Good morning, folks. How’s things? I’m writing this on Tuesday, as in the wee hours of Wednesday morning we have to get my wife up and get her to the hospital where they’re going to replace her left knee joint. We hope this will go smoothly and restore some mobility, but this post must be constructed before we know anything, so time-travel fans be aware that I’m coming to you from the past.

I had no idea what to post about, as I was as worried as she was, but inspiration struck in the form of an article on David Lee Summers’ personal site, Be Bold, Be Bold. Because of him, you don’t have to sit through another of my old, old stories.

He reminded me that arachnids, especially spiders, are a staple of horror of every stripe. Look no further than our cover art for an example. In his post he talked about arachnid gods in other cultures and reviewed a book based on an event in the life of one such god. Personally, I have a spider phobia, and I don’t think that makes me unique given what I see in fiction and nature documentaries. Horror has a morbid fascination with the venom-dripping fangs and the silk they wrap their victims with that shrinks as it dries, rendering the prey immobile so it will be completely helpless when the beast comes to liquify its flesh and feed while it watches. Is there any horror in fiction that compares to that?

Here’s an ancient legend about the origin of spiders that I just made up: Before the earth was formed and Lucifer had been expelled from Heaven, God was busy creating the animals that would inhabit the new world he was making. Lucifer complained loud and long to anyone who would listen that God was hogging all the creativity and giving no one else a chance. God soon got wind of this and summoned Lucifer to the workshop to hear his grievance. After hearing him out, God apologized and invited Lucifer to create something… And thus was born the spider!

Over on Facebook, meanwhile, I have long been a member of The Writers’ Forum, a private group boasting almost 200,000 members. I have promoted Threads that Bind there every week since its inception. Well, a few days ago the administrator posted what I guess you’d call an opinion piece saying that it is the duty and the purpose of every writer to be working to influence minds to oppose President Trump. The duty and the purpose. I’m no Trump fan myself, but that’s the closest you’re ever going to get to a political statement from me. As far as I’m concerned, I made my political statement at the ballot box in 2024. My side lost, but I plan to make my statement every chance I get going forward. That’s all I can do, and if the majority of Americans feel that Trump and the GOP are good for America, who am I to stand on a soapbox and rage about how the system is broken? It worked like it’s supposed to, and this is where we are.

The bottom line is that I don’t exactly feel like I’m welcome there anymore, and I’m not even sure I want to be. I’ll probably keep promoting our site there until I’m chucked out because of all the eyes it brings, but I feel like I’m being censored to an extent. Even though I hold the “right” political view according to the admin, my writing is “wrong” because I’m not using my platform the way he thinks I should. I guess I’m in the position of a reporter who is at odds with the policy of his newspaper (or whatever passes for one these days); he has to decide whether to suppress his own views or move on.

Loyal readers may rest assured that that will never be the case here! While we’re as family oriented as horror can be and I don’t intend to allow smut to gain a foothold here, our writers will never be censored because someone else ~ i.e., me ~ doesn’t like their style or content. Case in point: over the last months we have become a pure horror site. That isn’t what I wanted when I set this up, but it’s where our authors have taken us, and that’s fine. As long as you, the reader, are enjoying it, this, too, is where we are. And if you like it, tell your friends, leave comments, let us know we’re doing good. I promise we’ll keep doing it!