Snow, Holidays, and Pigs in the Nightland

It's the last day of November 2022 and it's snowing like crazy here in my part of the PNW. I won't lie, it puts me in a bit of the holiday spirit. This weekend, I just might put up the holiday glitz after all! (Every year, I consider giving the decorations a pass; every year, I usually end up blowing the holiday hose all over the house.)

A holiday tradition I used to have and don't do too often anymore is making oyster stew. I don't do it much anymore because everyone in my life these days detests it; if I make it, I end up eating all of it myself, like a pig in a candy shop.

Speaking of pigs eating candy... well, speaking of a pig plushie and a cupcake cafe visited in the land of dreams, my last novel scene posted Patreon just minutes ago follows the Dreamrider, who's trying find out about those outlaw lucids who so rudely ejected him from the Nightland the previous evening!

[Art by Dall-E "toy pig plushie eating a strawberry cupcake"]

Monsters under the Rock

I've spent the last week in Madison, Wisconsin. I attended, along with many other MCGers, a convention known as Gamehole Con. If you follow any of my other social media, you'll see that I have posted many pictures from this fabulous time. Alex, the guy behind this whole convention is a gracious, wonderful host. The con is laid back, game focused, and so positive that I can't wait to come again next year.

After the con, we took an extra day to travel about an hour to someplace called House on the Rock. I knew nothing about this place before hand. I actually thought it would probably be something like when I visited Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Chicago. "Something like" is not quite correct. If you have never gone before, I don't want to ruin the surprise. Much. All I will reveal is this crazy tableau I found somewhere on the premises. If you think this looks big, you're probably underestimating its true size by about 10-fold.

Anyway, today is a travel day. Tomorrow I should be back in my home office, working on Weird MCG stuff. And of course, Deamrider in the Nightland.

Solarians, Unite!

Hello, Earthlings!

One day I'm hoping humans become multi-planetary. If that happens, "Earthling" won't work as an inclusive greeting any longer. We'll need a new one. How about "Solarian?" Sounds like the name of an alien from a 1950s-era radio play. But what else would you call people inhabiting worlds and space habitats around a star called Sol? 

Exactly. Please consider yourself a Solarian from now on.

This weekend and last I've spent several hours doing yard improvement. I won't lie; things had gotten a little out of control. I  always have these aspirations, "in the future, I will do some yard work." But it turns out that for me, nebulous plans like that rarely come to fruition. So starting a couple of weeks ago, I've dedicated myself to spending the first couple of hours each weekend morning on yard improvement. So far, so good. Next weekend, in addition to more weeding and trimming, maybe some ground cover seeding. Batgirl and I are fans of clover and periwinkle.

P.S. Patreon plug follows hereafter.

Speaking of doing physical work in the real world, Baz Preston (who you may know as the Dreamrider from my current Patreon novel) returned to the Wake in Chapter 2, scene 1. And now he's ready to head out on his day job. He's still all about helping people, but his position is less elevated than in the Nightland. 

[Photo by Sam Loyd on Unsplash]

Graduation Gift

Greetings from the unending rain-drenched Pacific Northwest.

Batgirl's youngest is graduating high school. Last night, she was awarded a couple of awards for a high grade point average, and for another thing that I sadly can't recall and am unable to find in the moment. Let's say it was for saving puppies! Here she is going up to accept her award.

The actual graduation ceremony is Saturday. She's attending UW and even has a small scholarship for the business school. 

When I graduated high school, one of my relatives got me a $50 dollar savings bond. I'd like to continue that tradition, but these days, it's difficult to get paper bonds except under specific circumstances. Much easier to get electronic bonds. But you can only do that if you set yourself up with an electronic account, and I can't do that for her. So I've decided to give her a check for sweet cash instead. Free and clear, BUT if she uses that to open and fund a Roth IRA (which I'll offer to walk her through), I'll match the size of the first check, doubling the amount, all to go into a no-load S&P 500 index fund, of course. I'm hoping that she's going to business school, she'll be open to experimenting herself with how the magic of compound interest grows wealth over the years. 

But if not, she'll have some extra money :).

Dreamrider in the Nightland, scene 1

Hello Earthlings! 

Guess what? It's Bruce Day! On this day some number of decades ago, Sharon Mack gave birth to her firstborn. Thank you, Mom.

To celebrate, I'm posting the first scene from the first chapter of my first new novel (...since the last one I finished). I'm super excited to be making daily, if gradual, progress on the new hotness:

A patron-only post featuring an excerpt from Dreamrider in the Nightland.

[Photo by Joshua Earle on Unsplash]

The New Scheme

Is this real or the Nightland?

Hello friends, family, and all you aliens listening in from the dark energy network. 

Guess what? I've just made a design turnover of draft 1 of The Planar Bestiary to the managing editor (Teri Litorco) at MCG. You know, my day job. The bestiary is a trove of monsters gathered from across the planes of existence. Hear that pleasant birdsong outside the window at the inn? Maybe it’s a warbler. But maybe it’s an abolisher of sorrow, a songbird out of the Feywild whose pleasant faerie melodies erase character memories so pleasantly they don’t realize they’re dying.

Anyhow, I'm going to take a few days away from the MCG campus to relax. Although you know what I'm also going to do? Spend the not inconsiderable time necessary to find, prep, and send out The Ark of Broken Dreams to three new prospective agents.

But as importantly, and a lot more fun, I'm going to keep working on my next novel, Dreamrider in the Nightland.

All of which is to say, I'm going to start up my Patreon again in May, posting first draft scenes from the novel as I finish them there. If you're game, I'd very much appreciate your support there. If you've already supported me, or are still supporting me, thank you so much!

[Photo by Duncan Adler on Unsplash]