Hello everyone!

This last week has generally been better.

This are beginning to calm down quite a lot. I think things are returning to normal again. I hope. So posts should start becoming cheerier as the weeks progress.

I found out when my Grandmas's funeral will be - in about a week and a half as of writing - so hopefully that will go smoothly. Family occasions are always fun, aren't they? I say that with a dose of sarcasm, saying that it'll be a funeral.

I think a few folks are starting  to come around to my way of thinking with everything. Whether I had wound myself up a lot about some stuff and began feeling very very bogged down by things could be a factor in this.

I think some of the people hadn't realised they were being, shall we say oblivious? Well, it's said now. I think I probably need to be more blunt with them, but it doesn't help when you're feeling how tough things are and are already bogged down with life and trying to play catch up with so much stuff. I think that's usually a sign I should slow down, but I'm meant to be working with a deadline with some of this stuff, which doesn't help. Thankfully, I think I've managed to move the deadline back a bit and hopefully things aren't going to be so hectic.

So, things are cooling down and I am able to start getting back into a rut with stuff. I think the chaos of changing my sleep pattern so drastically hadn't helped with that. Maybe I should have allowed more time to settle down after that, I'm unsure. Hopefully the last few things will sort themselves out.

Struth, I really dislike winter. Lots of things seem to go wrong and plain just get in the way.

Anyway, I'm beginning to feel like I can actually settle back into work properly without things getting too much.

On some tangent though, the Kickstarter for New Edge Sword &Sorcery, I think I mentioned it last week, but that was fulfilled and is well on its way to completion. I'm looking forward to the first issue coming out in August as Michael Moorcock of Elric of Melnibone fame has agreed to do a story for them. The trial issue can still be bought here. Or if you live in American, from here.

New Edge Sword & Sorcery issue 0
getting ready for issues 1 and 2

Onto writing. I've put a few of the 'not fantasy' stories to one side and returned to my original plan to get another novella sorted so that it can be released alongside one that's already on its way to publication.

Perhaps later today or early tomorrow, I'll have to choose between a ghoul dwarf story, a faery and undead story, and an elf in Hollow Earth story. So if you have any preferences as to which you'd like to see first, please let me know.

Then once its released, I'll get on getting on with other stories. I definitely want to get some ghost stories sorted by early into the new year, but they might well be short stories and I have a couple already half ready, depending on how much I need to re-write them. I'd still like two or three more done along side them.

The wartime village slasher thing I'm not sure what to do with. there was talk of doing it in the style of diary entries, so that could become a social media thing with regular, short entries. I may even get someone else involved with that too.

I'd also like to get the '80s style Corpse Breeches and bogman thing done. That's a story I've been mulling over for a while. But that's on the back burner too until I've got some fantasy stories out. Once I've got the next fantasy novella started, I want to get that and its partially completed companion piece released as soon as I can manage it.

There isn't much to say in regards to wargaming. Plans for things are still ongoing, but I've been struggling withthe whole writing thing, which has gotten in the way.

Oakbound Studio still has it's Kickstarter up for another six days - as of writing - and if you like the idea of having numerous oldhammer orcs, then take a look. There's a regiment builder and weapons options and you can even get a bulk order in. As of writing, they've been doing well and have added a siege tower and a Deep Troll as add-ons. They're also on their way to having an armoured giant as an add-on too. Its a good way to get a oldhammer, warhammer army, in metal for a reasonable price - warlords and wizards sold separately.

Hobgoblins of the Black Waste
a Kickstarter by Oakbound Studio for The Woods
or any self respecting Oldhammer Orc player,

Of course, there is still the option to get a batch for their The Woods skirmish game as hobgoblins, the rules for which will be in a supplement that will be released towards the end of April.

Oakbound Studio is a game I've found delightful and I'm not sure why it's not already become more popular. They were at Salute this year and they managed to get a Scenario into Miniature Wargames magazine, which I got a copy of.

A The Woods scenario in an article
for Miniature Wargames Magazine
Watch out for those Leprechauns

If you'd like to visit Oakbound Studio and take a look for yourself, click here. They also have a gamer's facebook group too.

That's pretty much it for this week. I'm hoping that things will get better from here. Once I feel overloaded, I realise I have difficulty fully expressing things and breaking down how I feel. I think I need to work on that, perhaps not letting things get so bad. I try, but it doesn't always work and sometimes, folks aren't always forthcoming with help.

