William Shatner wants you to be safe, damn it!
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Category Archives: Games
A new link in my sidebar.
So over there on the right side of the page you’ll see I added a link to the website, Darths and Droids. It is a web comic satirizing Star Wars as a loosely run RPG.
This web comic is not for everyone, but man I have found it hilarious. I was pointed towards it by my long time gaming buddy Tom. (not my brother Tom, or my nephew Tommy, or my brother-in-law Thom, or even my other gaming buddy Tom.)
If you have done a lot of RPGs, and I mean table top not on a computer screen, and have endured the Star Wars prequels, then this web comic is likely to hit your sweet spot. This fictional RPG game actually make much more sense than the prequels ever have.
If you decide to give it a spin it really is best to go to the archives and start from the beginning. I did and in two days I burned my way to current.
A very Good Weekend
This past weekend here in San Diego we had a fine little SF convention named Conjecture. Our Guest Of Honor was SF Author Allen Steele. This was a rather different experience for me than other local smaller cons as I was on five panels during the three days of the convention, three on friday afternoon and two On Sunday afternoon.
I had a blast. I moderated one panel and while my lack of knowledge on the subject could have doomed the panel, I had some great panelist, including Hugo award winning author Verner Vinge, and they saved my bacon. I must say that being on a panel in many ways is much more fun than watching a panel. When the odd idea or random connections occurs to me because of the conversation of the panelists I don’t have to hold back, or hold my hand up to offer a shortened thought, now I can speak my mind. (yeah I know that is a dangerous thing.)
Today I managed to get back into the swing of writing too. Nearly 1000 words on a new short story that I had failed to launch three times before. If I can get it into shape in time this one might go to the Writers of The Future now that I am no so mad at them anymore.
Been away from my blog
After finishing Love & Loyalty I kind of took a break from writing in general including my blog. This will not last long, writers have to write even if no one reads it.
I’ve started a short story called The Old and The Dead which is a zombie story set in a retirement home. The initial 750 words seemed to go over well last night at the writer’s group.
My anthology Horseshoes & Hand Grenades: Tales of technology and terror has begun shipping to the major ebook retailers. In about two weeks I’ll make the official announcement that it is ready and you’ll be able to purchase it from the major retailers for just 99 cents.
I still have not taken my post novel treat. I was very seriously leaning towards the Vegas trip, machine-guns and Manilow, but without a bird to keep her company I know my sweetie-wife would get very lonely, so I’ll defer that trip to the distant future. (like six or more months.) So now I am leaning towards the Universal Studios Trip. That would be just a day trip.
After a stint of short story writing I plan to return to the Nationalized Space setting for another Seth Jackson novel, m,ost likely Command And Control. (Wow, something about my titles lately run to the & format.)
A pleasant Saturday
Even though I have a spot of back pain today has been a fairly pleasant afternoon. My sweetie-wife and I watched a 60′s caper/comedy called Gambit. It stars Michael Caine and Shirley MacClaine, though we were more amused by the three supports all who had appeared as guest stars in the Original Star Trek series. So the caper/Comedy had a god like alien, a mass murderer, and a swindler as supporting cast.
Now I am off to a Sheena Easton concert here in San Diego. Good night all.
Looking forward…
…to a good night or violent board and card games.
Another good day
I had a slight twinge of a headache this morning, but a quick dose of my Rx killed that damnable thing before it could form. The mort irritating thing I have had to deal with is being do throughly tired today. For some unfathomable reason I could not get to sleep last night.
I crawled into bed, sleepy, about my usual time, 11 pm, but I could not get to sleep until past 1am. I dragged today, but still sleepy is better than living with a migraine.
Tonight I got another chapter edited, the final author’s note added to Horseshoe & Hand Grenades, and more ground work laid out for my D&D game, so I am not complaining. I expect to turn H&H over to my sweetie-wife for copyediting on saturday, then once she has finished with it and I have entered to changes, optimistically I am expecting few, it will register for my copyright notice and start formatting for publication. Maybe two or three weeks and it should eb available for sale. I’m still thinking 99 cents.
Glorious Day!
So I saw my headache doctor today. (To be pedantic, I saw the Physician’s Assistant, but she is sharp and on the ball so I am happy with her work.) The chain migraine were simply unbearable and growing in strength. Soon I would have been missing work at my day job, you know, the one that actually pays the bills. So I arranged for a few hours off this morning and went for help.
Help I got.
I am current taking three medications to break the wide swath of inflammation that is apparently marching across my the surface of my brain as Nazis did across Europe. One pill combines two medications into a horse pill of operatic size, then there is another medication that I took a lot of today, I will take less on each day that follows until I am taking none by Monday.
This combination is working because for most of today I have been pain free. Of it is glorious to be back. Now, I am tired, my sleep has been disturbed, but man I feel so much better.
Tonight I actually got editing done on Love & Loyalty, a new chapter fully corrected and ready for placement in the final novel. I got more work done on Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, that should be ready for my sweetie-wifes cool corrections by the weekend. AND I got some cool idea put into place for my D&D (3.5 edition) game for this weekend.
All in all, as Boromir is wont to say in extended versions of the films, “Today is a good day.”
Still Busy
Today I visited my headache doctor, met with his physician’s assistant and we went over my progress. It’s been over two weeks without any headaches and that has made me really happy.
I have continued to work on Love and Loyalty. I will certainly be re-ordering the events of the novel based on the feedback from my writers group, but I still hope to have a beta copy ready in a couple of months.
Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is coming along. I’m learning how to operate photoshop. I have plans for combining elements from a couple of NASA photos to create my no-cost cover. This experiment in self-publishing is going to end up costing nothing but time.
I watched part of movie Sunday night, but grew too tired to finish it. That is a shame cause 1941 is one of my favorite films.
Apologies
Sorry for having been absent from my blog the last couple of days, however life has been sick and busy.
The cold I have is slowly, and that is the operative word, slowly, receding away. However I still end the day tired and without any get up and go.
Saturday in addition to dealing with the cold, I had the taxes to finalized and file. Yeah, I love writing checks to the government. Also on Saturday we finalized arrangements to replace all the windows in the condo. The windows we currently have were installed when the condo was built, 1977. They rattled in a breeze and barely muffle any sound at all from the quite busy streets and freeways near our home. Replacing the windows is, of course, expensive, but it is something we have wanted to do from the time we moved into this place. We’re getting dual paned, argon-filled, casement windows that should look handsome and stop heat and sound from traipsing back and forth like invited vampires.
I’ve also been working on the short story anthology, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. I’ve done a light edit to the stories, just spelling and grammar, and now I am working on cover art and author’s notes. I hope to have it ready for sale via Barnes & Noble and Amazon soon (weeks not days).
I have also continued work on the newest version of Love & Loyalty. A whole new chapter has been written and now needs to be edited.
So you see, I have not been lazy.