Published my first story with Amazon, Smashwords, etc

 About a year ago, I posted a series of short fiction pieces to Wattapad, revolving around an entity known as the Messenger of Sorrow. 

A few weeks ago, I decided to revise that material into an actual short story. I took out some parts, revised others, and added new material. I then took one of the removed parts, and revised it into a standalone microfiction piece as a bonus.

Once I finished, I went ahead and imported it into Kindle Create (which is a great program, imho) to make a kindle book. I also did an epub export, and uploaded the two files on Amazon and Smashwords. I even created a mobi version for Smashwords as well. It's been out since yesterday, and I'm finally getting around to posting here about it. 

It has the same cover as the Wattapad version, with some minor changes to the cover text:

As a short story, I priced it at $0.99. You can get it via Amazon Kindle here, and Smashwords here. If you pick it up, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts on it.

In the meantime, I'm working on more stories that I hope to release next year. 

It's a good start for this new journey. Hope you'll stay around for the ride.

Quick and Dirty Mythos short story reviews

This past weekend was the HP Lovecraft Film Festival here in Portland, Oregon. As I've done for the bast 5 years, I attended the whole weekend. Got to hang out with my old boss Ken and his son Mason. I always get the Micofiction collection the festival puts out, and this year (for the first in over a decade), I did buy some actual books. 

While travelling back and forth on the train to the Theater, I'd read on my kindle app on my phone. To keep in the right mindset, I was reading various short stories (or story collections) of Mythos and/or Weird Fiction. Since I don't use this blog as often as I normally do (as my rpg publishing efforts has been spotty the past 2-3 years), I thought I'd do some short (pun intended) reviews. So here goes!

This story revolves around a man who is hunting a supposed homeless serial killer he believes took his sister a few years before the start of the story. The killer is the subject of a manhunt, and the protagonist is trying to avoid them, as he wants to confront the killer on his own. 

While this seems like a typical crime story, there's more to it, as the killer's motives are tied to "Gee", some form of entity trapped in the mountain the story takes place on. It tells a decent story in 12 pages. 

I've read one of Klu's other stories (At the Tower of Midnight, which I got via a giveaway), and remember liking it (I might have to go back and re-read it now). This was no different. You can pick this up on kindle for $0.99 here.

This story is currently free on Amazon. It's longer at 47 pages, and is set in the 1920's. The protagonist of this story has it all, then suddenly loses everything. In desperation, he decides to rob the house of an elderly man who he knows has a lot of cash on hand. Needless to say, his plans don't go the way he expected them to.

I liked this one, though I'm not sure the Mythos elements were as good as could be. Still it's free, so not all I did was invest the time it took to read. This appears to be the only Mythos fiction the author has written; the other two titles they have appear to be part of a fantasy setting. If you want to check this one out, you can grab it here.

Discovered this one when the author posted about it on reddit. Something supposedly dead washed up on the shore of a lake in Wyoming in the late 1970's, and the horror it caused. The narrator is someone writing this down in the modern day, as they are still haunted by these events. 

Being a narration of an event that happened a few decades ago, there's things left out of the story, because the narrator details how this continues to affect them. This one was one of my two favorites of all the stories I'm reviewing in this post. The author has a full novel out, which I plan on getting as well. This is only $0.99 at 28 pages, and totally worth it. You can pick it up here.

I have these two together, because they share the same narrator/protagonist. They are part of a larger collection, which is sadly not available on Amazon currently.

The Dulwich Horror of 1927 is a take on The Dunwich Horror. A group of young intellectuals discover said horror in this small town, and it affects them in different ways. One decides it has to be stopped, and it all falls apart from there. 

While the group of intellectuals are interesting, the story doesn't really come across as good as The Dunwich Horror. Not for lack of trying though. If you've never read Dunwich Horror, I'd suggest reading this first, because it might be more enjoyable if you read Lovecraft's tale second. The story does go into some dimensional science which was cool, but still, something seemed missing. 

One of the female characters becomes the lead in a novel that kicks off a series. I haven't picked that up yet, but plan on doing so down the road.

The Monsters in the Park takes place ten years later, and our narrator/protagonist is called in by someone who was part of the outer group of friends to the characters from the first story. Something seems wrong with his son, and he thinks the protagonist, having experienced strange events a decade prior, could help. There's some weird science in this one, and a few entities known from other stories by Lovecraft. 

While I liked Dulwich Horror better, Monsters in the Park rates higher because it's not retreading another story like Dulwich did.

Hambling knows the Mythos well; he has an entire series based around his character Harry Stubbs to prove it. These stories are a good intro into his work, which hopefully leads readers to check out more.

