Swann Castle is Open for Business
Somewhere outside the realm of logic and linear time lies the Akashic Library, its phantasmal shelves stretching off endlessly into the distance. What unknown esoterica shall we uncover there today? Read on, traveler, and find out . . .
Friends, this is an auspicious day. This is the 12th installment of my monthly newsletter, which means I have successfully kept to my schedule and done this for a solid year. Much better than my previous attempt at a newsletter.
For those of you who just signed up, welcome! The newsletter is a mix of me talking about various creative projects I'm working on and media I have consumed. If you're hoping I'll have an update on my son's efforts to watch every Godzilla movie, good news, that's at the end.
THE SWANN CASTLE KICKSTARTER IS LIVE!
Last month I said that my daughter Blu and I were going to launch the Swann Castle Kickstarter campaign in February and, here we are, it's live! Check out the beautiful banner by James Hornsby:
Just at a glance I see the epic hero Beowulf, the Golden Age Daredevil, Leeta from the Electric Team, Octopus Jones, and a juggling bear. Looks like a good time.
Swann Castle is . . . well, bear with me for a moment, let me share the text from the Kickstarter:
Imagine you’re walking through the woods, minding your own business. You’re in a forest and that forest is, obviously, part of a world. You tend to think of your world as all there is. But there are other worlds, each as rich and vast as your own.
As you walk through the woods you come to a fork in the path. You go right instead of left, dunking under a tree branch, and continue on. You don’t realize that you have left your world behind. There was no obvious transition; the woods are identical to the ones you just left. There are pathways to over 100 worlds in this forest. The woods of all these worlds are intertwined and overlapping, so that pieces of all these separate forests make up a new, unique forest.
If you continue on the trail through the forest, and avoid branching off into other worlds, you eventually reach a clearing. The sky above is a shimmering haze of color, and floating high above you is a city the size of a moon. There are other people around you, of all shapes and sizes–some are human, some look alien, some are talking ponies. These people are travelers, either approaching or leaving the majestic fortress in the center of the clearing. This is Swann Castle.
Sounds neat, right? More specifically, Swann Castle is a setting guide for use with any RPG. The book is designed for use at the game table, with short descriptions, random tables, plot hooks, and NPCs that can spice up any campaign. And if you're not into the whole RPG thing, don't worry, it will also be fun to read as an imaginative fantasy setting.
Look at the Kickstarter campaign and see what you think! We'd love to have you as a backer. And if you get a chance, please spread the word . . . word of mouth is still the best form of advertising.
BLU AND ME
Swann Castle is created and written by my daughter Blu and me, pictured above. I asked my wife Alice to take an author photo of us for the Kickstarter page, and I asked her to make us look super cool. And we do! Well, Blu does, at least. Blu is 14, and it is an honor and a privilege to have a teenager who not only doesn't hate me but is willing to spend hours and hours sitting at a computer collaborating with me on a book about a magic castle. It's a dream come true, honestly.
TELL ME MORE OF THIS "KICKSTARTER"
I've recently discovered that, while I assume all contemporary humans are familiar with Kickstarter the same way they are with Netflix or McDonalds, that is not actually the case. So to be clear, Kickstarter is a crowdfunding website--I announce that my daughter and I want to create a cool book, and people across the country sign up to buy a copy of the book, and when those people have pledged enough money for us to pay the artists and print the book, then the project has "funded."
Good news, Swann Castle has funded! Which means, as I said, we have enough money to pay the artists and print the book, but hopefully that is only the beginning. I hate to sound greedy, but ideally Blu and I would also like to pay ourselves. We have some great stretch goals--once we reach $1350, we will hire the amazing Evlyn Moreau to do art for the book, and I'm very excited for that.
BLU AND I GOT INTERVIEWED
Last time I mentioned that Blu and I had just gotten interviewed. Now I can reveal that it was for the Wobblies & Wizards podcast, and you can listen to our interview here! Thanks to Shane AKA Logar the Barbarian for having us on!
HEX GAMES CELEBRATES ZINE MONTH!
As you may know, I am the co-founder (with Steve Johnson) of Hex Games. For the last four years, Hex Games has enthusiastically participated in Zine Quest and Zine Month at Kickstarter. In 2020, I produced Akashic Titan and Steve created Tales from the Lusty Minotaur. In 2021, Steve wrote Elvismancer and I released Project 8Ball. Then in 2022, I came out with Akashic Titan: Blue Bolt.
This year, as you know, I launched a Kickstarter for Swann Castle, and Steve launched a Kickstarter for his adventure The Blasphemous Temple of Yargolith, an Old-School Essentials module about exploring an ancient evil temple in the heart of the jungle.
To celebrate these past and present zines, Hex Games is having a ZINE SALE! All of our previous zines—Akashic Titan, Tales from the Lusty Minotaur, Elvismancer, Project 8Ball, and Akashic Titan: Blue Bolt—are on sale at DriveThuRPG for just FIVE BUCKS EACH!
Dang, what a deal! This sale lasts from now until February 28th, so stock up on the Hex Games zine library.
