2021 has proven to be one of the
most creatively productive years I have had in quite some time. In spite of the
pandemic and limitations around meeting in person and travel, there has not
been a lack of ideas that have come to materialize this year. I have put out
four albums on Bandcamp and have two successful short stories
up for sale on the Godless platform. The responses I have gotten from all of
these projects has surprised me with their positivity and encouragement, and
continue to motivate me to create. I won’t use this space to get into why I create,
except to say that I have found myself this year especially to be “tapped in”
to something which not only has given me ideas, but also the energy,
will, and skill to execute those ideas into something I feel ok about sharing
with others, and not just that, but attaching a dollar figure to that output.
It has been incredibly gratifying to see people engaging with the work and
getting something out of it, let alone sharing those engagements with
others.
I consider most of these works
“loss leaders” in the sense that they were produced with the intention of my
name getting “out there”/recognized and associated with the genres and mediums
in which they work, and not so much with making money for myself. The music is
available to stream for free and download for a small amount which immediately
gets donated to charity. The two Godless stories are at 50 cents apiece and
again, any proceeds I see from those will immediately get donated to charity. I
have always felt that my creative output has value, but I also do not work
creatively as my “main job”. I do not bristle at being called a “hobbyist” in
either music or writing because money made off of those (and to be transparent,
it is not a lot of money-in total between the two, maybe under a hundred
dollars) doesn’t dwell in my pocket or go towards anything but charitable
causes. Up to now, this has been an acceptable compromise I have made-I can
charge money for what I do, but I can’t keep the money-it has to go to someone
who needs it more than me, especially during these interesting times we live
in. The “loss” portion of this means that I have invested my own money into
these ventures (that money, again to be transparent, more than a couple hundred
dollars) – that goes towards advertising, elements that I am not skilled enough
to do on my own (e-book cover art, for instance), and time and energy spent
boosting my own signal in admittedly limited social media outlets. To stress,
this is *not* a complaint, but it is a reality I believe is shared by
independent creatives in all realms, and especially for those with little to no
name recognition or large corporate entities doing that kind of work for them.
So, now we look ahead to 2022, and
it is time for some changes. These changes are good, for you and for me, and I
hope the good will I have established with my current creative output practices
will carry forward any fans of my work up to now. I promise for you, it will
not only be transparent in terms of the output, but I think you will see the
quality of that output step up on all fronts. The only thing you may see is a
reduction in quantity-but we’ll get to that shortly.
Ok, so getting money out of the
way, starting 1/1/2022, I plan to retain profits from all sales of work first
published in 2000-2021, with the exception of The Supper on Bandcamp, which
will continue to be a strict fund-raiser for the animal shelter in RI per my
agreement with the author/translator and their agent. As I work with other
entities (publishers, platforms, labels, etc.) they will (and I will) certainly
adhere to their own existing systems in terms of charitable donation-I am
speaking here exclusively about keeping profits/royalties I make off of my
work. That is not to say that there may be times where periodically I
“self-promote” with one of the aims being donating a portion of those profits
to a worthy charitable cause. I will always strive to be clear with the
audience which charity is benefitting and what percentage of profits I will
donate, as well as the duration of the promotion. Especially since some of my
work is of a “darker/negative” nature, it is important for me to try to balance
that out with some “lighter/positive” impact, and making sure that “lighter”
output is something positively impactful in the real world. That consideration
will also apply to the means by which my work goes out to people (publishers,
etc.)
Secondly will be some changes to
how I boost my signal for my projects. I now have Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok accounts (and possibly other platforms to come) which would act as
strictly promotional entities. It is likely these will be promoting content
that may be non-family friendly (the promotion will most likely be SFW but not
for kids, the content itself probably NSFW and definitely for mature audiences).
I will take care about who I connect with there and mainly connect with other
creators. While I want to get eyes and ears on my stuff as widely as possible,
and to grow my audience, I am fully aware that what I do is not for everyone
and I would hate for someone to be “harmed” by reading or listening to work
which is designed in part to shock. It’s a tricky thing to navigate, and I
expect I won’t get it perfect at the outset, but I ask for your forgiveness as
I learn how to do this most effectively. I will also likely begin some kind of
regular communication which will go out to people interested in following my
work-probably via email. If you are interested in getting emails about once a month with news about upcoming projects, please send an email to matthew.m.henshaw at gmail dot com and I will add you to that list.
