Telltale Games has a lot going for them. Their Poker Night games demonstrate some pretty solid design choices, while The Walking Dead is one of the best storytelling experiences I’ve had gaming in recent memory. Adventure games, to me, remain a charming and underrated way of combining gameplay with story, ensuring our actions and choices… Continue reading First Impressions: The Wolf Among Us
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From the Vault: Show (Don't Tell) Your Work
This is a rough time of year for me. Doubly so this year. In lieu of the usual writerly advice, here’s a tidbit plucked from a NaNoWriMo of yesteryear. Please to enjoy. Staring the month with a little advice. So NaNoWriMo is beginning and a lot of you out there are taking freshly-sharpened pencils to… Continue reading From the Vault: Show (Don't Tell) Your Work
A Peek at Godslayer
I may not be participating in NaNoWriMo to its letters, but with Cold Streets rewritten to the point of demanding test readers (more on Friday), it’s time to turn my attention to my un-rewritten fantasy novel Godslayer. It doesn’t count as NaNoWriMo because (1) technically parts of it were already written before November, and (2)… Continue reading A Peek at Godslayer
Writer Report: NaNoWriNO
Don’t get me wrong. I know a lot of people out there are getting right into NaNoWriMo as I write this. I support the endeavor 100%, and I think it’s a great idea. 1000 words a day for 30 days is a daunting prospect, but it can be done. Arguably, it should be done, because… Continue reading Writer Report: NaNoWriNO
The Creeps
Slasher movies and torture porn will always have their place at Halloween and in the hearts and minds of horror fans. For me, effective and lasting horror does not necessarily have anything to do with buckets of blood or how stomach-turning the visuals are. Sometimes, the most penetrating stories of terror have less to do… Continue reading The Creeps
Movie Review: Bram Stoker's Dracula
It may be hard to realize for some young folks these days, but vampires didn’t always sparkle. Nor did they collectively get obsessed with a particular young woman who happens to have really tasty blood or a particular smell. The roots of the vampire tale go deep, and one of the earliest tales to reach… Continue reading Movie Review: Bram Stoker's Dracula
What Characters Say
“Supernatural” has some great exchanges. There are many people who come to mind that prefer dialog in prose to description. Even peers of mine find it much easier to write dialog than long narrative passages. The difficulty in writing dialog well is twofold: Making conversations clear, and making them feel natural. Both of these challenges,… Continue reading What Characters Say
Flash Fiction: Mission to Sirius
This week, for The Subgenre Smash-And-Grab, the d20 Ring picked Space Opera and Technothriller. The intelligence report appeared one letter after another on Commander Dane’s data-pad, red letters turning green as they were decrypted by the star cruiser Intrepid‘s onboard AI. He frowned, and turned to the lieutenant keeping pace with him as he strode… Continue reading Flash Fiction: Mission to Sirius
Writer Report: Long Hours, Long Days
It is my sincerest hope that this week was an aberration, and not the template for what’s to come between now and January (or even February depending on how busy things become). Weekend work combined with long days requiring intense focus have left me somewhat drained. I also hope I’m not sounding too much like… Continue reading Writer Report: Long Hours, Long Days
From the Vault: Death & Consequences
Dayjob demands have put me way behind in several ways. As I struggle to recover & catch up, here’s an entry from last year that I feel is still relevant. One of these soldiers is likely to die. There’s just something about a game, or story, that doesn’t pull its punches. I get a feeling… Continue reading From the Vault: Death & Consequences
