Footnotes down for the count…but not for long!

June 4th, 2008

OK, folks—take note, ‘cause this is kind of important: PEGRITZ(.com)!’s sister site, Footnotes to the Human Species, is currently M.I.A. The reason is simple: for some reason, WordPress 2.5 stopped working correctly on the site. It simply wouldn’t allow me to edit previously published posts or publish new ones. I upgraded the site to WP 2.5.1, but that did not help one bit. So…the only thing I could think of doing was wiping the installation clean, deleting the SQL database containing all the text, and just starting Completely Anew.

Oh, don’t worry: no content (aside from maybe a “Here’s what I’ve been doing lately” post here and there) has been lost, as I’ve got all that stuff backed up in about five thousand different places. But it will take me a little time to get the site back up and running, with all its plug-ins and enhancements running smoothly (especially since several of them have new versions that are very incompatible with previous versions). Ohwell. Might take a day to get the site back up and running, but remember:

All of the chapter to “City of Pillars” that I will be publishing on the site, Chapters 1 through 7, are the revised versions—many of which are so heavily revised they bear little resemblance, if any, to the originals. You might as well just start back at the beginning, because this thing needed major work to come even close to my standards of quality.

Never, ever start writing something in the middle of a semester of teaching and “make it all up as you go along.” I’ve learned you can’t even do that with a short story of only 1,000 words…let alone a beast that started with an expectation of novella length, but is clearly demanding to be treated as a full-scale novel.

Here’s a heads up on the newly revised “City of Pillars 2.0” that all readers so far hooked on the story should keep their multiple three-lobed eyes peeled for:

Look for a tangential character in “City of Pillars” to be the protagonist/narrator of “Naming the Nameless City”. Also look for Yours Truly, me, appearing in a later chapter that sets up the basic concept of “Iä!”, the story which contains most of what readers familiar with the first incarnation of Footnotes will recognize as the first part of “Trois Frères”—expanded with plenty of sickening details revealing just how horrific the March of the Squidheads is for Humanity as a whole. “Trois Frères” will return as a wholly separate tale, a direct sequel to “Iä!” that sets up much of the action in “Goodnight, Antarctica” and “The Fifth of Five Forms”.

Please bare with me, folks. I want to give you THE best free fictional experience you can possibly get, and I will admit: I’m aiming to be known as the premier literary descendant of H. P. Lovecraft (though, of course, I’ll gladly settle for being known as a really good rip-off artist, as well). If you know me, chances are you’ll probably find yourself in one of these damn stories—but I must warn you: just because we’re best friends, that doesn’t mean you’ll survive. Hell, it doesn’t mean I will survive any of this!

Remember the Footnotes to the Human Species motto: “Who are we to stand before the Gods Themselves and beg for their forbearance”?”

Indeed…who are we? What is Humanity to transcendent alien minds like the Great Old Ones, utterly incomprehensible minds like the Other Gods, and even post-Singularity entities like the Great Race, the Fungi from Yuggoth and their Million Favored Ones, and the Elder Things themselves? Think about that. Are we cockroaches between their feet, or can we be something more?