Narzack

July has been a pretty busy month for me.  First, my little brother came down to visit, which was awesome.   The first night he was here, we got well drunk for our Canadia Day cast.  In fact, he pounded, like, seven of my shots like a monster and had nary a hangover the next day.  Then, we went to Medieval Times- his first, my second.  It was great.  The food was delicious, our knight- red- was imperious as heck, and I got to yell.  It was so much fun.  Then, we went to the beach for the Fourth of July. Went swimming, got hammered by waves, nearly lost all our clothes and towels in the surf and then chilled in the pool for a bit.  After that, we had some tasty food and then watched the fireworks.  Also, we saw a motorcycle on fire on the way home.  Kinda looked like the Ghost Rider had a bit too much to drink and crashed.

Then we did a tabletop night, and the following day we took Keith to Kesh.  On Sunday, we had the premiere for Lots Caste.  It went so well, better than we ever thought.  Jerry did an awesome job with the catering.  Everyone loved it.  I was really pleased that both Miguel and Luis were able to come.  On Monday, we went out to a place that Valentine knows and set off the rest of the fireworks we’d bought.  It was so much fun.  We had giant screamers that soared into the air and detonated like real fireworks, roman candles, bottle rockets that we stuffed into a can and set off all at once, little firecrackers like you see in movies, and totally rad mortars that THUMP when they fire off and explode like bombs in the air.  Those were by far our favorite, and when I travel up to PA I’m going to buy a bunch that we can fire off.

After all that awesomeness, including a trip to Congo River Golf, I had to take Keith back to the airport, which was a real bummer.  It had been a really great week, and it was very good to see him.  I miss my family a lot sometimes, and seeing them, even briefly, is a balm to my soul.

After seeing Keith off, I had a day to laze about and do nothing, then it was off to Daytona to start prepping for Unknotted 2.0.  About two days of cleaning, decorating, dressing, and troubleshooting.    I don’t want to go too much into what it was on here, just in case anyone ends up playing in the next iteration, but it was nearly perfect.  I kept a record of my entire experience as a tech for the weekend and we will be using it to prepare for the next release.  Haley really built an amazing game.  Every participant was completely wowed by the experience.  She and Gogas put in over five months of work, and it really showed.  Gogas’ work was dizzying in its complexity and cleverness. 

Once we wrapped on Unknotted, I had a weekend of OLD, then I had to write my Hunter game.  I have six players, three of whom had not ever played in a Hunter game before.  I worked really hard on it, because I feel like Haley and Andrew have independently set bars pretty high.  It wasn’t a perfect game, but it went well.  And, luckily, I understand what could use shoring up for the next session.  I’ll be working on those areas while writing the next session, which should be in about two weeks.

So, in addition to all that, plus the cast, I’ve entered into an agreement with Haley, Bailey, and Emery to write a monthly short story, basically emulating The Inklings.  Our first genre was horror.  I wrote something in the genre, but not scary, as I’d hoped.  Honestly, I haven’t been able to write anything since around 2007, so the fact that I was able to actually finish a story was enough to keep me in high spirits for at least a day.  It was thrilling to be able to get to the end and think ‘done.’  It’s been years since I’ve felt that.  What a great feeling.  So, while my story isn’t scary, I’m happy with it.  Because it’s complete.  And, I’m looking forward to reading the others’ works.

Oh, yeah.  Haley and I also recorded a test podcast.  And we’ve also been keeping up with the cast.  Goonch’s birthday was a lot of fun- a lot of alcohol was slung about that night.  We played God of War 2 for Haley’s dad, and have been working through Brutal Legend, which has such great atmosphere and writing.  All in all, pretty busy, and what’s cool about it all is that it’s all been busy in a content-creation sort of way.  I like that.  

EDIT- Oh my gosh!  I forgot one of the best parts!  I met and got Doug Smith’s autograph!!!  I bought three ACTUAL production cels used for Golden Boy!  AND HE SIGNED THEM!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Narzack

I am so happy to be typing this write now: I am writing again.  Can you believe it?  For the first time in something like seven years, I’ve actually been able to put words and sentences together to form coherent thoughts!  And I’m not fighting to do it, either.  Not anymore, at least.  Something happened to me, I don’t quite know what.  And now, I feel like I can write again.

I know that the Stinklings must have helped in a major way.  Yeah, I know, I know, I’m not the first to come up with that name, but I did come up with it on my own, and that’s good enough for me.  Inspired by the Inklings, Emery, Haley, and I have started our own private little literary group.  We’ve decided to pick a genre, take a month to write a story in that genre, and then read and critique each other’s works.   

Our very first genre is horror.  And, while my story isn’t very scary, I’m completely thrilled that I actually wrote one; it’s has been so long.  I think I may have figured out what has been going wrong for these past seven years.  A little thing known as distraction.  You see, normally what happens is that I write a thought or a sentence, and then immediately take a mental break.  What this means is that I alt-tab and read email or news or any other thing available on the web. 

This time, however, whenever I automatically went to minimize the window and do something else, I forced myself not to, and continued to write.  It was weird at first, almost like swallowing bile, but eventually, the urge sort of abated.  Now, it’s barely there, the desire to get distracted.  The result is that I am able to write again.  Not terribly well, mind you, but enough to give me hope again. I look forward to at least getting back to where I was freshman year of college, which I feel was when I was at the top of my game.

I’m currently working on another scary story, this time trying my damnedest to make it scary.  I’m trying to incorporate a lot of the little things that scare me, and hopefully this will translate to a reader.

As I said, we’re casting Brutal Legend, which is a great game hampered by some gameplay choices that I don’t quite agree with.  Which is a shame, since I love the story, writing, characters, music, and setting.  Jack Black really does make a fantastic lead. 

Tonight is our first readthrough with the cast of our next Not One Zombie film.  Very excited!

Heh, as you can see, I have a long road ahead of me, writing-wise.  But, this time, I have a bike.