Well, we're once more around the sun. I must admit that it's been quite a year. As you can see, I haven't posted much on this blog because I've been so busy lately. Flat moving tends to have that effect (with no shortage of stresses before, during, and after).
One big thing was the release of The Lady's Favour, my latest Kestrel and Scar book. This wasn't a new story, but rather a collection with the three stories I've previously published: "Gentlemen of Fortune", "The Pirate King", and "The Homecoming". Seems a bit odd, but it was a way for the latter two stories to have a physical release (I initially only published them as e-books because Amazon's paperback formatting is a ballache).
I tried starting a new story with my swashbuckling rogues in November as part of a new writing challenge called "First Draft Fall", but the ideas weren't really flowing beyond Kestrel and Scar going on what's essentially a double date with a similar adventuring duo. I might look over some of the other dormant story ideas I started while I think more about this one.
As for my other projects, I'm still working on my comic fantasy RPG, Misadventures in Planaterra. I'm stuck in a world-building rabbit hole while trying to come up with some travel encounters for the various regions. I've also recently started working on a new adventure for the setting which I came up with while teaching a course at Swanwick on writing for TTRPGs. I hope to have "The Curse of Faltitek" in a state of completion by September so I can test it at my local rpg group.
On the subject of RPGs, I also had my first taste of Actual Plays (recorded sessions), as part of a group known as the Denizens. I played in a campaign of Edge of the Empire, which is now on YouTube, and also ran one of my adventures for them. I'm currently taking part in a more esoteric game called "Scum and Vindaloo", a campaign in the Scum and Villainy sci-fi rpg in which everyone's a character from Red Dwarf (I'm playing Rimmer). I look forward to trying out new systems, and might run something else for them in the near future.
For now, I've been spending the last few days of the year watching the Lord of the Rings films. Until then, I'll see you in 2025.
