I wonder how many years ago I first made the announcement: “Something new is coming from the Litkicks laboratory”. I’ve been cooking up a secret project for a while, and I’ve really lost track of all the times I thought I was close to launching this thing.

Maybe the first teaser was this one, from January 2012, in which I hinted that I was looking for new ways to use the blog format to present a unique form of philosophical expression. Then there was this one, from six months down the road, when I was looking to bust out with a new blogging format but clearly hadn’t actually drawn any closer to the big dream. Life intervenes, you know? I’ve often had to put family and work ahead of my creative plans, though I never stopped advancing in small steps. This has been a long time coming.

Well, my friends, next week I’m actually going to launch the thing I’ve been promising for a while. Yes, really. And I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I am about it.

When I stopped running Philosophy Weekend blog posts every weekend, it wasn’t because I had lost interest in topics involving social philosophy, pacifism and ethics. Rather, I was yearning for a more solid platform from which to write about these topics, which (honestly) often interest me as much as topics involving fiction and poetry.

I’m particularly interested in social philosophy as it relates to current politics, because I believe that despite widespread popular cynicism we are living in an age of fast-moving positive change, and I’m pretty sure it’s our personal beliefs, assumptions and ideals that drive this change. There is nothing we can do more to help the world at this point in history, it seems to me, than to examine our philosophical and existential assumptions as closely and thoughtfully as possible. We should also encourage each other to examine philosophical and existential assumptions with us, because it is only through the power of community and shared ideas that we will be able to make a difference.

And we will make a difference. And that’s why I’m extremely excited to announce that Literary Kicks is going to be the launching pad for something very big, very cool and very new … and it’s all going down right here next week.

This new launch is the work of a team, but it also will be a big and very meaningful personal milestone for me. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I’m nervous about letting this thing fly. I’ve been putting a lot of my entire life behind this secret project for a while now, and at times the journey has been rough. But that’s what it takes to create something new, and I think we’ve finally got the formula right for something special. I hope you will like it and participate in it. Needless to say, stay tuned.