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On the one hand, I am delighted that I was able to finish the Realist’s Guide to the Fantastical World. As an idea, a travel-guide to a fantasy world has been rattling around in my brain for years, and when completing anything has been a struggle for me, to actually finish something is a significant victory.

On the other hand, I fought with myself while writing it. I struggled between writing a guide that was more accessible, and connected to the real world in some exotic or esoteric way; and a much more extravagant world full of different species, monsters, magic, and more.

Let me tell you something about having social trauma.

It does cruel things to you. The constant bullying teaches you that you are doing something wrong, while tricking you into thinking that if you behaved “correctly” you’d be accepted, make friends, and not be tormented on a daily basis. It makes you crave validation — or even just confirmation — that you’re doing “human” correctly. (This is also likely exacerbated by autism, if you happen to have it.) Even friendly jokes can be salt in an oft-opened wound.

At the exact same time, it teaches you that social interactions are dangerous. If you make a mistake, you will be hurt, physically or emotionally. You pull away from attention and mistrust your self-confidence. You lean against the wall and wait for others to approach, because even introducing yourself is risky. You get a reputation for being standoffish, elitist, or smug.

And so my Travel Guide to Places that Don’t Exist is completed.

Well, completed is probably not the right term. One of the positives surrounding a fake travel-guide like this is that you can always add a new place or attraction, slotting it in wherever you like.

Will I do that? Possibly. Not for a while though, because I have something…a bit larger in mind for my next project. How large? Well, let’s just say I’ve never posted a project as I was working on it. Thankfully, I’ve always had a backlog of stories that I’ve “finished,” so I’ve always been able to relax and put the time into writing without worrying about any self-imposed posting schedule.

That’s going to change a bit. This next project is…let’s be kind and just call it unfinished. A lot of work is going to go into it, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep a three-times-a-week posting schedule on this project alone…so I’m going to start only posting it once a week, on Saturdays. Tuesdays and Thursdays will be focused on posting/archiving old work, and any one-shot short stories I come up with.

Long Ago and Far Away was an old PBS show hosted by James Earl Jones. With a brief introduction, the show was a vehicle for children’s stories, oftentimes from foreign countries or based on old folk-tales.

I had an old VHS with several of the shows recorded on it, and I watched it regularly. One of the introductions had James Earl Jones reading an atlas, looking at maps of far-off lands including “The Cheese Palace of Pushka, capital of Brotzt,” “the Kingdom of Zeep,” and the “Outer Minor Mutaan Islands.”

Being old enough to know a bit of geography, I knew these were made up places; but as Mr. Jones said, after wondering why he had never heard of these places before: “but that doesn’t mean I can’t imagine what it would like to visit.”

That idea has stuck with me for over thirty years, and so here is my own atlas, which I flatter myself to think that one day might inspire someone else with places they’ve never been.

Ah, colonialism.

Anti-colonial texts are hard to write, especially when you yourself are a colonialist. In a very real way, anti-colonialism is not my wheelhouse. It is the purview and right of the colonized to write powerful and sweeping tales of overcoming colonialism, patriarchy, and religious bigotry.

Of course, it is hardly exclusively the duty of the colonized to do all the heavy lifting. Allies must share and uplift the voices of the persecuted, not subsume or claim their words as one’s own.

And naturally, it’s all a spectrum. And boy howdy did I hit the wrong end of the spectrum on my first draft of The Stormcallers.

Hello my fellow goblins!

I will be out of town for the rest of the month, and unable to post as usual. I’ll resume my regular schedule in August, next Saturday.

I’ll see you all then!

About a year ago, I went on a brief hiatus. This was mostly done because I was feeling stressed about the content of my website, and wanted to make sure things were more polished for when I came back.

Of course, thing’s weren’t particularly polished when I came back, but nevertheless.

This time, I am going on hiatus because my new job (and a few other new projects) have cut into my writing time, and I haven’t yet found the new rhythms of my life. I need to

Hey there everyone!

Just to keep you all in the loop, I got a new job recently.

A lot is going through my head about this job. It’s part time work at a library, very neurodivergent friendly, and my supervisor seems incredibly kind, patient, and supportive. I haven’t been out of the apartment in any regular capacity since before the Pandemic; at least 2017, probably earlier if we’re talking daily work. That’s over eight years of isolationist habit I’m working against, and a lot of social fear that I’m coming to terms with.

That’s right, I’m going to design my own RPG.

It’s going to be a process, and certainly take more time to consider all the various issues that crop up. As such, I will be moving the design posts to Saturdays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will begin posting another writing project, Noriama.

As with most of my stories, the idea that struck me first was a retelling, in this case a futuristic look at the vanishing Roanoke colony. What if the first human colony in space suddenly vanished? I had considered putting the colony on Ganymede or Io or some easy in-system rock, but the more research I did, the more I realized that, if we were a rational species, we wouldn’t bother with building an inter-system colony that used people.

Hey folks.

I am heading out of town next week to a place with no cell/internet service, so I will not be posting. Regular posts will continue next Tuesday.

See you then!