Mutant Pizza

Hi there everyone,

Welcome to the first edition of The Monthly Crust, my newsletter about book writin’ and board game designin’. Each month, I’ll share what I’m working on and a little, tiny, window into what I’m doing. This is me trying something new for the new year, why not?

As you may know, just before Christmas I gave myself the gifts of simplicity and union. I decided to merge my separate websites, social media accounts, and other nonsense relating to creative writing and board game design into one solid entity: Mutant Pizza. What is Mutant Pizza, really? I already answered that question, but suffice to say, these Internet places where you may have learned about the board games I’ve been working on, or the stories I’ve been writing, has become your one-stop spot. These newsletters will be about one thing: whatever I want to drone on about. “Whatever I want” typically ends up being many things, including contradictory statements.

Here I will prattle on about the board games I’m working on, the books I’m writing, and any other special projects I might want to mention. Let’s get this new year started right with some fiction and game discussions, woo!

Let’s talk about what I’m writing reading first

If it’s one thing I know about readers, it’s that they don’t like reading — so I’ll talk about my writing projects first.

I actually want to take a moment to talk about what I’m reading first. I’ve been rereading East of West, currently on tome two. I’ve forgotten how snappy and well drawn this comic is, and the intriguing alternate history setting has us explore a vastly different North America. As an illustrator, I hope to be able to draw comics with the same amount of uniqueness and clarity.

I’m also reading Orbital by Samantha Harvey. It’s an emotional slice-of-life journey into the hearts and minds of astronauts aboard the ISS. It’s a great display of what being in space for long periods of time does to people, of what it’s like to be roommates with strangers who are very unlike one another, of how people find the strength to persevere under such stressful conditions. At the time of me writing this, I’m about a third of the way through the book. It’s a great read; I recommend it!

Okay, let’s actually talk about what I’m writing

So much! A couple of months ago, I finished three short story drafts. One of them finished several rounds of editing and I submitted it to a magazine. It was rejected, but that’s the business. Writers get their material rejected more often than accepted. Much more often. My goal this year is to submit my stories at least fifty times. This year, I want to deplete my backlog of short stories so I can move on to some of the bigger projects I have in mind.

Right now, I’m working on a story about a pirate radio station playing banned music in the shadow of a solar empire. It’s fun to write, especially the bits where I invent bands and musicians and songs. Incorporating music and poetry into a story gives it a fun break from the normal pacing and tone that surrounds it. I’m always taken back to Frodo hearing the elves sing on the road ahead as he journeyed to Rivendell.

I’ve got a few other stories to write, which will likely take most of January and February, but as the spring approaches, I hope to get started on writing the sequel to The Aether, and publishing that alongside a second addition of The Aether.

For 2025, my goals are more short stories and more submissions, and finishing the story that I started with The Aether back in 2021.

Board games board games board games

Last year, I did an inventory of sorts of the games projects I’m working on. I have seven games that are in some state or another, but I’m actively focusing on two games this year: Escape the Entity (a two player cat and mouse game set in space) and a game I’m calling “Psychic Battle” until I can come up with a better title. I don’t have many new developments on the former since right now I’m in the nitty-gritty phase of tweaking numbers here and there to make for a fair experience for both players. Suffice to say, designing asymmetric board games is a challenge. I want to get a new version of it to the table to playtest soon, so I’m hoping to have some updates on it by mid-January.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about Psychic Battles, a two player tableau builder where you use aspects of reality itself to destroy your opponent. It’s been an interesting experience to design and the game has a unique form of strategy that I haven’t really seen. It’s less about “positioning” yourself advantageously, as there’s no physical board or movement, and it’s more about deciding when to build up your health, attack, and energy stats to overcome your opponent.

And now I slink back into my pizza box to tinker with stories and games. Expect a newsletter each month under the Mutant Pizza moniker, but I also keep an active log of design journals for my games, so you might be bothered with a detailed post about those.

Before I go, though, I wanted to mention that I’m not sure whether I want to post any of my stories or artwork on my site anymore. With the way AI is quickly devouring the Internet whole, I’m far more cautious about what I post and where. I’ve also been working to de-digitize my life a bit more and really focus on developing meaningful experiences and connections. I hope y’all can understand.

Until next time…