I HAVE BOOKS AVAILABLE THROUGH KINDLE VELLA
My occult detective novel The Lobster-Quadrille has concluded, and you can read the whole thing on Kindle Vella. It's 26 chapters long and I'm very proud of it. It's weird. If you like hardboiled detectives, men with lobsters for heads, Nancy Drew, occult conspiracies, and/or the works of Lewis Carroll, go ahead and start at the beginning.
There are also 26 chapters available of my science-fiction adventure Armistice Hawkins and the New Architects of Creation. It's not finished, but it's getting close!
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST MONTH
Blackwood Library Edition, Evan Dorkin, Veronica Fish, and Andy Fish
Savage Dragon Ultimate Collection volume 1, Erik Larsen
The Legend of Luther Arkwright, Bryan Talbot
A Psalm for the Wild Built, Becky Chambers
Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Book 1, Stan Lee and various
Just Imagine Stan Lee Creating the DC Universe Book 2, Stan Lee and various
Those are all comics, except for A Psalm for the Wild Built, which is a novella. I've been reading shorter stuff, gearing up for a couple of big books I need to read.
The Legend of Luther Arkwright is the third Luther Arkwright graphic novel. The first one, Adventures of Luther Arkwright, has long been on my list of Best Graphic Novels I Ever Read. The sequel, Heart of Empire: The Legacy of Luther Arkwright, was a very different book--where the original was black and white with fairly cramped artwork, Heart of Empire was open, lush, and in bright color. Though the look, tone, and feel were all different, it was an excellent sequel that expanded on the ideas of the original. I wasn't sure what to expect with Legend--it's black and white, like the first book, and again has a different style and tone. At first I was skeptical, because I missed the fat chunky lines of the previous book and resented the thin, wispy lines Bryan Talbot uses in this book. But Talbot soon won me over and, yes, it was very good. Just a tremendous trilogy of books, highly recommended, read them all.
Dammit, I forgot to say what they're about, didn't I? I always do that. The first book is about Luther Arkwright, a homo novus, the next step in human evolution, a psychic and a trained killer. He travels through the multiverse fighting the Disruptors, with most of the story taking place in an alternate England ruled by Puritans. It has one of the best action scenes I've ever read. The second book is mostly about Luther's daughter, and set in that same alternate England. The third book takes place 50 years after the second and takes place mainly on other worlds. I felt very satisfied when I finished it.
GODZILLA WATCHING UPDATE
It's been awhile since I wrote a Godzilla Club update, because it's been awhile since the Godzilla Club met. As long-time readers may remember, my son Jackson and I were in the process of watching every Godzilla movie. Previously we finished all the live-action Japanese ones. All that remained for Jackson was the 1998 American movie Godzilla (not to be confused with the 2014 American movie Godzilla). I was in no hurry to mark this one off his list, because I didn't want to watch it again. But Jackson insisted, so last Friday we drove down to Lexington to watch it with our friends Ray and Stacy.
Back in 1998, Ray, Stacy, and I saw Godzilla in the theater opening weekend. As Godzilla fans, we had high hopes! And we were disappointed. I hadn't seen the movie in 25 years. I remembered it as being really bad, but thought perhaps my memories were exaggerated. It's happened before, with Godzilla: Final Wars--I remembered it as being bad but I rewatched it last year and enjoyed it. So I gave it a chance and, reader, it is a bad movie. Very, very bad.
Godzilla tells the story of a large, mutated iguana. After the iguana attacks a ship, a wounded Japanese sailor moans the word "Gojira." The media picks up on this and calls the monster Godzilla. Now, there are many different versions of Godzilla from movies, comics, cartoons, and video games. There's the terrifying nuclear-disaster-on-legs. There's the friend to children who protects Earth from invaders and shakes hands with Jet Jaguar. In Shin Godzilla, Godzilla is a constantly-evolving abomination that will wipe out all life on Earth if it isn't stopped; in Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, Godzilla is, I'm not joking, the physical embodiment of the souls of all those killed by the Japanese military; and in Godzilla: Singular Point, Godzilla is an impossible entity from another reality whose very presence breaks down the laws of nature. These are radically different takes on the character and yet, somehow, they are all still Godzilla. I love and accept them all. But the monster in Godzilla (1998)? I do not accept it. That's not Godzilla, that's a giant iguana that the media mislabeled.
I won't describe all the movie's faults, because we'd be here all day, but I'll say this--one of the great joys of watching a Godzilla movie is seeing Godzilla rampage through a city. Even movies with fairly week characters and sketchy dialogue, like Legendary's Godzilla: King of the Monsters, are redeemed by the monster fights and the sheer amount of destruction. Godzilla (1998) entirely fails at this--the giant iguana enters Manhattan, scratches up a couple of buildings and almost steps on Hank Azaria, then goes into hiding for most of the rest of the movie. Yes, this creature runs and hides from humans . . . as I said, it is clearly not Godzilla.
All of which is to say, Jackson and I have both now seen every live-action Godzilla movie! There's still three animated movies we haven't seen, though, so we're going to work on that . . .
Hope you're well. Have a great February!
Your Pal,
Leighton
www.leightonconnor.com