New Media

I’ve been negligent, I know. How are my readers supposed to keep up with all of the awesome stuff I’m doing if I don’t post any links? Bad blogger. Bad.

One thing I think I forgot to mention: I’ve been writing new fiction with my friend, Rob, over at The Island of Misfit Stories. I’m pretty happy with what I’ve been writing and Rob’s stories are great, too. We choose a different theme every week; read the stories and see if you can guess what it is!

Some of my latest stories:

• A Kiss in the Garden. Actually a poem. It’s probably the sweetest thing I’ve ever written, which isn’t saying much. I don’t usually do sweet.
• Banana Republic. A vaguely Lovecraftian tale of scary stuff in the jungle.
• Ghost Clown. Scooby Doo meets Elmore Leonard.

Meanwhile, over at The Propagandist:

• Cops Intimidate Jews for Talking About Islamic Violence Against Jews. In Canada. Seriously.

The weather in Vancouver has turned a mite chilly lately. But I must not turn on the heat in my place.

I must have patience. Endure the cold. Ignore the frosty numbness.

Eventually, my neighbor downstairs will turn on the heat. Then, I shall have free, toasty warmth all winter long.

If I give up too soon and turn on the heat, my neighbor will bear the benefit. And I… Continue Reading »

My friendly crew of dedicated Tuesday-night RPG gamers has begun a new adventure GM’d by yours truly: Savage Land of Oz, a home-brewed Savage Worlds module set in the fantasy world that apparently is coming back to the big screen sometime soon.

I’ve written some fun little short stories based on the gameplay thus far, in which my buddies have taken over the roles of the Tin Man, Scarecrow, Lion and… some shmoe named Prince Ozra whom I’ve thrown into the mix. If you’re a gamer, these may be of interest:

• Savage Land of Oz Part 1. Emerald City Blues
• Savage Land of Oz Part 2. Return to the Wicked Witch’s Castle
• BONUS MATERIAL for Savage Worlds players: Wild Card Character Descriptions plus Stats

So I had this great idea I was trying to work out for a story where essentially mindless zombies have psychic powers that help them wreak havoc on all other living things. Then I read Stephen King’s Cell a few weeks back and realized the Master of Horror scooped me by about five years. Damnit.

Oh well. Cell was a great read. And naturally, King did it better than I would have.

I’ve gone back to the drawing board and have re-jigged my zombie story. No more psychic powers, but I’m hoping what I’ve got makes them original (because really, at this point, I’d say the market is pretty saturated with plain-old angry biting zombies). Now I have to get it written before Dean Koontz scuppers my plan.

I just finished GM-ing an entire Savage Worlds RPG-adventure called Zombie Run (To this day, I still don’t know if the Zombie Run title is supposed to be like “Cannonball Run” or “Zombie! Run for your life or he’ll eat your brains!”). Every Tuesday night for about two months, the boys and I would play a 2.5 hour session, properly fueled by booze and snacks. As an aid to memory, I grew accustomed to writing a roundup of the gaming session  and emailing it out to the players.

I thought it would be amusing to post all of my notes from the adventure here and see if any other gamers have comments. (Disclaimer: if you’re not an RPG gamer, you can probably skip this blog post). Continue Reading »