Dancing the mea culpa Giving yourself grace is such a boring present

My latest is up at Fire Escape! It’s about neurodivergence, memory, and guilt. Also crimson desert. Also St Jerome?

I’m just a colony of bees in the shape of a girl, standing in front of a boy who is actually a hollow tree trunk, asking him to house the roiling multitudes.

Woman looking at a cat perched on her shoulder

This us the best day of my life

I miss Tracy Flick politicians.

Good morning, human! I’ve awoken you at 4:30 am with rhythmic caterwauling! Am I dying? Maybe! Anyway I’ve left you some vomit and a hairball on your pillow! I love youuuuuuu!!!

—my cat, probably

I do what I can!

Christina Ricci is my United States Secretary of War.

Alright y’all this is a small thing but an easy one

Stop buying books from Amazon

Instead buy them from Bookshop.com which supports your local bookstores

Here’s a 20% discount on your first order

refer.bookshop.org/jen52349

Thank you!!! I so appreciate this game and the time effort and skill, it must have taken to put it together!

left that I didn't quite finish that I now have to play the game as econd time. So so so happy. Thank you @esotericebb.bsky.social !!! (12)

More things I loved: organizing dwarves, Urth daddy, robbing my friends, sphynx mommy, some big reveals that are secret, double entendres (my love language), standing up for the little guys, finally getting a pair of boots that made me faster oh my god, talking with the dead, and having so much (11)

I killed so many things! Combat was hard. I often forgot to use my cooler spells and brute forced it. I died a lot. All that is user error. I want to be more creative next time and use grease. (10)

Anyway, very pro flirting. I secured dates with two characters but the love of my life, an angel on earth, was my favorite. I love a terrifying woman. (9)

I got to flirt! You can flirt with certain characters. All of my flirtees were, I think, female. I hope you can also flirt with males but maybe The Cleric is straight? Wait...did I flirt with Meridoc? Not sure. I might have. (8)

I do not have a sense of direction in real life, and not going to lie, on day 4 I was frustrated because I could not find A Thing I needed to proceed. I just knocked around in the dungeon stupidly. I'm looking forward to play #2 b/c I finally understand where things are. (7)

The music is great, and the final song post credits is one I'd spookily sway to in a 90s club playing trip hop. The sound design -- the unsettling WAHahAAAAs that play whenever danger surprises you is fantastic. (6)

which goes along with the art and the bright color scheme. second (and hopefully last) DE comparision: Snell is not Kim Kitsuragi. And that's ok. I love Snell regardless. (but I never wanted Snell and the Cleric to kiss, so you see, that is another way the games diverge) (5)

the game hinges around an election. I don't want to solely compare this to DE, so I'll say one more thing on that score (ok, two) -- DE's MC is a WRECK (we love you harry) and the Cleric is Understandably A Little Traumatized but far more functional. This means that the tone overall is lighter (4)

The world is very developed, and the analogues to present day politics are sharp (and ok, depressing). If DE's politics felt overwhelming, you may find EE's more accessible -- not that they are "dumbed down," but I think there's more of an interest in making sure the reader/player can follow b/c (3)

I struggled initially to figure out what I was supposed to do or how things worked, and that's ok -- we're so used to games with tutorials that hold your hand that the difficulty and surprise of a "figure it out" world can feel uncomfortable. And that's a *good* thing (2)

Y'all, I finished Estoteric Ebb (tagging @esotericebb.bsky.social b/c this is PRAISE).

The people (the people is me) long for a Disco Elysium successor. And if you love Disco E, you'll love EE. BUT it is not merely in the lineage of that great game, but it's own weird delight (1)

I fear it is time. Time for you to preorder my book about lying, falling in love, and disastrous consequences. Is it funny? Yes. Does someone die? Maybe! You’ll never know if you don’t preorder this book and then sleep with it under your pillow. @barnesandnoble.com

You are the best :)

Absolutely not in which our heroine narrowly avoids having several epiphanies

I used to work with @rebeccahazelstaff.bsky.social and she was always charming, both on paper and in person. You all should read her new Substack to see what I mean.

Absolutely not in which our heroine narrowly avoids having several epiphanies

My first post at Fire Escape is live! It's about the genesis of this newsletter, and how to survive as a neurodivergent writer. All creatives and brains welcome!
rebeccastaffordauthor.substack.com/p/absolutely...

Kurosawa on watching Solaris with Tarkovsky

@esotericebb.bsky.social is such an amazing game. I’m on day 4 and it’s going very badly for my future wizard overlord.

About - Fire Escape Learning about how to be a neurodivergent writer without burning out. Join me and enable my task avoidance. Click to read Fire Escape, by Rebecca Stafford, a Substack publication. Launched a year ago.

I regret to inform you that I'm starting a Substack. It's called Fire Escape — about writing without burning out, especially if your brain makes that harder than it needs to be.

Please subscribe so you can regret it later.

First post Monday

I meant to repost earlier in the week but belatedly I will say this is the culmination of my life’s work

Old lady in a short dress.

I swear I had a more conservative outfit for my AWP panel today but @rebeccahazelstaff.bsky.social preferred this one.