State of the Blog: Two Years Later

 

Well, here we are. Two whole years running. And here I thought I'd burn out before halfway through the first. We did this last year, so why not do it again? Let's see how things turned out for the blog throughout the latter half of 2021 and former half of 2022. Did I stick to many plans? What did I do right, and what do I feel I failed on? Let's check it out.

I started 2021 still getting my feet wet on newer projects like Fear Street and Christopher Pike. One became a blog section that has amassed almost fifty blogs for. The other became a slower burn out. Look, posting this now after what's happened in the states seems like poor timing, but man do I regret covering Whisper of Death. Just how its message feels so much more awful given the state of the US. I covered a couple more after that, but have been going slower since. But I do intend to keep going with Pike's work in year 3. I just need long breaks between them to continue on.

As for Fear Street, we hit the ground running throughout 2021 and didn't really take a break until 2022. I gave my thoughts in my one year look back, but I'll again state that I like Fear Street. Though that's usually when it actually does something fresh and unique instead of feeling like a copypasta. We had our highs, our lows, our Reva Dalbys, but they're always fun and breezy enough to get my thoughts out on and I hope to continue going into 2023. Thankfully I do have a whole bunch more to go. And hopefully throughout the next year we'll cover some more of the offshoot books.

Goosebumps kept going this year. I finished the reread and also covered the rest of SlappyWorld and most of the remaining Most Wanted books. I've also started to finally cover the Give Yourself Goosebumps books, though rather slowly. And Series 2000 finally finished, which I'm so glad to be done with, even if I did enjoy it for the majority. And I finally added more Case of the Bumps articles looking at Evan Ross, Goosebumps parents and one more scathing takedown on Revenge R Us. On the newer end, our three new books (Fifth-Grade Zombies, Judy and the Beast, Slappy in Dreamland) were all a mixed bag. None outright awful, but nothing to write home about. I still wish we got the original Fifth-Grade Zombies. You robbed the people of Granny Z.

I said last year that I likely wouldn't cover Baby-Sitters Club, but I ended up reneging on that and have covered three so far. Hoping to do more as it's so far been a fun series to read through and more respectful to its audience than most of Stine's work. I also hit on a lot more Point books, though mostly Stine's as they are relevant to this blog in some capacity. Animorphs slowed, but I plan to get back. And Are You Afraid of the Dark also started and stopped, but I also plan to keep them going. Overall, it was a year of some projects getting off the bat and others stalling. Hopefully year 3 will put some fire back on those plans. 

166 blogs this year. Just a little higher than our last year. Granted, if we didn't lull a bit earlier this year it could have been higher, but it's at least a good sign that the blog is still moving at a rapid pace. Though there's still plenty of books to go around for year 3. And some of the books I thought to cover like Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew, Bayley School Kids and more are still there once I'm ready to finally start to cover them. So have no fears, we got stories for years. Whether or not Marge becomes a robot is a whole other story. 

So what exactly is in the works for year 3? Hoping to keep trucking on Fear Street and Point. I plan to return to Are You Afraid of the Dark, and have also started considering covering other horror related programs so long as I have the resources to cover them at a steady pace. Goosebumps is reaching its twilight in terms of books to talk about, but the GYG books are now in the works. As is perhaps another reread blog series, but not saying which until I'm ready. No, it's not Series 2000. At least not yet. I'm hoping for more catch up books while also hoping to maybe implement some more interesting ideas . It's still all speculative, but after two strong years, I'm still hoping to make this just as strong a year as ever.

So what's the status from last year? Let's look at what was planned and what's still priority. 

The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew: Still ones I want to cover alongside general mystery books. I think there's a lot of content to thumb through and hoping to really build on this eventually.

Bailey School Kids: Eventually

The Babysitters Club: More to come next year.

Sweet Valley: Definitely in consideration for a future run through.

Wayside: Yup, sometime eventually. 

Post-Animorphs Applegate (EverWorld/Remnants): It's a possibility. We need the fire lit on continuing Animorphs first.

More adult works (King for example): Yep, still a priority.

Older works (The Oz or Tolkien books for example): Yup. I also want to find a way to make them work. Something in the ways of how Dominic Noble covers the books and adaptations. 

Books based on stuff like Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who: Still not opposed, but I really need to get into more sci-fi first.

The books with the boy wizard: Hell no.

Other horror based TV shows (Twilight Zone for example): Maybe. Not opposed.

So thankfully there's plenty of stuff for me to cover for as long as I feel like making this blog. Thank you once again for following me for two years now and hopefully in the next year we'll have a lot more to talk about. So welcome to year three of Raiders of the Bookmark.