So I spent a little bit of time back home in New Zealand this week and visited some of the old haunts. I discovered I missed my youth, missed the adventure and carefree attitude of being young and not thinking about consequences. Times seemed so much simpler back then, without the weight of responsibilities wearing us down.
Sure, we were selfish and only thought of ourselves, and we never thought about the fallout from our dumb actions, but hell, we had a lot of fun. There where ghosts of us everywhere, running about in the sun, laughing with delight and daring one another onto even more dumb deeds. We were never out to hurt anyone, only to have fun.
It was a different world. My three bros, one sis, and myself would go off for the whole day, and our folks wouldn’t have a clue where we were, or have any way of contacting us. Sure as hell no mobile phones back then. Stormwater drains, exploring caves we discovered, riding our bikes up the mountain, leaping off cliffs into a waterfall, even just down the park spending the day throwing stones and sticks at beehives, or bull tag on the three story fort down the nearby school.
And some of the things we did, I wouldn’t have the balls to do now! That’s so sad. So I made a pack with my bro; the next time we’re both back home, there’s a certain something we’re going to do, for old time’s sake….
Anyway, I’m back now, reinvigorated (if slightly upset at the loss of youth). We’ve just released Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue edited by Daniel I Russell, which is fantastic. Go check it out. Go on. Dan’s done himself proud there.
But I have another gig about to kick off, too. It’s the HWA’s Horror Roundtable. A monthly virtual horror panel. The first online Roundtable begins at 2pm Pacific Time on June the 4th (that’s 7am on the 5th here in Sydney), and will run for a week. The first hour will be our guests Nancy Holder, Norm Rubenstein, and Wes Ochse discussing whether cross-genre writing is more popular now.
After that first hour, the discussion will be open to the general public to contribute. A week later, it will close after a final wrap up from our special guests. We’ll leave the discussion online for everyone to read, though.
We’ll be running a new Roundtable discussion each month, with new guests and a new writing-related topic each time. If this is something you’d love to take part in, or even if you just have a topic you’d love to hear discussed, please get in touch with me on martyyoung2002@yahoo.com.
The Roundtable discussions should be fun! Here’s to a healthy discussion 
