We cruised into a second episode for our Beyond The Supernatural role playing game. It was a fun week, even if I struggled with move forward with my character. I made one spectacularly bad roll and earned a new nickname behind the scenes. I am now Mr. 114, however briefly.
If you’re into checking out the game, we’re live on Twitch when we play and then the videos get posted up to the YouTube channel. You can check out the latest episode here:
The Plymouth Meeting Meeting – The Ether Network
A few days ago I posted about how great it felt to be gearing up to be a player in a Dungeons and Dragons game again. It was a really cool feeling I haven’t had for quite some time.
About that game… turns out that less than half of us really *know* 5th Edition rules. I was digging into the PHB and working hard at catching up when there was a choice made. That choice was to switch to a different game that others had a level of comfort with. We were assured this was not a bait and switch, but a temporary move to avoid losing the momentum our game had picked up.
Suddenly I spun about and landed in a supernatural horror game set in the modern day, albeit and alternate (darker if you can believe that) version of today’s world. The twist on this game for me? We live streamed the game while we were playing. We’re on a Twitch channel. When the games are finished, they live on Twitch for a while and then are moved over to a YouTube channel. It was a new and fun thing. IF you’re at all interested, hop on over and check out the video:
One of my favorite authors once said, “I don’t have a muse, I have a mortgage”.
I struggle with this constantly. I really am a mood based writer. It’s terrible because there are times when something springs forth from my forehead as if a Greek god headache has produced something whole and complete. There are other times when I simply can not force myself to sit at the keys and work.
I think that’s a significant part of this. It IS work. There is time and effort and a willingness to give up a piece of yourself to the consumption of others. It is draining to me. I’ve heard of others that are energized by the completion of some piece of their art but when I am finished working on something like this I am spent. Pouring out some of myself onto a page is a challenge, but I really do love to tell a good story.
I’ve got a story that’s been “in production” for a quite a long time now. No, not the 2 novels that I’ve been so called writing for a decade now. A story. I know there’s a seed of a good idea in this story, but it’s just not working.
Today I think I caught a little of the right mood. I listened to a scary story. I know – sounds childish to say it that way, but that’s what it really is. It’s a scary story. There are a large number of other scary stories where I found this one. The particular scary story I found happened to be ‘Take a Walk In The Night, My Love‘. It’s from the podcast Pseudopod as presented by Escape Artists ~ folks who deliver some genuinely excellent content all the time. I mean consistently over years. Go, support them.
I’ve never been good at telling a scary story. I’ve got an excellent handle on the ridiculous. That’s easy, I just have human interaction, mess it up the way I normally do and then write that down. Easy. Scaring somebody? Scaring somebody is a far more challenging concept ~ at least to me.
So here, on a bright, sunny summer afternoon I sit behind the keys and attempt to tell a scary story. I’ll let you know if it turns out to be as scary as I hope.