Category: Blog Maintenance

There will be a new chapter this week

…but it might not be until Friday. Or possibly the weekend. Yesterday was a long day, and it looks like it’s going to be a long week.

Hang in there, take care of yourself, and I will be back with more things to read soon!

New project!

Next week, I’ll be starting a new multi-chapter story, The Book of the New Moon Door. As always, it’ll be completely free to read, and released one chapter a week on Wednesdays until further notice.

The world is changing.

The old orders of the world fade away. The church’s power wanes, replaced by secular states. Magic gives way to science.

Berend was once a member of the Sons of Galaser, the most prestigious mercenary company on the continent. Now, the Sons are no more, and only a handful of his former companions remain, one of whom was dismembered last night in what appears to be a demon-summoning ritual out of an old legend.

Isabel is a Sentinel of Ondir, the god of death. Armed with bell, book, and candle, her job is to send restless spirits to the afterlife–and there has been much need of that, of late. Asking the ghost of a murdered ex-mercenary if he saw his killer before he died is a simple task, but she soon finds that things will not be so easy: though everything Isabel knows tells her it’s impossible, it appears his soul has been damaged.

As Berend and Isabel search for a murderer who can dismember a soul, and navigate their places in the changing world, they discover the terrible secrets hidden behind the veil of progress.

Construction complete!

You may notice a change of decoration! Also, all my writing has been updated with new tags. You can find the tag cloud at the bottom of the page.

Construction update

You may notice that there is now a “Stories” and a “Modules” tab above! You will find Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and Love Song in Six Verses under “Stories,” and The Well Below the Valley under “Modules.” Each chapter’s Table of Contents link will now go to the proper new spot.

All the images on the blog should now have descriptions in the alt-text, and there is an extra picture of my cats on the About Me page.

I’ll be working on tags and the color scheme next!

Impending blog construction

I started this blog a little less than a year ago with two large projects in the works: The Well Below the Valley and Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea. Now that both of them are finished, it’s time to revisit the blog’s structure and make some improvements.

  • Most importantly, the “Read my writing” tab will be divided into two tabs, one for stories and one for tabletop modules. As I write more projects and make them available, this will make navigation easier for readers.
  • Tables of Contents will migrate to their new tabs, and the links at the top of individual chapters will be rerouted to the new pages.
  • I will be adding image descriptions to all the pictures on the blog to make them more accessible.
  • I will revisit my post tags and try to add more, to make individual posts easier to find.
  • The “About me” page will be updated. Possibly with additional cat photos.
  • I’ll try out some new color schemes and see if a new one would help with readability and general aesthetics.

New things that will be coming in the next month or so:

  • Singer Lake, a one-shot campaign module for the Chronicles of Darkness/New World of Darkness system.
  • Something video game related? Possibly videos? I keep saying that I’m going try to start streaming again.
  • A new long-form story! It’ll be a surprise! (There will eventually be a sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea. I don’t know if you’ll read this statement as a reassurance or a threat, but there it is.)

If you’ve been reading the blog (or are here for the first time), and you have thoughts about how it can be more readable and easier to navigate, feel free to let me know!

Song of the Week

Kate Bush, “Jig of Life”

Happy Monday! I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

Until further notice, the plan is to post a new chapter of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea every Wednesday until it’s finished. I’m not sure how many more chapters that will be; I think we’re past the halfway point, but not by much. It’s turned out to be much longer than I had originally thought, but I’m having fun with it, and I hope you are too.

I am no longer able to stream on Twitch because my internet connection, while free of charge, is not very fast. I end up being more than an hour ahead of the upload, so I can’t chat in real time with any viewers. To pass the time while I’m socially distancing, I’ve decided to upload some gaming videos to YouTube instead, and make them available here on the blog also. I think I’ll be playing Myst: Masterpiece Edition, for a bit of nostalgia, but I’ll have to check if it works on my computer first. You can expect the first video to make an appearance on Friday!

Have an excellent week, and don’t forget to wash your hands!

Song of the Week

Phildel, “Afraid of the Dark”

Happy Monday!

After some deliberation, I’ve decided to divide Chapter Four of The Well Below the Valley into two parts. Part One will be up Wednesday. It’s a bit shorter than these parts usually are, but I think getting all the setting up out of the way before I take you into the final dungeon will work better than doing it all at once. This also means that I’ll be on my alternating schedule of The Well and Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea for another few weeks yet.

I hope everyone has an excellent week!

The Well Below the Valley has returned

I’ve finished my edits, and all the links on the table of contents are now active again!

I made a few new handouts, and moved some clues around in Chapter One: The Souls of the Heathens to make the mystery both more mysterious and more solvable. Chapter Two: Green Grows the Lily is also available again.

You can go here to start the module from the very beginning, here to begin with Chapter One, and here to start Chapter Two. As always, all available material is accessible from the “Read my writing” tab at the top of the blog.

I’m back on my alternating schedule from here on out. Next Wednesday, I’ll post a chapter of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea, and I’ll be back the week after to start Chapter Three of this module, “The Singer of Tales.”

Enjoy!

Year in Review, part the second

2019 is finally over. It felt like February for about three months back there, and then it was August for a while, I guess, but time marches on regardless of whether I’m ready for it or even paying attention.

I did actually manage to accomplish a few things this year:

  • I started this blog, for one.
  • I’ve published 11 chapters of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea here, as well as all the introductory material and two full chapters of The Well Below the Valley.
  • The latter is now hidden, because I did a scary thing and applied to host games at Midwinter Gaming Convention, and I was accepted! So I’ll be game-mastering Call of Cthulhu at the con in…two and a half weeks.
  • I am 170 pages into the second draft of my first book
  • I streamed many hours of Enderal: Forgotten Stories on Twitch, before being forced to stop by poor internet speeds.
  • I attempted NaNoWriMo for the first time and won!
  • I moved across town with my family.
  • I finally found a combination of medications that allows me to both get things done and sleep soundly, with side effects I can live with.

So, next year I’m going to try to keep this going. To that end, I hope to:

  • Finish this draft of my book, send it along to my beta readers, and get it ready for publication.
  • Do an awesome job at Call of Cthulhu at Midwinter.
  • Sing more, because it makes me happy and while I’m not good, I’m not so bad that it’s actively harmful to listen to.
  • Get back into playing the piano.
  • Finish Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and get all the chapters of both that and The Well Below the Valley up here for your reading pleasure.
  • Maybe start a new free story?

Happy New Year! I hope 2020 brings everyone all the blessings they could want.

Surely I shall be punished for my hubris

I decided yesterday morning that I will be participating in NaNoWriMo this year.

Now, I’m not sure how well that will work out, because my little family is moving house this month, and there will be much to do as the holidays approach, but I decided that I’d rather fail than regret not trying, so here we are.

If you’re not familiar with National Novel Writing Month, the event challenges writers to complete 50,000 words (enough for a short novel or a solid novella) within the 30 days of November. This works out to 1667 words a day, or 2380 if you take weekends off.

I’m going to be dividing these words between my manuscript and Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea. The Well Below the Valley is already written, though it continues to take some effort to format for the blog.

New chapters of Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea and The Well Below the Valley will continue posting on alternate Wednesdays. I will also be checking in on Fridays and tracking progress toward that 50k goal. Wish me luck! And if you have experience with NaNo, I encourage you to please tell me your wisdom. This is my first time.

(Edited to fix math fail)