Merry Christmas Eve!
As promised, I have been working on a third story in The Pandaskunk Saga, which I started back in 2012 with a short story called The Gift of the Pandaskunk. I was inspired by the strange acid trip that is the “It’s Christmas Time Again” music video. I have adored the song since day one, but the video has always made me wonder, WTF??? So one day, when I was home sick with the flu and doped up on drugs, I decided to write a story that would attempt to explain certain seemingly random aspects of the video, such as the flying panda with the fluffy skunk tail, the rocket ship, etc. It started as a simple parody of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, my favorite of the Rankin-Bass stop-frame animation Christmas specials, and became so much more. To this day, I’m not sure how I managed to churn the whole thing out in two days while I was sick enough to miss work, which I rarely do, but I think the combination of medication and a high fever must have worked to my advantage because it’s actually one of my favorite things I’ve ever written. I don’t write comedy very often, so it’s always fun when I can venture outside of my sadness cave and be creative in a different way.
In 2014, I got the idea for a sequel, which I started before Christmas and didn’t finish until February. Return of the Pandaskunk is significantly longer than its predecessor, in terms of word count, and even more random. It parodies so many different books, movies, and more, yet somehow it all works together in a weird way that sort of makes sense if you can accept the inherent silliness of it all.
I’ve always wanted to turn this pair of stories into a trilogy, but I knew I needed to wait for the right idea to come along so the third story could live up to the other two. Finally, a few weeks ago, inspiration struck! The first two stories were inspired by what was happening in the fandom at the time, as well as current events and pop culture, and this one was the same way. Shoutout to Aaron Carter and Melissa Schuman, whose recent shenanigans gave me the spark of an idea I needed to come up with a storyline. Without spoiling anything, I can tell you that they will both play a part in this latest piece of satire I’ve started writing. Though some may find it inappropriate for me to make light of the serious issues Aaron is currently struggling with, I wish him no ill will and hope he gets the help he so desperately needs, not just for his own sake, but for the sake of his family as well.
With all that being said, my Christmas gift to you is the Prologue and Part I of my new story, The Year Without a Pandaskunk. I’m far from finishing it, and, like the last one, it’s likely I’ll be writing it into February because I have a lot more planned for it. But I wanted to at least get the beginning posted before Christmas. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep updating it at least weekly, but it’s too soon to make any promises.
I hope everyone has a happy holiday!