We're halfway through Stargate season 2 and I'd forgotten just how much fun this show is. Likeable characters, fun stories, some great action adventure and excellent lore and setting.

It's such a pleasure to catch up with this again. I miss 20+ episodes of TV in a season.

HE IS THE ONE AND ONLY

One thing I am making sure of is not to mix my fiction with my game design, so my stories will not be based on any existing game worlds or characters, and neither will I use my fiction as the basis of new games or adventures.

I want to keep them seperate. They have different meanings for me.

Now that I'm getting back into fiction writing I've started looking at different publications I can pitch for, and my favourite up to yet has been Clarkesworld. It's a great mix of fiction and articles and it's in an excellent format.

I've got a lot of stories to tell. I have to start somewhere.

I haven't, but thank you for the heads up!

3.2k words now, and I'm about to get to the point of the story. No rush. This kind of thing takes time. I've been writing all my life and I know my limits and the extent of my abilities, and this is my own setting and story so I don't have any safety nets.

But this is for me. Just stay comfortable.

Just me taking my peacock for a walk.

My wife had a go at taking a publicity photo of me. I might use this when I'm important enough to be seen.

I'm visiting Kirby Hall near Corby. It's a stunning Elizabethan house/ruin filled with wonderful inspiration.

You win D&D when everyone wants to come back for the next game.

The MiniSix version from Antipaladin Games is my favourite version of the system - it's short, concise, and covers all kinds of tech levels for pretty much any kind of campaign in any genre.

If I did write a D6-based game I'd use this as my framework.

The D6 System originally developed by West End Games has been my favourite game system since my Star Wars First Edition days, so I'm confused as to why I never designed a game using this mechanic.

The D6 System is open, now, so there's nothing stopping me.

www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/1...

Lol - he is now.

I will, my wife suggested the same.

I've decided to get myself a companion for my office, something to add a bit of colour and glamour to the room.

Everyone say hello to Horatio.

Last night I took the plunge and did the first 1k of a new short story set in a universe that's been bouncing around in my head for a few years.

I always thought of it as a novel but introducing it as a short story feels better. Small steps.

The game that got me through COVID? Dungeon Saga from @manticgames.bsky.social . We played the hell out of it.

It's a great game and it was the game we returned to again and again while we were locked down.

Thanks, Mantic, you got us through a tough time.

One of the greatest views I ever experienced - Tokyo Tower with Mount Fuji in the distance on a wonderful clear day.

This was the view from our hotel lobby. I can't believe it's been more than 2 years since we went. It's one of my favourite places in the world.

All excellent choices.

This is awesome stuff and worth a follow.

Just a quick update on 'A Dark Star To Steer By', my 19th Century tall ships horror game based on my 'Those Dark Places' CASE system - this is with a potential publisher and two playtest groups so there's some forward momentum.

Hopefully I'll have other news soon, but it'll be a while yet.

Okay, I don't usually do serious or introspective posts, especially when it's about my own mental health, but I like to think it might help at least one person in the same place as me, and for them to realise they're not alone.

Anyway, back to my normal posts.

... lack of talent and imagined crowds of people laughing at my attempts.

Maybe some people do, but I don't have time for them. I've got work to do.

Just take it at a step at a time. One word after another. There's no rush. Remember; it's what you want, and if others like it, well, that's a bonus.

... others to probe and criticize and laugh at.

But that's a them problem; I'm writing for me, now, and for what I get out of it. For how it makes me feel. And it took me a long time to get there.

I did waste that time. It was easier for me to run away from it. I'd convinced myself of my...

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... took away from me, undermined my confidence in myself and ruined my enjoyment of writing fiction. All I could do was find the support I needed and face the thing head on. Game writing came easier to me, but fiction writing felt more personal, like I'm opening up a part of myself for...

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... accepted, and I was published in issue #23 and even got a cover credit.

So, last month I renewed my membership with the BSFA after years of being away and I'm taking this confidence forward.

There's a part of me that regrets losing more than a decade of creativity, something my anxiety...

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... plunge; I wrote a short story set in the BattleTech universe and submitted it. I thought I'd write in a universe I knew so I could focus on the story and characters and not so much the setting - like using training wheels - and I submitted it to the magazine 'Shrapnel'.

And they...

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That finally led to bigger and better things. Other publishers and game lines, then Those Dark Places and Pressure, and a goal I never thought I'd reach; I wrote for the ALIEN RPG, my favourite movie and my favourite hobby.

But I hadn't written fiction, I'd written games.

So I took another...

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