Thirdly
is the work itself (also known as THE FUN STUFF). Here are a few items I
can talk about:
Music:
I have
one album which is in holding with a possible distributor which I can say is a
kind of “soundtrack”. If it doesn’t pan out for that purpose, I may put it out
in quarter 1 of 2022.
There is
another very different noise project which I am still plotting out, which will either
be a quarter 1 or quarter 2 release. A potential collaborative release with a
musician local to me is also in the nebulous “talking about ideas” stage.
Writing:
A story
of mine is appearing in the anthology “Trigger Warning: Speaking Ill” coming
out from Madness Heart Press in 2022. I am sharing a Table of Contents with
several authors I admire and enjoy, and I can’t wait to see how mine sits among
their work. You will hopefully see more about that as the ToC is cleared for release and a release date is
set
My idea
from May of this year of an evil college course catalog is also coming out from
Madness Heart Press in 2022. The name is currently “The Nafallen University
College Course Catalog” though that may change. The submission period ended in
August, and over 40 submissions have been marked to move forward. I am really
excited to see what others have come up with, and who exactly I will be sharing
credits with on the project. I will be getting the initial course load in the
next couple of weeks which I will review and edit, passing back to the
publishing editor for a second round of back and forth, then to the main editor.
I can promise this will end up being like nothing you have read before, and
depending on its success, may see other work fallout from it.
I am
nearly ready to begin the editing process on my next collection of poetry and
short fiction called ‘Black Ribbon and Other Perturbed Textiles’. There may be
a few more pieces to add, and then there will be the assembly and editing
process. Then there is the question of how to put it out. I have what I think
is some good cover art, but I also want to work with a small press on releasing
it. There are a few I have in mind, but if those don’t go anywhere, I may
self-publish. There is also the chance of working with an illustrator which I
would be very excited to collaborate with, but nothing is agreed on at this
point.
I have
three other writing drafts that are currently works in progress that do not
strictly fall within the horror genres my current output has been in. One is a
bizarro story which I expect to complete before the end of 2021 and I have an eye on who I will submit that to first. Another is in
the hard-boiled private detective genre with weird overtones. The third could
potentially be a novella or even a novel idea which would fall into a dark
police procedural/thriller/revenge genre with little to no extreme content. As
these are completed, I will be sure to share more about them.
In both
of these arenas, it is important to note that when inspiration hits, it hits
fast, and so other work is sure to crop up on both fronts “suddenly”, as in,
not pre-planned or in progress.
***Call
for Collaboration***:
This
will be probably the biggest change to how I work in 2022, and that is to seek
out and accept offers of collaboration. With the writing projects in
particular, I have found that collaboration is a great thing for keeping my
skills sharpened. Collaboration here can mean all manner of things. I have
spoken with a local musician about collaborating on music projects, and we may
also do something for the release of ‘Black Ribbon…’. But since we live in
times where meeting people online is feasible, there are opportunities to
collaborate which before the pandemic might have not been as easy. I am pretty
awkward and introverted in real life, and it is hard for me to work up the
courage to ask people I admire to help bring something creative to
materialization. I am going to work on that this year though, and hopefully
either co-produce or co-write output with some of the wonderfully kind and
talented people I have become acquainted with over the last couple of years.
Let this also be an invitation to you reading this that I am interested
in collaborating with you-be it with music, writing, interviews, whatever you
think I can add creative value to. Let’s create some art together. Let’s boost
one another’s signals. Let’s make something awesome and unique that people will
enjoy.
Closing:
Thank
you so much for reading this lengthy post, and for supporting my creative
endeavors over the years. It really means a lot to me and has helped me in ways
you can’t imagine. I am really excited for the changes and new work coming
soon.
Take care, stay safe and healthy, and I love you-
Matt
