Happy Monday. I hope you are staying warm and safe.
In case you missed it, Chapter Sixteen of The Book of the New Moon Door is now live! You can just scroll down from here, or visit the Stories tab above.
I’ll be on Twitch tonight and Saturday night, playing Darkest Dungeon and Calico, respectively. These are two games with a similar premise–the player inherits property from a relative and must perform tasks to improve it–but very different themes and presentation. I hope you’ll join me!
“There’s a message here for you, Sister,” Brother Risoven says.
Isabel looks up from the tiny desk in the chapel’s spare room, on which lies the remains of the sample of red fungus. It is all but entirely crumbled into dust. Risoven stands in the doorway, holding out a small, folded paper sealed with wax.
She takes it. The wax is red, the seal a stylized W set above the image of a fence on what might be a grassy hill. It lifts easily when she slides a finger underneath it. The handwriting is old-fashioned, canted sharply to the left with tall, thin loops.
Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy, “When the Levee Breaks”
Happy Monday! It’s cold both inside and outside my apartment today. I hope you are safe and warm, wherever you may be.
There will be a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door this week on Thursday or Friday, so stop by again! I’ll also be on Twitch this evening and on Saturday.
Happy Monday. I am writing this from underneath a snow drift, so that’s how things are going here.
I’ve been having trouble keeping up with The Book of the New Moon Door along with all my other projects and responsibilities. In order to stay on a predictable schedule, I’m going to be posting a chapter every other week. I’ll revisit this when I finish the current draft of my book, either going back to a chapter a week or starting a new project to alternate with it. I am planning on starting the sequel to Beyond the Frost-Cold Sea in the spring, so keep an eye out for that.
So, with that being said, there won’t be a new chapter up this week. The next chapter will be up next week, probably Wednesday.
In the meantime, I’ll be on Twitch tonight playing a game–I haven’t decided which yet. If you haven’t visited the Tea and Sidequests channel, you’re missing out, because we are a delight.
Berend turns on his heel and starts walking north again, between rows of leaning Shell District construction. He places one foot in front of the other, parallel with the dirty gutter, and at each cross street he moves from one corner to the next, careful not to give himself even the chance to make an unintended turn.
This route should lead him to the place where the Shell district and the West Gate meet, just outside the Temple District. It might not be exactly where he was turned around before, but it should be close. Would he see some kind of shimmering barrier, like in the old stories? Three days ago, he wouldn’t have believed it. Now he’s ready to believe anything. It’s a dangerous state to be in, and he knows it.
I’m not going mad, I’m not going mad, he says to himself with each careful step. There’s an explanation and I’m going to find it.
Happy Monday! It is fully winter now, and pervasively, oppressively gray everywhere I look, but I’m trying to stay positive. Please enjoy this song.
I’ll be on Twitch tonight playing Darkest Dungeon! I will also be back here later this week with another chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door. Check back soon!
Have an excellent week, whatever the weather is where you are.
Berend wakes up from the sort of dreamless, black unconsciousness he cultivated on long marches as a young man. As much as the discoveries of last night—indeed, of the last few days—unsettled him, his body needed sleep, and would get it however it could.
He picks himself up and goes to the door of his room. On the floor outside is a tray, with a dish of still-cold butter and another with several pieces of hearty brown bread. An envelope sits between the plates. Berend’s other clothes, now clean of the dust and rot of the manor and its ghost, lie in a neatly folded stack to one side.
Happy Monday. It’s also Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. As the Southern Poverty Law Center likes to say, today, the march continues.
There will be a new chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door sometime this week. While you’re waiting, check out the Storiestab above to catch up on anything you missed 🙂
I was considering posting either Annie Lennox or the Talking Heads’ version, but decided to go with the original.
It’s Monday again.
Here are two things I’m going to be doing this week, and I would like to gently encourage you to do the same:
First, I’m going to be contacting my Senatorsand Representatives, and encouraging them to take action to investigate the attempted fascist coup on the Capitol and remove the president from office. The links there will help you find your congresspeople and get in touch with them.
Second, I’m going to be practicing self-care and getting plenty of rest. The work of restoring democracy and creating the equal and just future we imagine continues and will go on, and we won’t be able to do that work if we all get ill. We are still in a pandemic.
With that being said, I’m unsure if I will be able to get another chapter of The Book of the New Moon Door up this week. If not, I’ll be sure to post one next week and try to resume a regular schedule.
Tea and Sidequests will be streaming tonight and Saturday night, 6-8 pm. Tonight’s game will be Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord, and Saturday should be a return to Darkest Dungeon. If you have the time and inclination, we’d love it if you’d stop by.
I hope you are healthy and safe. Have an excellent week.
Space Whales Press 