A Wild Author Appears!

In the immortal words of American rock band Staind’s lead single from their 2001 album Break the Cycle: “It’s been awhile…”

Quarantine has been rough on us all to varying degrees, and having to balance childcare, with work, life, friendships, etc. has left precious little time for writing. At the beginning of this all I gave myself permission to not feel guilty about not producing any new fiction. As expected, it didn’t work.

I feel guilty as hell.

I suppose that’s one of the risk of tying self-worth to productivity. But I’m not here to tell you things you already know, I’m to brush the digital dust off this website and start updating it on a (semi) regular basis again. I’m sure all eight of my followers will approve.

To start this off I’ve got news about two of my stories that recently hit the e-publications--then I’ll end with news of a series of posts I’ve planned on doing, but never quite gotten around to writing. The idea being to weaponized my crippling sense of obligation to force myself to write something, anything.

So, here we go, I guess…

"Valley of the Fallen" by Alexey Shugurov

Firstly, my story: “The Transubstantiation” appeared in the mid-August issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It’s a grimdark military fantasy adjacent piece about a ragtag band of “Glory Hounds” who hunt heroes and carve them up for magical parts. Also there are bloody battles, giants, desperate struggles, and all sorts of darkly textured political drama.

I wrote this piece last year partly to articulate the disaffection (and disappointment) I feel regarding national politics, and partly as a rumination on revolutions and how they’re not done even when they’re “done”. I also wanted to tease out narratives of misrepresentation and bias that I felt were particularly relevant in an era where you have to view everything through a critical lens--especially with the November election weighing heavily on everyone’s thoughts, not to mention what (if any) positive concrete changes a Democratic “win” would bring.

Anyway, I hope the story isn’t as heavy-handed as my explanation of my thought-process.

"Rice Terraces" by Ferdinand Ladera

Secondly, my story: “The Duty of Birds” appeared in the flagship issue of The Year After. It’s a historical fantasy set in mid-19^th century Japan during the Bakumatsu period. Like “Transubstantiation” this one is also about national upheavel--although more as a backdrop. It really centers on the relationship between three generations of women (well, actually spider women) and how they weather the changing political landscape as Japan “embraces modernity”.

I wrote this piece several years ago as a challenge. I’d been reading a lot of Japanese fiction and history, and really got into the idea of crafting a story that was a set of nested shikotenketsu. I’m not sure exactly how well I pulled that aspect off, but I’m pretty proud of the end result regardless.

Portrait of the Author as a Young(er) ManLastly, I’ve long considered writing a series of posts about tabletop roleplaying games. I write genre fiction, sure…but the reason I was put on this earth was to RUN GAMES. I still remember my first D&D book; picked up off the racks of a used book store in the early 90’s it had no cover and someone had colored in all the pictures with marker. Still, it was the greatest thing I’d ever seen in my whole damn life. I started running for my friends and family shortly after and have never looked back.

The series I’ve always wanted to write is: “Gaming 201”. Y’know, there are a lot of posts, videos, podcasts, blogs, etc directed toward basic Gamemastering--but apart from esoteric stuff I haven’t found much that bridge the gap between fundamentals and academic game theory. These will be more an exercise in keeping my writing skills sharp by talking about something that I love, as opposed to LET ME TELL YOU HOW TO PLAY GAMES GOOD--style articles.  

I don’t know how many there will be, but I’ve got ideas for at least a half-dozen. So…well…maybe a half-dozen? In any case, my plan is to keep them to a few hundred words so that you all don’t feel like your time has been wasted.

Anyway, I’m sure a lot of you out there have been gaming longer, and know a lot more than I do. Please contact me, I’d love to hear about your tricks and tips. Seriously.

Seriously.

Until then, I hope you all find ways to stay healthy, solvent, and fulfilled in these troubling, troubling times.