Post-Necon (Sort of)

Journal 59 18-24 July 2022

This would have been the journal where I talked about all of the awesome things that happened at necon this year, but I did not get to attend. I’m sad, but the funny thig is I’m usually even sadder on the Sunday when I have to leave everyone behind.

In this case it’s just the same dull ache I’ve had missing all of my friends for the last three years, versus the euphoria of seeing them for 4-days and then having to say good-bye.  So, this year I don’t have the week-long depression… BUT I also don’t have the massive kick in the ass to write that I usually generate from necon either.

I mean, I have been producing words every week for the last four years without problem, plus all my school work, essays, and other such even before that. But this next week is probably going to see a massive drop off of words. I have to catch up on everything I’ve been putting aside, and to be honest the heat wave has really stopped a lot of work.

But I’m digressing, we’re not here to talk about the week ahead, we’re here to talk about the week behind.

WORDS

Still inspired by James Moore posting his word counts on his social media I made a hard push this week to try to catch up to him while he was away at Necon. So, let’s get right to it.

I knocked out chapters 11 and 12 this week. Hammering out 11,122 total words.

The novel now sits at 71,474 words and I started laying some of the symbolism and foreshadowing of things to come from BOTH sides of the narrative. I like to reveal information that informs on the other narrative, so, for example, in story A they’re looking for a character that has a forbidden talent in magic. But then in story B the characters meet someone who talks about various schools of magic and the most forbidden one of all. Now the readers have some clues and details from story B that the characters in story A are going to stumble and wrongly theorize about. I’ve had several pre-readers tell me that they often enjoy the feeling of knowing something the characters they’re reading about don’t. Some have even said that they laughed at the false theories or made fun of the characters.

You know, stuff like, ‘ha ha, I know what’s behind that door and you just aren’t ready.” I think it is like the literary equivalent of yelling at the movie screen. I kind of like that.

Where the story is going

I have both storylines in a headlong rush toward one another, though I don’t think I’ve been handling the timing perfectly. Like storyline B is almost a month ahead of A, and I’m trying to be subtle about that. It’s the one thing I never developed in my world and that is a new calendar. In my notes I just use real world equivalents, April, May, June… but for a fantasy world it just feels a little off.

I have been trying to remove a lot of European influences on my world, but at the same time it was first created when I was about 14… and the whole previous book takes place in a country called Aegyptus that is very much fantasy Egypt straight up. Sigh. So, I have to choose my battles. I only ever mention the seasons and how many weeks past the last snow into spring am I…?

Gaming

So, this week started out a little sad for gaming. My regular Tuesday game was great, but I knew that my monthly Curse of Strahd game was happening without me at Necon, and my Saturday game was canceled due to one of the players being at Necon and myself having to work till close because my co-worker is on vacation.

The Curse of Strahd game seems to have gone amazingly well. I received a bunch of pics from the game. The DM went above and beyond and set up an entire table of Dwarven Forge dungeons and unique minis and made a whole production of it.

I talked with my DM in advance to sideline my character and from all reports it was a hellish deal with Hags that sent them running through this super dungeon. I’m sad to have missed it but delighted that everyone survived and accomplished all of our goals.

On the flip side, because I missed two games this week and because I had to work at the store on a Sunday (normally a day off) I got to run a Call of Cthulhu game for a bunch of people who have never played before.

Cthulhu Session

I’m still rusty behind the DM/Keeper screen. I spent more than a decade away from running games, then I ran TORG for about a year. There is a whole section of this site devoted to those gaming sessions. Suffice that game came to a close when the pandemic hit and we stopped in-person gaming. For the last year I’ve really wanted to run either Cthulhu or D&D again, but I prefer the in-person appeal. Mostly because I build the world and the frame work and then usually do a lot of improv work. (and I’ll admit because I don’t really want to learn how to set everything up on roll20… but I might have to just get over that I guess).

In any case it was a blast. I had some investigators looking for a missing person, but only a couple of them knew the person and they recruited a stranger to help them. I knew I had the right atmosphere when they discovered the body of the missing person and the “stranger”—a handy man who helped them break into a building after they convinced them that “bad guys” were doing “bad things” within. Up to finding the body, the place was deserted and weird and just creepy. But as soon as they found the remain, the handyman let out a “WTF!?”

The other players tried to mollify the character… “Bad guys doing bad things.” And “It’s a cult!”

To which my Handyman replied—IN and OUT of character—“No. What the F did I just get into.” Suffice, the player is hooked and wants to do it again.

I still feel I have a lot of rust to kick off, but playing with people who have never really role played before has been good for me.

Hobby and Digressions

I haven’t done much else other than write and sweat for the last two weeks. This week I might have to push away from the keyboard and work on some other projects. So, things might slow down a little. Not having AC in my current writing area and very slowly working on my new office is slowing everything down. I will just say that the novel might slow to a crawl for the next few weeks, but I will bare it all for you.

Thanks for reading this far and I hope you’re all writing or gaming or whatever else drew you to this site, I hope I’m fulfilling something in you. Be well, keep writing, and say hi sometime.