Welcome to March pards!

Technically it might not actually be spring yet from an astronomical perspective, but I’m going with the old meteorological date of 1st March. Besides, there’s also the phenological definition, which has been creeping ever earlier in the 21st century. Apparently, one of the indicators is the appearance of frogspawn and in 2024 that occurred in late February, so if this year showed a repeat of the pattern it could have already been spring for a few days.

BUT WHATEVER!

I reckon it’s a glorious spring morning, and a frosty one too. The days are stretching out and my energy levels are rising. But I still have some way to go to catch up with the productivity of some of our muckers…

GRAHAM PUBLISHED HIS FIRST NOVEL!

It’s called The Woodlice and I was deeply honoured to be asked by him to craft a death-laden vignette in the style of our favourite 70s horror maestros. I gave it a go, it was great fun, and it was a real delight to see it in print (thanks for the copies G).

Meanwhile, Patron Demon Tone Milazzo has launched his kickstarter for THE KING IN GIALLO – a one-shot adventure for his Espionage roleplaying game described as “Ian Fleming’s classic James Bond, as if written by Robert W. Chambers, with a touch of Italian horror.”

SOOOOOOLD!

Clarky the Cruel has been busy too, appearing on the Talk Without Rhythm podcast to talk about The Man Who Haunted Himself and The Offence (the best 70s film EVER).

I’ve had my moments though… Even jotting down a few more bits n bobs for vol 3 of The Journal. But after thinking about it all the way back in late 2021 I finally did a thing.

Over the years I was always aware of the Moorcock fanzine The Time Centre Times, although I’d never come across a copy until patron and friend of the show Sebastian Weetabix sent me a parcel of goodies. A collection of Moorcockiana that he’d collated over the years that includeded six issues of that fanzine. My first instincts were to read them (obviously) and to record some ramblings about the contents, but I put them somewhere, time passed and they got obscured by stuff for a while. Then, last week whilst looking for a copy of Swords and Roses that I KNOW I have somewhere, there they were.

So… Three and a bit years later the patron exclusive Part One of The Weetabix Files was born.

This also got me thinking… I NEED MORE COPIES… and the only place to go was John Davey’s JAYDE DESIGN.COM and eleven more issues will be winging their way to STIMBOT Towers.

On the subject of STIMBOT5000, that was my handle on the site formerly known as Twitter for around 12 or 13 years, as well as a couple of other places (MySpace?) for much longer, but I don’t think any of those fora exist for me anymore. And as I’ve finally re-tagged the Bluesky account, it may be altogether a thing of the past.

Going even further back I was SPACELORD.

Good times.

But all things must change, including our silly social media tags, therefore I shall diminish and go into the west… and remain Andy…

Or maybe STIMBOTRONAZOID67K

We’ll see.

I did start a Mastodon account too when Twitter started going tits-up, but it got left by the wayside a little bit. Plus a substack account when that platform started hotting up. But I only have so much energy for these things so I think I’ll just leave it as Patreon/website/Bluesky for now. Instagram is hanging in there but it feels increasingly grubby using it these days so that might have to go too.

Whilst I ruminate on all that gubbins though, it’s always lovely to get reminders that you’re out there and, this week, Patron Demon Gwen dropped me a line to say she picked up her Xmas aid package from her folks…

BONZER!

Thanks for the pic Gwen, and for showing us the new home for the BITR envelope sticker too (which now resides in fine company on your laptop):

I love this.

If you’re out there feel the energy of spring and drop us a line, leave us a comment or even a review. It’s been something like three years since we got a review on Apple Podcasts so if you use that platform tell us about your experience of the pod. That said, if you’re outside of the UK and you DO leave us a review, tip me off as it’s a pain in the fluffin’ arse to view them.

Right. It’s time for tea and toast.

Take care out there folks. Particularly those of you in harm’s way. We feel you.

Simon Perrins is back in Derry and Toms to pick up the third instalment of the first Corum trilogy. Many delights await as Mike puts his foot down on drawing together the threads of this first ten years of Eternal Champion cosmology and, as usual, Jhary wears some nice threads.

JOIN US!