Ten Years of Insanity And It's All My Fault

This is Me Saying Thank You and Looking Forward to the Next Ten.

Jimbo’s Awesome Science Fiction and Fantasy Reviews did not start on Substack. No, I’ve only been on Substack for about a year or so. Jimbo’s started on Blogspot onFebruary 10, 2015 because a broke guy had a vision of getting free books and making himself rich. I was going to own the world one review at a time. Well, I’m still not rich but he has gotten approximately elebenty bajillion free books and met some really cool people along the way.

If you had looked at me the day I did my first post and asked me if I’d still be here ten years later, I probably wouldn’t have been able to answer. It never would have occurred to me to even consider the possibility. Who thinks about blogging in a decade when you’re trying to figure out what to do your first real blog post about?

I’ve made friends here. Some are writers. Some are readers. All of them are crazy if they like reading my writing and so, quite frankly are you. I speak of Jimbo’s as being a place where a reader can find “Reviews of Science Fiction and Fantasy Everything, With a Side of Tacky Humor” and it’s true. It’s also true that a spoonful of crazy helps the tackiness go down. Y’all are almost as crazy as I am and I love you for it.

Once upon a time I’d have been afraid to ask just about anybody to interview for my blog. In the years since I’ve grown. In that time I’ve been able to interview authors, publishers, and the President of the National Fantasy Fan Foundation. I’ve hosted numerous guest posts (and if you’ve got a SF/F related product to promote, hit me up! I love content that I don’t have to write myself. It tickles my lazy bone.) and I’ve learned a lot reading the thoughts that other writers have about their work and their craft.

I’ve done my best to expand the tent of Science Fiction and Fantasy as far as I could. Most of my reviews have been of books, but I’ve also reviewed movies, TV shows, video games (okay, cell phone apps) a board game, comics, and music. There are many millions of SF/F related things that I haven’t been able to review. I’m one man and this isn’t my full time job. The fact remains that the only major grouping of Science Fiction and Fantasy related that I haven’t done a review for is toys/collectibles and that’s a budget issue.

I haven’t had the money to buy literal toys (and folks I collected everything from GI Joe and Papo figures, to Battletech models, to paintings, to… you get the idea) since my divorce. The same with trading card games. If I could I would. I love that stuff, but I love having a roof over my head and food in my belly more. And if you know of a category that I have missed, let me know.

I’ve stuck my nose into business that wasn’t mine a time or two as well. I backed Sad Puppies from its inception until the day it died. I’ve had a thing to say about everything from reboots to the birth of the Dragon Awards. My viewpoint may not be one that everyone agrees with but it’s mine and I exercise my right to share it.

There are those who may be tempted to refer to me as a loudmouthed nerd with access to a keyboard. They’re right. That’s exactly what I am. And the longer I do this, the more I learn to love my nerdiness and my ability to express myself when discussing it. I’m pretty sure I was always meant to be a writer. I’ve done it my whole life, whether it was homebrewing worlds for D&D or an alternate world for the Palladium Fantasy Role Playing Game or the time I wrote the worst story in Science Fiction history. (I threw it out when I was done with it. The rats at the dump sent me a sternly worded letter of protest. They felt that my story was below the standards of the landfill.)

Still and all though, it was this blog that first turned my natural tendencies into something tangible. It wasn’t until I started sharing my thoughts that all of you that I can say I honestly slid into my life’s calling. I know what I was missing now. It was an ability to express myself fully without somebody cutting me off every other word. With writing, I can stream my consciousness onto a screen and out into the universe at my pace and not someone else’s.

And I’ve made some real memories here. I’ll never forget the feeling of seeing Brad Torgersen celebrate the review I had just written of The Chaplain’s War. I’ll never forget the first time I received a second book for review from Cedar Sanderson. She was the first one who ever sent me a second book to review and that HUUUUUUUGE for my confidence. I did my first podcast appearance with Declan Finn promoting this here blog.

I paged through all of my posts on both Substack and Blogspot before I started writing this. Some of them I remember. Most of them I don’t. But I’ll never forget writing that crazy review for Mark Wandrey’s Cartwright’s Cavaliers. I’ve reviewed books here from old favorites like David Weber. (I was late to the party. I’ve only been reading him for twenty-five years.) I’ve made new favorites like Cedar Sanderson, Declan Finn, Chris Kennedy, DT Read, I could go on for days and I’m really afraid that I’m going to offend someone who didn’t make the list, but I need to cut it off at some point.

My review of David Gerrold’s Jacob is another I’ll never forget, but I’m afraid it didn’t vault him into my list of favorite authors. The review reflects that and I enjoyed writing it at least ten times as much as I should have. I can be, and have been, that guy at times and that review proves it. Still and all, when a book sucks and I feel the need to break open a can, I will.

And every bit of what I’ve written, every corny joke, every brilliant insight (in my own mind at least) has been thanks to two groups of people. The first one I want to talk about are my readers. Seriously folks, the fun of having a blog like this is knowing that out there somewhere, someone thinks it’s worth the time to read what I’ve written. When I can put a post up and watch the hits on it climb, I’m having a good day. That goes double now that I’m on Substack and I can see how closely some of you engage with my content. You don’t know how much that means to a guy like me.

The other group is the authors. There is no bigger vote of confidence than to give your work to a blogger than to hand them your work and believe that they can do justice to it. Some of you are following the book I’m writing and posting in pieces here. There is a LOT that goes into putting up that kind of word count and making it coherent. So some author out there (quite a few of them, actually) puts the time, effort, and research into producing a novel. Then they edit the thing until their eyeballs fall out. Then they send it to me hoping I will like and make it sound good enough that you’ll want to buy it. That’s a big deal folks, but it’s a trust I’d like to think I’ve earned by now.

I’m going to take the time to thank both groups though. I love y’all. I mean that. You keep coming back reading words put out by a goofball like me. And this blog has been a huge part of my life. It keeps me focused on reading and I use that as a coping mechanism when life gets rough. It gives me an outlet to vent when I need one. I can even celebrate here when I want to and it’s all thanks to the people who come here and egg me on. To everyone reading this: YOU FREAKING RULE!!!

So what’s next for Jimbo’s? I’ll tell you this much. We’re not going anywhere. I’ll have a review of JA Sutherland’s A Brief Interminable Peace up soon. I have plenty of other stuff in the pipeline as well. I’ve thought about packaging up a bunch of my best reviews/opinion pieces and offering them for sale as a e-book, but we’ll see. I’m not sure I have the skills to format the thing and I know for a fact that I can’t afford to pay for a cover.

But I do know this: I used to have a Battletech poster with four pilots in the foreground and a ‘Mech in the background. It said “The First Ten Years Were Only The Beginning.” That’s just as true for me as it was for them. I’m enjoying this too much to quit. For now though, it’s off to the salt mines. I’ve got a lot of reading to do so that I can push out some iffy content for you yahoos.