millennium, I first began blogging about science fiction by blogging about Carl Sagan's Contact. Last year I put a copy of that old commentary on the wikifiction blog. And because I love recursive science fiction, I've recently written Carl Sagan into the Exode Trilogy.

The wikifiction blog (this blog) started in 2009. At that time, I was transitioning from using wiki software to collaboratively write fiction and just beginning to use blogging software as a medium for writing and sharing science fiction stories.

125
This blog post is called "125" because this is the 125th blog post for 2015. In 2014 I set a record by writing 125 blog posts for this blog in a single year. This year I'm already at 125 with two more months remaining in the year.

About The Author
I recently did some "house cleaning" for the wikifiction blog. For example, I updated my "About The Author" blurb to reflect my interest in recursive science fiction.

This blog began right when I started using Twitter, so a big part of my "meeting other life forms who enjoy science fiction" involves use of my Twitter account.

wikifiction wordcloud
The name "wikifiction" has slowly come to take on new meaning for me. For 20 years I've been a fan of the hypertext link. You could say I'm addicted to hypertext. Possibly the most distinguishing feature of this blog is my heavy use of hypertext links, but as much as I like text, I also like images. The format of this blog started with a single image in each blog post, but now I tend to have a steady stream of images running the length of my blog posts.

I attribute my increasing pace of writing science fiction and (blogging about it) to my current writing project, what I call the Exode Trilogy. Actually, this is a major effort in what is commonly called "world building", but I think of it as creating a coherent backstory for the Exodemic Fictional Universe.

Asimov
Since the Exode story starts with my fanfiction sequel to Isaac Asimov's time travel novel, The End of Eternity, I find myself constantly twisted through time. The Exodemic Fictional Universe not only needs a backstory for the universe as we know it, but also for all of the previous Realities of Earth.

As seen in the wordcloud for this blog, I often blog about Asimov. My special relationship with Asimov began when I first discovered printed science fiction. Asimov's The Gods Themsleves was the first science fiction story I ever read.

Of course, growing up in the 1960s, I was first introduced to science fiction through television (such as Star Trek) . Soon after my discovery that there was an entire science fiction world of published science fiction, I began writing my own science fiction stories.

Blog images and sidebar links.
At the center of my own science fiction story telling is the Fermi Paradox. It seems possible that space aliens with human-like minds and a technologically advanced civilization could have evolved on a distant Earth-like planet many millions of years in our past. I like science fiction stories that include the idea of aliens who visited Earth long ago.

Over the past few years, I've come close to deciding that this blog should really be viewed as one giant science fiction story, or part of one. My science fiction writing has spilled over to several other blogs including one for the Dead Widower Society.

One of my favorite features of the Blogger interface is that it allows a "slide show" of images from this blog to play in the sidebar along the right side of the page. The image shown to the right is from a writing project of the Dead Widowers called Assassination by Subtraction.

more sidebar links
Also in the sidebar of this blog are some links to other websites.

Some of those links are related to Asimov and other writers who have given me inspiration.

For example, my own direction in science fiction writing was heavily influenced by both Clarke and Vance. Fans of Jack Vance will recognize "Bodwyn Wook" as a character from his Cadwal Chronicles.

Neck and neck with Asimov for "most mentions" in this blog is Jack Vance. I often reflect on the fact that given the vast difference between the writing styles of Vance and Asimov it is amazing that they are my two favorite authors. Given my fascination with the science fiction stories of Vance and Asimov, I've been unable resist writing them into my own science fiction stories.

2016 update: death of the sidebar slideshow.

Next: Invasion of the Zeptites.

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