It’s Been A While

It has been a while since I’ve been here. The break has been because of multiple factors keeping my focus elsewhere. Excluding dealing with the tax man, leaving me constantly drained of money, I’ve been focused on more creative things.

One of the main things I did this summer was set-up my little writing corner. The problem with my main website, Pyrais’ Corner, is that it has banners, being a free site. I wanted a clean site just to showcase my writing. So until I can afford my own hosting & domain, I am using a little part of the Brutopia website I am maintaining.

And through the site, I can set things up because I have started to work on an idea for a children’s book with a buddy at work. Back in July, when he told me he was starting to work on one for a Canadian publishing company, Lone Pine, an idea came to me here at home.

I have a couple of books on Amerindian folktales. I did a quick search on Amazon, and checked out a couple of books stores and saw that there aren’t many books out there retelling these tales for a younger audience. So I proposed I adapted a few while Leon illustrates it.

Now that Leon has finished his book, he can start this new project. Hopefully, in a little while, I can meet with one of the guys from Lone Pine, pitch the idea and see if they are interested. I’ve adapted four stories as an example and the first drafts are in my little corner.

The second major creative thrust has been role-playing. About 10 years ago, I was a game master for a group. We were playing Dungeons and Dragons. It wound down then and I stopped playing. Well my buddy at work, Jason, suggested I might be interested in getting back in with him for a different role-playing game called Shadowrun. A role-playing game that mixes elements of the Matrix, Bladerunner and Dungeons & Dragons.

I was a little hesitant because it had been 10 years since I role-played and also most of that time, I was the game master. I was in charge, I was the god of the campaign. I hadn’t played a character in a long, long time. But I went for it.

Thing is about role-playing is, to do it right, you need to get into character. As I have told people who don’t know about role-playing, the players are improvisational actors and the gaming master is the script-writer and director. A good player is the developed character, not him/herself.

So I am playing Gideon Kingswell, a lawyer who is trying to make the world a better place. The first couple of games were a bit cranky because I didn’t have a good handle on the character.
But as I always do, I started to create background and details about this character. Doing this allows me and Jason to know more about the character and let’s Jason have fun bringing people my character knows.

And I hit my stride last game. I know I’m getting into the character when my character does things and I just shake my head thinking it was a stupid thing to do. That happened last game, when Gideon tried a gambit with some operatives and I, as Loekie, knew it was risky and potentially dumb. But in Gideon’s mind, it was the obvious choice.

And of course, as I am building up Gideon, it means using the web to collect data and information. So I created a small website for myself and the other players called The Darkness. If you are into role playing, check it out.

Finally, the last creative thrust is getting back into Tangled Threads. During a burst of cleaning in my room, I started to go through oodles of hand-written notes and old notes I had lost on my hard disk a couple of years ago. By re-entering the old stuff, it has allowed me to rethink and play with the beginning of this massive series again. Maybe now I can get the first section to work!

So all in all, I haven’t really blogged this summer but it has been busy. But with the leaves changing colour and different thoughts going through my mind, I’m back for another little while to add more from my little way of looking at the world.