Some quick thoughts on being a responsible reviewer:

It is kind of bananas how old the Phantom Project is. I started it in 2007 and could have had toddlers twice between then and now. (I didn't, though, because I'm crochety and I don't have enough love in my entire body to deal with more than one other human being and some cats in my life.) I've reviewed 140 Phantom-related pieces of media since then, and have at least that many more still waiting on my shelf/Kindle/secret porn folder for the future. And I like to think that I've gotten better at it in all that time. In fact, I know I have - there are some old reviews that make me actively cringe at my own writing these days, and a few I downright disagree with now. (Not that I'm taking them down, because darn it, I am my own little slice of academic history in action now.)

But there's "I was not as good a writer then" cringing, and there's "oh, shit, I have grown as a person and realize that was actually offensive" cringing, and while I can rest assured that most of the internet will ignore or quietly grumble to themselves about the first, the second matters a lot more. So today, a little older and wiser, I went through my archives and edited any references to "gypsies" to use the term "Romani" instead.

We talk about "gypsies", a group of people consistently demonized and fabulized in European myth and history right up to the present day, in Phantom-related lit all the time. They, like the Persians, were present in order to provide an element of exotic occultism and mystery in Leroux's novel, and the motif has been repeated through countless descendents of that novel in various ways, most often in connection with a carnival and/or the origin of the Phantom himself. Leroux's book especially is a period piece from a time of staggeringly rampant racism against Romani people, and it along with all the other materials using the word that I run into in this project are still quoted faithfully where applicable. The word is widely considered an ethnic slur now, but it's one that a lot of these materials use.

However, I was also using it as a casual word to describe Romani people in my reviews, without realizing that it was offensive to people of those ethnic groups, and only recently realized how totally not okay that was. So, I won't be doing that anymore, and have removed old places where I did. If any Romani person read those reviews and was hurt or offended, I hope you'll accept my sincere apologies and promise to never do that again.

And now, I will head off to work on a review and hope to do better in the future. I can't time travel to whack my dumbass younger self upside the head with awareness of major social issues, but I can at least take responsibility for fixing her mistakes and hope to not repeat them.

(Of course, another part of being a responsible reviewer would be actually, you know, reviewing things on motherfucking time, but let me try to improve one step at a time here.)

Soooo... I am not dead, but I did have a lot of things that made this project grind to a shrieking halt for the past several months, including an arm that stopped working almost completely and the ensuing no-work financial crash. However, new reviews are on the way. Really. I am a real person saying real things.

In the meantime, have you guys seen this Kickstarter for the phenomenal-looking new proposed Leroux-faithful animated Phantom movie? Because if not, you should! It's right up my alley, of course, but even if you're not into the Leroux-style hijinks, you might want to take a peek at the fun and games.

And now, back to the world of self-pubs, from whence I will soon return with prizes.

BOOM, REVIEW! Yes, I have reviewed twice in one month! I'm back, baby.

...okay, yes, technically today is the first of July, but I finished this review last night and just fell asleep before I remembered I hadn't posted it yet. So I'm calling it a win.

I'm heading off on a long journey into the annals of popular self-pubs now, and I can hardly wait to see what they have in store. Wish me luck!

Aww, snap, new review time. See, I told you I'd make up for lost time! I am a reviewing dynamo!

I'll be doing another movie sent in by yet another awesome fan before my return to the Valleys of the Self-Published, so watch this space. I am not yet done being excellent.

Did you guys have a funeral for me yet? Can I dramatically ruin it?

Okay, so that took way too long and I do not even have a marginally good excuse, so please forgive me for the tardiness of the new review. Feel free to be embarrassed to follow my reviews, because I am plenty embarrassed of myself right now. Three months? You suck, me.

So, to prevent that from happening again, I'm taking a quick break from the swamps of published fanfiction to watch an Italian horror movie. That should get my blood pumping again!

(Man, do you guys remember when I used to be able to get a book review out ever week, but movies took me forever? How the worm has turned.)

Review! Review! Reviewwww!

That book took a long time, but the next one looks slim and I'm hopeful. I've been flagging on pace a little lately, and I'm considering skipping around to different kinds of materials a bit to help keep things fresh. I don't want to do it too much - one of the main points is to review things in order so I can see how they influence each other, after all - but sometimes the impenetrable Forest of Self-Publishing is too deep and dark even for me. I don't need to end up in a Joseph Conrad story.

Happy Valentine's day a week late and two days short to all you beautiful people. If you didn't have a sufficiently romantic time, I suggest marathoning the sappiest Phantom versions!

Aha! A new year, a new book, a new review. Also tons of new Phantom books coming out. Sheesh, don't you guys ever rest? Think of my nerves!

Which are OF STEEL, so it's off to the next book I go!