LO, An Age of Wonders Awaits!
Somewhere outside the realm of sanity and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmal shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What forbidden esoterica shall we uncover there today? Read on, traveler . . .
There's a time limit, a ticking clock, so the first thing I should mention is the QAGS Bundle of Holding, on sale now but not for much longer. The Bundle of Holding website sells sets of RPG books for one low price, and here's how they describe this one: "This all-new Quick Deal brings you the QAGS rules and some truly bizarre campaign settings. For just US$14.95 you get all nine titles in our QAGS Collection (retail value $65) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete QAGS 2E rulebook; Hobomancer and the Hobomancer Companion, about Depression-era vagrant wizards riding the rails to protect the mortal realm; the straight-ahead space opera Rocket Jocks; I Psi, about Cold War psychic superspies; Weird Times at Charles Fort High; Roller Girls Vs.; the Musketeering campaign And One For All; and the tantalizingly insane Leopard Women of Venus."
QAGS is the Quick Ass Game System, co-created by Steve Johnson and me, and I'm the co-writer of several of these books, like Hobomancer and Leopard Women. The others are written by my friends. So I'm clearly biased, but in my opinion, it's a great deal! And the offer ends on January 18, so if you're interested, you better order now.
JOURNEY TO THE MAGICAL MOTH ISLAND, IF YOU DARE!
Magic Moth Island, the RPG my kids and I made, is now available for purchase at DriveThruRPG!
I've written about this game before, it's the one with the talking animals on the island who fight off invading humans. The main thing is my kids worked hard on it and I'm proud of them. My daughter Blu drew that picture of the moth healing the turtle, isn't that adorable? I really enjoy collaborating with my kids, which leads me to my next topic . . .
SWANN CASTLE IS COMING SOON!
My daughter Blumiere and I are currently co-writing an RPG setting sourcebook called Swann Castle, and we're going to launch a Kickstarter campaign for it in February. Where Magic Moth Island was a game made by kids and for kids, Swann Castle is a regular RPG book geared toward a regular adult audience. This is an important distinction to make, since I have learned that games for kids don't sell well. But I digress!
The story of Swann Castle began many years ago, in 2013 . . . wow, I didn't realize that until I looked it up just now. This is the 10 year anniversary of Swann Castle! How auspicious!
Back in 2013, when Blu was 4 years old, she got a Princess Fantasy Castle. We had a toy Queen, and lords and ladies, and we added in knights, and then we added in aliens and sci-fi heroes and all sorts of things, and it became clear to me that, if you looked at the wide variety of individuals populating the place, the castle was a dimensional nexus of some sort.
So in our playing we developed this idea, the castle that sits at the crossroads of a hundred worlds, and eventually we included Swann Castle as a locale in our comic book series The Electric Team (the whole thing is serialized online, starting here.)
I've always wanted to develop Swann Castle into an RPG setting, and when I mentioned the idea to Blu last summer she got super excited and insisted we had to do it. We've been working on it for five or six months now and we've written the bulk of the text, over 7,000 words.
Just a few hours ago (as I write this on Monday night) Blu and I were interviewed on a podcast, to promote Swann Castle. The podcast will come out in February, and don't worry, I'll give you the link when it does. Anyway, the guy who was interviewing us was impressed that my 14 year old actually wants to collaborate on projects, and will sit down at the laptop with me for hours at a time and work on this game. I sometimes take that for granted, and forget how extremely lucky I am. My teenage child enjoys my company! There could be no finer blessing in life. I love my kids, I love working on creative projects, and it is amazing that I can combine those two things.
I'll have much more to say about Swann Castle next month when the Kickstarter launches. Right now I don't have any artwork ready to share . . . okay, fine, you twisted my arm. Here's a sneak peak at a section from James Hornsby's sketch for the Kickstarter banner, just to give you a taste . . .
THE LOBSTER-QUADRILLE CONCLUDES
Over in the realm of prose fiction, I continue to serialize my occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille through Kindle Vella, a chapter coming out each week like clockwork. Chapter 25: Axala just came out today, on Tuesday when I'm sending this out, and it's the final chapter (not counting the Epilogue, which comes out next week.) This is it! Find out who lives and who dies! Or if you haven't been reading, go ahead and start at the beginning.