Anyway, now its time for a usual ending slot. I've had a lovely mug of coffee and a refreshing mug of tea while writing this. And I was listening to something that I'd been waiting to restart for a few months now. A channel I watch called Sorcererdave had taken a break of many months from his Oblivion playthrough and he recently restarted it. So, I'd watched the latest episode. I found it greatly reassuring for a variety of reasons. If that is your thing and would like to watch from the start, here is the playlist.

All that is left for me to say is that I wish you all good health and hopefully next week, I'll have a bit more good news to share and things will have fallen into productivity once again. Farewell everyone!

 Hello everyone!

Yikes! It's been nearly a fortnight since I last did a post, and there was me thinking I had enough going on to do a handful of extra blog posts once in a while.

As you may have seen, I have retweeted a bit about the Kickstarter created by Gilead which is still going. And which you can still get involved with here.

Ned the Barbarian, Gilead

The Kickstarter of Gilead will also set him up to start producing his fantastic fantasy art in other formats and in different ways, so please take a look.

But with my last post, I think I'd waxed lyrically about a new magazine which had had its test issue out, called New Edge Sword and Sorcery, which seems to have been quite popular. Its available at cost and if things continue to go well, they'll do actual issues and the first two will be put up on Kickstarter. I'll let you know more about that as I learn more. Hopefully one day, I may have a story or two in there of my own.

New Edge Sword and Sorcery, with
Bass in Ye Olde Dolphin, Derby

New Edge Sword and Sorcery, with 
Bass, Ye Olde Dolphin, Derby

And those photo's were taken while I enjoyed my copy with a pint of tasty Bass in Derby's oldest pub, The Dolphin, which dates back to the 16th century.

In other news, I received my copy of Tales From The Magician's Skull number 7. I think in the last post, I'd recently ordered it, but it was coming all the way from America on its own little adventure. So, to my surprise, it plopped through my letterbox after a week.

Tales From the Magician's Skull, issue 7

Though I'm late in enjoying this issue - the Kickstarter backers received their issue in February and are now receiving issue 8 - but there are some really nice stories in it. I'm not disappointed. James Enge and John C Hocking are reliably excellent and very entertaining. I won't share a photo of me reading it while, shall we say, enthroned.

I have also managed to get a couple of Kickstarter rewards through that are good. Both are supplements to the Old School Essentials ttrpg game. One is Axian Library which adds a lot of extra bits and bobs, goodies and buyables, encounters and dangers to one's game of deadly peril.

Another is Toxic Woods by Lazy Lich, which provides a fantasy campaign setting suitable for, again, old School Essentials ttrpg. I could only find a link to Lazy Lich's twitter for updates on this. So I provide a link to Lazy Lich so you can follow them for yourself.

Axian Library,
for Old School Essentials TTRPG

Toxic Wood,
for Old School Essentials TTRPG

Anyway, onto writing and what I've done since the last post. I've completed a fair amount. I'm still working on a fantasy novella that includes pirates, Fomori, an elf barbarian, a wizard and mutant cultists, oh and an insane goddess protecting a holy space. But it's not been coming along as quickly as I'd sort of hoped. I think, originally, I'd hoped to have it finished around about now. But I'm now, as of writing this post, about half way through, which is a shame. But 17,000 words in that time isn't too shabby.

I'd felt a bit overwhelmed by it a couple of times over this last fortnight and needed to take a couple of days off from it to try and recuperate from it. Oddly, the sixth chapter was the shortest in terms of word count, but also it took the longest to actually write. It wound me up a little, but I think I've got passed that now.

While I was taking a couple of days off from my novella, I didn't spend it wasting time. I did managed to start and complete a fantasy short story that I'm quite pleased about. Its 5,200 words long and sees my elf barbarian character take down a long dead liche upon its return to un-life after many centuries. I'm quite pleased with how it panned out, but I think it will be cut down to be much shorter. I was trying to get into a very Sword and Sorcery style with it. In fact, when I come to running through all my fantasy stories again for edits and another draft, I think they'll become significantly shorter.

Anyway, I've returned to the fantasy novella and I've passed the troublesome chapter six, so things should start picking up again and I might have it completed by halfway through November, hopefully sooner. I may take some time off from it again to take a rest from it. But that is mainly so I can do another fantasy short story that involves a barroom brawl between wizards. Cue things getting way too out of hand and, despite the cleverness of wizards, a lot of stupid collateral damage is expected as they stupidly decide to bring spells to a fist fight.

And that's it for today. Hopefully I'll be able to get another writing blog post or two in during the week as I've a couple of other ttrpg things I'd like to show off - including some Gaia Complex and some WFRP 4th edition. If I don't, I'll just have to show them off next week.

Farewell everybody!