Final Acts
DEAD FORMAT filming continues. We’ve had two night shoots this weekend, and are a little behind schedule now, which means night shoots again this evening. Here’s a photo from the set.
(Photo copyright 2025 by Wesley Southard)
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Had a great dinner last night with Jonathan Yudkin, and ended up accidentally being in the background of PBS’s Travels With Darley (which was filming there at the restaurant — John Wright, me and Mary’s favorite place, and where we take anyone who’s visiting). So, when that episode airs you can watch Jonathan drink port over and over again and me drink Knob Creek over and over again, and watch Mary watch us drink those things over and over again.
Mary, Jonathan, Brian (Photo by the DoP for Travels with Darley)
The three of us talked a lot about the things we still want to do. Jonathan has had an amazing career, working with artists like Waylon Jennings and Jerry Reed, recording in places like Abbey Road, scoring films and serving as music supervisor on various projects. He’s been on tour for the last 8 years. Think about that. Those 6 month book signing tours wear me out. Imagine doing it for eight years, non-stop. But he’s off the road now, and swears he’s not touring again, and he’s pondering what to do with the remainder of his creative life, now that he’s at retirement stage.
This is something Mary and I have been pondering, as well, given that we intend to enter our retirement stage by the end of next year.
Artists don’t retire, of course. Not completely. But we do slow down, and wwe reach a point where we remove ourselves from the hustle. And that’s where we are at.
My problem is that I have ideas for maybe 30 or 40 novels still rolling around upstars in my head, but I am fully aware that I will run out of time to write them all. So, I’ve been prioritizing. The final three Labyrinth series novels (FALLING ANGELS, HEAVEN AND HELL, and THE END), the final three Levi Stoltzfus novels (INVISIBLE MONSTERS, BAD GROUND, and HOMECOMING), two seuqels to ISLAND OF THE DEAD, at least 4 more books set in The Lost Level, and that final Rising novel — THE FALL.
And I’m not even confident I’ll get the time to finish all of those.
Retirement will help. Time will be freed up. But it’s still a roll of the dice, right?
It’s a weird feeling knowing that whatever your current work in progress is may also be your final act.