ARMISTICE HAWKINS AND THE NEW CHAPTER
I'm also serializing my novel Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation, and it is NOT coming out like clockwork. But since the last newsletter came out, I released Armistice Hawkins Chapter 26: Searching for You, and everything is racing toward a dramatic conclusion.
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME I LISTED WHAT BOOKS I'VE READ, WHICH WAS IN NOVEMBER
Copra Master Collection Book 1, Michel Fiffe
Copra Round Three, Michel Fiffe
Copra Round Four, Michel Fiffe
The Incredible Hulk: And Now . . . The Wolverine!, Len Wein, Herb Trimpe, and various
Monsters Unleashed!, Cullen Bunn, Steve McNiven, Greg Land, Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, and various
Copra Round Five, Michel Fiffe
Copra Round Six, Michel Fiffe
The Wizard, Gene Wolfe
Rosebud, Paul Cornell
Long Way Down, Jason Reynolds
The Defenders: The Day of the Defenders, Roy Thomas, Steve Englehart, Sal Buscema, and various
The Immortal Hulk Omnibus volume 2, Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, and various
Cosmic Detective, Jeff Lemire, Matt Kindt, and David Rubin
Astro City Metrobook volume 2, Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Alex Ross, and various
For years I've had a subscription to America's finest comic book series, Michel Fiffe's Copra, but somewhere along the way I fell behind and the unread issues started to stack up. Embarrassing, I know; I'll blame the pandemic. Good news, though, I reread the whole series from the beginning and got caught up, just in time to get issue #44 in the mail. I have now read every issue! Copra is a visceral, visual tour de force, check it out! I highly recommend the hardcover that collects the first 12 issues, it's a beautiful book that gives you a hearty chunk of story.
Back in the realm of prose fiction, I have now read both halves of Gene Wolfe's The Wizard Knight (I finished The Knight, the first half, sometime back in the middle of 2022.) The story is about a boy from modern-day America who is transported to a world of chivalry and magic, with dragons, giants, elves, and demons. The boy becomes a knight and sets out on a quest. From that description you can probably imagine what the book is like, and you'd be entirely wrong. It doesn't read like any other fantasy novel I've read.
You know, there are people who say that if a book doesn't grab you, you should quit reading and pick up a different book. That's probably good advice, and the people who follow it save time and find the books that speak to them. Where I would disagree is that sometimes a book may be strange and off-putting at first but you'll benefit from giving it a chance. How do you know which books are worth pushing through, hoping for a greater pay-off? Sometimes it's because of a friend's recommendation, sometimes it's instinct, but I think the best predictor is your faith in an author. Gene Wolfe wrote The Book of the New Sun, which is one of the best things I've ever read. Totally mind-blowing, Grade-A, highest possible recommendation. So as I was reading The Knight, and it was constantly digressing and introducing random new characters, and I wondered, "Where the hell is this going?", I kept at it because of my faith in Gene Wolfe.
And, reader, Mr. Wolfe did not disappoint. Toward the end of the first book the various plot threads and characters all start coming together, and as the second book begins everything really starts to move. There are still bizarre twists and turns, but by the time I reached the end of the book I loved it, it blew my mind a little bit, it was completely satisfying and I'm so glad I read it. A weird but wonderful book.
MOVIES I'VE WATCHED SINCE LAST MONTH'S NEWSLETTER
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Knives Out
The Fabelmans
Jurassic Park 3
My wife and I saw The Fabelmans in a theater, which was pretty cool, because we don't do that very often. When I mentioned it to people afterwards they all gave me blank looks and said they'd never heard of it, so in case you're wondering, The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg's semi-autobiographical movie about a boy who grows up loving movies. I never got obsessed with making movies like young Steven/Sammy, but I was obsessed with making other things, so I found it relatable. Not that movies have to be relatable! I'm all for movies about creeps and weirdos. I'm just saying that when I was a young lad I also had a sense that I wanted to devote my life to creative pursuits, I have just been slightly less successful than Mr. Steven Spielberg. Anyway, it's a good movie, and it was fun to go see something that's not part of a franchise.
Thanks for reading! Let's do this again next month.
Your Pal,
Leighton
www.leightonconnor.com