Mutant Pizza

Happy Spring, folks!

Ah, flowers are blooming and trees are waking up, and my eyes and sinuses are inflamed with beauty and histamine reactions. It’s truly a grand time, despite the political and general human turmoil — no, it’s a grand time IN SPITE of that. I refuse to let morons destroy my ability to stop and smell, and sneeze at, the roses.

I like talking about the storytelling media I consume during these newsletters; allow me this comfort.

I’ve finished reading Beta Vulgaris by Margie Sarsfield. It’s fantastic. The book touches on the budding internet culture my millennial sensibilities were exposed to in my twenties but also articulates the nihilism that we US millennials have felt, watching our American Dream™ dissolve in prolonged war, economic collapse, and religious supremacist extremism. It’s truly a tragic book, I highly recommend it.

I’m still working through Room to Dream, David Lynch’s biography. It’s a rather large book, partially because Lynch lived a full life, partially because of the unique format to the book. The biographer, Kristine McKenna, does her research and writes a chapter representing a chronological stretch of Lynch’s life — that’s normal biography stuff, I think. (I don’t read many biographies.) Then, Lynch writes a response chapter to what McKenna wrote, adding the color of his personal perspective to the research she did. I love the format, but it is like I’m reading two biographies in different writing styles but with repetitious details, sewn together in a single tome.

I’ve also finished the game Wanderstop. I recommend it for anyone looking at a cozy but introspective game about pushing oneself too hard for the grind and suffering burnout, as well as toxic ‘can do’ optimism. I will say that the game sticks heavily to its loop of harvesting ingredients and following recipes. But just when this formula is about to grow tiresome, the game ends, so the pacing is good.

I’ve started playing a new game, Pentiment, set in the early-to-mid 1500s Bavaria in a small town. It’s an interesting side-scrolling RPG with the art direction inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts. It’s a beautiful game with many colorful characters. You play an artist being mentored by a monk at an abbey. A baron visits the town to check up on a manuscript they had commissioned when, suddenly, the baron is murdered! Your mentor implicated in the crime, you task yourself with investigating whodoneit. What’s interesting about this game is that you’re able to gather clues: motive, alibi, physical ability, etc and accuse someone else of the crime, but you never get solid enough evidence to know whether you’re right or not. It makes you as the player approach every situation with caution and uncertainty, and creates an interesting tension in the game. So far, I’m on Act IV, out of I don’t know how many acts, and I’m sucked into the story’s twists and turns.

Enough dithering, on to other business

There’s something in the air…productivity! Here’s a summary of what I’ve been working on this month.

Board games board games board games

It’s all I can think about! BOARD GAMES. Right now, I’m focusing on getting Color Space ready to sell at an indie market at this year’s PAX West. The gameplay is 95% settled, with only some minor decisions that need to be made around an aspect of the game. I’m soon going to focus on the look of the game, mainly how I want to paint the wooden tiles. Should they be bright and pop-y or have more of a wood stained look? Should I stamp designs on the tiles like I had in the early early versions of the game, use a stencil and paint, or refrain from putting designs on them altogether? Those are some things I’ve got to figure out soon so I can take photos and video of the game to show off.

If you’re going to PAX West this year, please check out the indie market on that Saturday. (I’ll give you dates and times when we get closer to August.)

There’s another game that I may have ready in time to sell at PAX West, I haven’t started a design journal on it yet — I’ll get around to it. It’s an 18-card party game about designing icons for dinguses. It’s still in its infancy but the gameplay is progressing at a rapid pace. I’ll share more about it later in a design journal. Right now, though, my focus is on Color Space.

Writing writing writing

It’s all I can think about! I’ve written a few new short stories this year and I’ve been submitting them to various publications. My goal for all of 2025 is to write short stories and submit them to magazines and anthologies. I’m also looking to get out there and connect more on a personal level. The board game community here in the Pacific Northwest is strong and supportive, and I’m looking for something like that with writing. But finding such a community here has been difficult. I’d love to be a part of a writers group, but every group I see is more about keeping one another accountable to word count goals and writing in cafes. I don’t need to be pushed to write, I write nonstop. What I’d like is a small group of people to share drafts with and bounce ideas off of and provide rounds of feedback with. Maybe I’ll find what I’m looking for someday, but that hasn’t happened yet.

This spring and summer, though, I’ll be going out and reading some stories at various open mics that allow for such a thing. I haven’t had time to do that yet, what with the writing and board game designing and getting Color Space ready for PAX West, but within the next few weeks I’ll be out and about.

I still have ambitions to produce a second edition of The Aether, along with a sequel to that story. I’ve spoken with my inner self and we’ve decided to not impose unnecessary deadlines on ourselves, so The Aether might not see the light of day until the end of this year or some time next year. I’ve got to get those short stories out first!

Art art art

It’s all I can think about! I’ve decided to submit some of my art to magazines to see if there are any takers on my work. This is new to me and I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I thought since I have a bunch of pieces lying around, I might as well give it a shot. I don’t have much to report on this front but I’ll let you know if something interesting happens. Who knows where it’ll go?

I’ll leave you with one of the pieces I submitted to a magazine, from my Overworld collection.

The end the end the end

It’s all I can think about! That’s all, folks. Until next time.