The Call of Lake Geneva
Somewhere outside of linear time and three-dimensional space lies the Akashic Library, its ethereal shelves stretching off into infinity. What transcendent wonders will we encounter there today? Read on, friend, and find out . . .
Remember how last month, I was telling you about my Kickstarter campaign for Beowulf Vs. Grendel? It wrapped up and, friends, it was a nail-biter. This one was slower to fund than previous Kickstarters—toward the end it really looked like it wasn’t going to make it. I was in suspense up until the last day, when there was finally a surge of backers, and even then it was very very close. In the end basically one person made the difference, and if he hadn’t backed on the last day, well, I don’t like to think about it. The goal was $800; I ended up raising $835. Whew!
Since the Kickstarter campaign ended I finished layout of the book, sent it to my elite team of editors, and revised it. I completed the PDF and sent it off to backers last week. It looks like this:
Great job on the cover, Josh! It will be on sale to the general public before too long, I’ll let you know.
OH MAN, I WILL BE TURNING 50 SOON
It’s March, my birthday’s in May, I’ll be turning 50 soon. Yow! How does this happen? Didn’t I just graduate from college a couple of years ago?
Now I need to plan how I’m going to properly observe my midlife crisis. Some options:
Learn to sing. I can’t sing, but that’s at least partly because I’ve never been taught. Singing’s like drawing, I suspect—anybody can learn to do it with training and practice. It seems like it would be fun—Karaoke, for instance. The downside is that I’d have to take lessons, which would cost money. And practice, which would take time.
Really get into cheese. I love eating cheese, I’ve eaten all different kinds, but beyond cheddar and swiss and the basic ones like that I don’t remember most of their names. Also, what makes them different? How is cheese actually made? Doing a deep dive on the topic could deepen my appreciation of this most delightful food. On the other hand, that sounds a lot like homework.
Really get into collecting original comic book art. I’ve got some original art—for example, I own a page of From Hell, one of the all-time great graphic novels, beautifully drawn (and signed) by Eddie Campbell. At the time, that page only cost $75. Now, though, comics pages are pretty dang pricey. There was a time in the 90s when I could have afforded a Jack Kirby page but that time is long, long gone. So I may need to become independently wealthy before I really pursue this one.
Take on a grand creative project. Nah, I do that all the time. This is supposed to be something special!
Just play D&D all the time. I think this would be an excellent lifestyle change, but sadly it would also require me being independently wealthy.
In conclusion, it seems the best ways to honor my midlife crisis are the classics:
1. Date younger women
2. Take psychedelic drugs
3. Practice ritual magic
I’ve already bought the book for #3, so that part’s underway!
GARY CON
Last week Josh and I went to Gary Con. What’s Gary Con? I can explain this in a way even a regular person can understand. Dungeons & Dragons was (basically, for the purposes of this explanation) created in the 70s by Gary Gygax, who lived in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. That’s where the gaming convention Gen Con used to be held—”Gen” is short for Geneva. Back in 2008 Gary died, and his family started holding a convention in Lake Geneva to honor his memory. So now a whole bunch of role-playing adventure game aficionados, about 3000 of them, head there every year to play dice games and enjoy camaraderie.
See? That was pretty straightforward.
Driving to Wisconsin from Ohio takes awhile, it turns out, but Josh and I were able to keep each other entertained throughout the car ride. We got there Thursday night, and were amazed to discover how far from the con building we had to park. We thought we were going to have to walk a mile and a half, but fortunately there was a steady flow of shuttles to and from that distant parking lot.
We played some games—one session each of Dolmenwood, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and Shadowdark—and on Friday we each took a shift at the Goodman Games booth to sign copies of our books for anyone who wanted to purchase them. Goodman Games is the publisher of Dungeon Crawl Classics, and they’re very supportive of 3rd-party publishers (like us). Check this out, they had a whole row of their display filled with books by Josh and me:
The games we played were all fun, I’m super-eager for my Dolmenwood books to arrive, and it was great to reconnect with the DCC community. Kinda makes me want to write another Akashic Titan zine . . .
And now I feel guilty for saying that Gary Gygax created Dungeons & Dragon. Dave Arneson was the co-creator, okay? I didn’t go to Dave Con, so that piece of information didn’t seem relevant. But I don’t want to participate in any historical erasure, so there you go.
THE WORLD WAS ON FIRE, AND NO ONE COULD SAVE ME BUT YOU
I recently worked through some feelings by drawing trees—see above for an example—and now three of those trees are available for purchase in my Etsy shop. As always, I’m donating every last penny I make from the shop to charity.
I’m currently donating through Gaza Funds; every time you visit or refresh the page, it shares a different GoFundMe link for someone in need in Gaza. I like this because it’s an opportunity to directly help people in need. The people of Gaza are really suffering and if you don’t want to buy any of my drawings I urge you to consider donating directly to them.
But if you want to donate AND get a charming pen-and-ink drawing, you can find my artwork here.
BOOKS I'VE READ SINCE LAST TIME
The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, Holly Jackson
Den: The Price of Memories, Richard Corben
Twenty-Four Seconds from Now . . ., Jason Reynolds
Superpatriot: Liberty & Justice, Keith Giffen, Tom & Mary Bierbaum, and Dave Johnson
The Marvel Comics Covers of Jack Kirby Volume 1: 1961-1964, Jack Kirby
Savage Dragon Ultimate Collection volume 3, Erik Larsen
I don’t have the cognitive power to get into it right now but The Message is good and you should read it.
This may or may not be related to my midlife crisis, but I started thinking about Savage Dragon supporting character SuperPatriot, and wishing I had more SuperPatriot in my life, and over the course of two weeks I ordered the original 1993 SuperPatriot mini-series, the 1996 SuperPatriot action figure, and the 2002 trade paperback collection of SuperPatriot: Liberty and Justice off eBay. I tell you what, those two mini-series have some dynamite action scenes, beautifully drawn by Dave Johnson.
TV SHOWS I’VE WATCHED
Twin Peaks: The Return
Leverage season 3
Severance season 2
Daredevil: Born Again season 1
Wheel of Time season 3
MOVIES I’VE WATCHED
The Menu
Logan Lucky
Captain America: Brave New World
Castle in the Sky
Captain America: Brave New World
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Yes, I saw Captain America 4 twice in the theater—once with a friend, and once with my son. It was fine. The Menu was more memorable, though. And The Tragedy of Macbeth is still great.
CELEBRATING THE LIGHT
Since I wrote most of the above there was a terrible tragedy at my school. We lost a student, a wonderful young woman, and it’s hit us all very hard. Please take a moment to read over this GoFundMe page and, if you can, consider donating. Even a little bit would help.
Thanks for reading; I appreciate you. If you haven’t already, subscribe to the newsletter, and you won’t have to worry about missing the April installment. I’ll see you then.
Your Friend,
Leighton