Interview notes (January 2023)

Interview notes (January 2023)

Tell me about yourself

"Tell me about yourself. Not as the chronicler, that’ll come later, but as the person."

I was born in Minneapolis in 1961. Grew up in a middle-class household in a nice neighborhood. My parents were both liberal intellectuals who encouraged reading, art, science — whatever I wanted to study, they encouraged it.

My dad read science fiction, so I was exposed at an early age to the works of Philip K. Dick, John Brunner, and Bruce Sterling, among other writers.

Satire appealed to me very early in life. I remember being eight or nine years old. My dad worked for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, so we got the paper delivered free. Dad had a custom: on Sunday mornings, he would make a big skillet breakfast for the family, with cinnamon rolls and orange juice. After breakfast we would all — Mom, Dad, my brother Geoff, and myself — would sit down in the living room and read the Sunday paper. For the kids, this meant reading the funny pages. Then the real fun began. Dad would pull out this book of classical art prints, so thick old volume. He would pick out some particular plate: I recall one with Napoleon atop a rearing horse. Dad would pick a comic panel, carefully cut out a talk balloon, and paste it over Napoleon's head. I forget what the talk bubble said, but whatever it was, we found it hilarious.

Another pleasure from around that time was Wacky Packages. Oh, I loved Wacky Packages!

Where I'm from

"Now tell me a bit about where you’re from! What it’s like, what does it mean to you , any particular places you love visiting?"

What I do with the Gnomon Chronicles

"Explain to the readers what it is you do with the Gnomon Chronicles. Just give a lowdown of what it is"

An idea will come to me, for example the title of an imaginary movie, say two real movies, the source movies, mashed together.

Usually the first thing I do is create folders on my computer desktop: one for the imaginary movie, one for each of the real movies (if I don't already have them on file). I download links and images for the real movies. I mashup images from the two movies to make my new movie poster. I do much of my work in GIMP; occasionally I use an online editor for simple mashups.

Now that I have a title and poster for my imaginary movie, I may upload the image to the Gnomon Chronicles wiki, and create a new wiki page with the article, title, and a description of the movie.

Or, I might wait to make the wiki page, and first post my fictional movie to Twitter and other social media. I like to accompany the post with links to YouTube showing trailers for, or scenes from the two source movies. Then some time later I will make the wiki page, in which case I make another Twitter post, this time including the link to the wiki page.

When I create the wiki page, I cross-reference it to one or more (usually two, to start) other Chronicles. The images and a brief description for the other Chronicles appear in the "In the News" section of each wiki page. The idea here is that the reader is presented with thumbnail images of other Chronicles: bright shiny objects to follow. My hope is that readers who enjoy this kind of thing will click from page to page to page, one Chronicle after another.

There is one more step to a complete Chronicle: making it appear on the wiki home page at least once a year (typically three times a years). The home page is made up of a series of date-coded templates, one for each day of the year. So for example there are 365 templates for "Better Than News", 365 for "Beyond Plausible", and so on. The home page displays the templates for that day. I'll add the new movie post with brief description to (say) three "Better Than News" templates, spaced roughly four months apart. I like three: not to often, but more often than once a year.

The point is for the home page of the wiki to have fresh material every day. As long as I keep adding new material, the page you see today will be different from the page you saw a year ago. This allows me to publish fresh material while making good use of old material.

That's about it. That's a Chronicle: at least, a movie mashup Chronicle. I do a lot of movie mashups, but there are other kinds as well: essays, photographs, drawings, nonfiction articles, and so on. These will have wiki pages, and cross-references to other Chronicles, but not always images.

Name

"Where did the name Gnomon Chronicles come from?"

"Gnomon Chronicles" began as a title for the imprint of an original comic book series. I was working with an illustrator around 2014, kicking around ideas for stories which I would write and he would illustrate. That project fizzled out, but the name stuck.

Inspiration

"What inspired you to take up the gnomon chronicles ? It’s something you are clearly very dedicated to, so it couldn’t have been a simple decision … or was it?"

Synchronization

"Have the gnomon chronicles site and twitter page always been in unison? Did one come first , or do you prioritise one over the other etc?"

Aims

"What is it you aim to do with the gnomon chronicles? Is it for personal pleasure, or to entertain others? I’m intrigued."

I take pleasure in what I do, but I am doing it for others. I want to entertain people. Entertain, and inform.

Some authors write short stories. Some write novels. Some write plays or poems or scripts.

I write my Chronicles.

Which tweets do I reply to?

"I often find your satirical posts in replies to tweets that perhaps wouldn’t be expecting it to respond to them. How do you decide which tweets to respond to with your satirical media?"

What keeps my twitter account going

"What is it that keeps this account going. A lot of online personalities maintain their accounts to ensure a constantly growing level of engagement , but if you don’t mind me saying (and I mean this with no disrespect of course), you haven’t got the largest level of consistent engagement , at least if one was to look at every piece of satire you post . Do you ever think about this or take it into account?"

Online community

"I’ve noticed in my time following you that you’ve cultivated a very lovely online community that stays in touch through twitter posts and threads . Do you feel you’ve found people on twitter that you would genuinely call friends? Or do you more see them as followers."

Trouble

"Have you ever had any trouble online, with trolls or bothersome personalities? If so, how do you deal with them?"

How to people feel

"How do the people in your life feel about the Gnomon Chronicles?"

Personal updates

"Alongside the usual satirical posts , you often provide lovely updates on what you’re up to , what the weather is like or how your day has been. Do you find this is important to the idea of the gnomon chronicles / building a community, or is there a different motivation for this."

Inventing movies

"You are a man who spends his time inventing movies , so I must take some time to ask you about them. Firstly, how up to date are you with popular culture? Do you make an effort to keep on top of the latest releases for the account, or do you simply watch what you want to and build on that."

Favorite films

"What would you say are some of your favourite films ? Tell me and the readers why it is you love them."

Inspirations

"Do you have an inspiration for what you do ? Someone or something that made you think, 'I could do this'!"

Inspirational words

"Words of inspiration for readers on doing what they love?"

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Gnomon Chronicles (nonfiction)

External links

• [ Post] @ Twitter (30 January 2023)