Hello.

Welcome to the first of a series of hopefully-monthly updates from Cheeso Media Headquarters. There will be some flying saucer nonsense, but not overwhelming. What? Well, that’s my topic for this month.

What do you do when you get too bored to go on?

That’s the question that hit me this autumn when working on The Saucer Life podcast. I’d been going since 2017–eight years–and had produced over 200 episodes, mini-episodes, and various other things. I’d loved it. I love the research. I loved buying recording studio equipment. I loved the interactions with listeners and–especially–those who had chosen to support my efforts on Patreon. I loved it all. Until I didn’t.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when that happened, or why. There are, however, a few contributing factors I’ve been able to identify:

• Exhausting the good stories: espeically with regard to Contactees, the new stories I would find were… not great. Derivative, boring. No hook.
• My narrow focus: I wasn’t going to do episodes about current UFO events or happenings. I had little interest in interviewing movers and shakers. And I’ve never been in love with abduction tales. Connected to this is the fact that “the field” is–to my mind–so boring now.
• Burnout on the topic: Over the last year, I’d been working on a book chapter about the Detroit Flying Saucer Club for a collection that is now out with peer reviewers. Writing that was like pulling teeth and sapped a lot of the fun out the topic for me.
• Age: Look, 50 isn’t old, but it’s older than the 42 I was when I started. Mental bandwidth gets limited as time goes on and too much of it was being devoted to flying saucers.

All of these sound like cop outs, yes! But apart from my marriage and my job, I don’t think I’ve done anything as long as I did that podcast! Time for a break. Time for new things.

So. What are those new things? Right now, I’m putting the finishing touches on a chapter for the proposed Routledge Handbook of Doctor Who, a subject very dear to my heart. I’ve got some fiction ideas I’m playing with and enjoying writing about things that didn’t happen. You’ll hopefully hearing more about this as time goes on.

And, I’ve still got a couple things coming this month on the Patreon. Not to be all commercial, but there’s still time to sign up and get the last 3 years of bonus content! As I mentioned previously, the episodes of the regular podcast will remain available until I get tired of paying for hosting.

That’s about all for now. It’s the end of the semester and I’ve got a horrible mountain of work hanging over my head. More later. Enjoy the holidays!