It’s funny how I spent months trying to think up a unified brand name to encompass all my creative projects and plans, and then have it come to me in a flash of inspiration. I was listening to a World of Warcraft podcast, and at the end, the host was listing various other podcasts. As I pondered their naming schemes, I reflected on how I called my first apartment my keep, a term referring to the inner fortifications of a castle. My keep marked my first time living alone and I made it an expression of myself, with posters of Kate Bush, Jesus and Mary Chain, X-Men, and prints by artist Patrick Nagel (yes, it was the 80s). For whatever reason, my brain transitioned from there to my wife’s explanation of the Geek Forest, where reading Harry Potter puts you along the treeline, but LARPing and cosplay sets you deep in the dark woods. In that moment, I saw sharing my struggles and progress to becoming a creator as inviting readers to venture deep into the keep of my imagination, and a brand was born.
Deep In The Keep serves as my studio across all media, including Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Beyond my first novel and new screenplay, production plans include blogging, two webcomics, an animation series, and a possible live action series, and to exercise a different part of my brain, I have embarked on a 1,000 photograph series of the break room at work, to be found on my Instagram (along with general, everyday entries). I have written of plans in the past, but having them all under a single banner provides a energized sense of commitment and focus.
Maybe it is unreasonable to work on so many different venues of expression, but I’m not a young man and with every passing day, the battle cry of “Why the hell not?” resounds louder in my heart and head. These projects all represent new learning experiences, challenges to be taken up, and though I may not master them, I feel personally enriched putting myself out there and having the opportunity to connect with fellow creators.
I don’t want to start rambling so I will wrap it up here. Thank you for dropping by and I hope we meet again along this journey.