Both are $0.99 on Amazon; Dulwich is here, and Monsters in the Park is here.

I saved the best for last. This story really appealed to me. Set in the modern day, it features a broken Marine veteran discovering that a homeless man he knows dead, with his body covered in ritualistic carvings. Having encountered the same thing in Afghanistan, he decides to deal with things on his own.

Action and the Mythos don't always mesh. This isn't cinematic action; think more Dirty Harry level, but it fits the story being told. I also liked the use of a lesser known entity instead of one of the usual suspects. As a military veteran myself, I've had a friend who had PTSD after the first Gulf War. The author does a reasonable job showcasing that in his protagonist. Given the story is only 28 pages, that didn't leave a lot of room to set something like up. I felt they did so well enough given the page count. The author does have a full length novel, which has more action in it from the description. I definitely want to check it out, as this story had me wanting more.

This is also $0.99, and you can pick it up here.

There you have it. Six quick and dirty reviews of various Mythos stories. Hopefully I wrote enough to pique your interest in one of more of the stories I covered. I'll likely do some reviews in a few days, as I have a few more stories I'm reading. 

Until next time!

Hunter$ now available; thinking about supplements

 So Hunter$ came out two days ago. I was dealing with some stuff, so I didn't get to post about it here. I think it came out pretty good, so I hope people will check it out.

Now that it's in the can, I've had some ideas for a few supplements. One would feature some vampire types from Asia, but the others would introduce new creatures for characters to fight. Ghosts and Shapeshifters are the two main possibilities. 

While searching around on Drivethru, I found this really good stock art piece of a werewolf, and whipped up this quick cover for a shapeshifters supplement:

Besides Werewolves, there are also going to be Wererats and Weretigers. Might do Werebears as well. 

I have some unfinished projects for Supers! Red I need to get back to eventually as well, so hopefully my creativity lasts me awhile. 

That's it for this post; hopefully I'll have more soon.

Coming soon to Itch: Hunter$

With PocketQuest underway, I've been working on a few projects. I'm currently writing 3 rpg's, all of which use the Breathless system by Fari RPG's, just like Beneath the Waters does. I find it a good, narrative system to build upon. Strangely enough, the third one I'm working on is probably the first one I'll be releasing. It's called Hunter$, and it's about Vampire Hunters in the modern day who sell their services to those in need. The main inspirations are John Steakley's novel Vampire$ and the Netflix original Day Shift, starring Jamie Foxx. 

Here's a peak at the cover:

I've got all the character creation and rules material done (which isn't hard, as I'm working with text from an SRD, and modding as needed). I added some new mechanical bits as well. Breathless has a type of class known as Kits, each of which comes with a unique skill. I decided to revise that a bit. My kits are called Professions, and instead of a unique skill, I have what I called Talents. Talents can be used as a skill, but also work as a narrative device. One profession, The Badge (representing law enforcement types) has a talent called "Force of Law". With this talent, the character could replace it for the skill Sway (which is persuasion or charm like skill) if they were interrogating or questioning someone if their rating is higher. They can also use it to say, call in a Swat team, request a search warrant, or even to get something for their Go Bag (every character has a Go Bag with a couple of items of varying dice ratings). 

Once I add in some info on Vampires (of which there are different Breeds), and some Adventure Snapshots, I'll finish it up and upload to itch. I've already designed the product page, and I think it came out pretty good.

So look for another post once this is out, and when the others are released. Speaking of which, here are the covers to Smoke Wagon and The Unbelievable Excerpts:

Now, to pimp PocketQuest some more: Many of the publishers got together, and created multiple bundles of the games you can pick up. There's a Mega Bundle of 33 games (mine included). There's a Flashlight Bundle of horror themed games (mine included), a Sunny Bundle of whimsical games, and a Dark Comedy bundle of games with a comedic element to them. Check out some of them, and help support the jam. It's going well so far, so I expect we'll be seeing more PocketQuest in the years to come.

PocketQuest 2022 is live!

 So PocketQuest 2022 is now live on Drivethru today. There's a lot of games involved. First off, let me remind everyone that my game, Beneath the Waters is part of this. Here's the cover:

The games uses the Breathless system by Fari RPGs. It's a light, narrative rpg. You can find the SRD for it here. 

I wanted to give a shot out to a few other PocketQuest Games. First up is Summer Camp on a Broken Lake by my friend Quin McConnell. You play the grandchildren of different organized crime family members who are camping at Lake Mead. Bodies start to pop up (as the families used it for dumping grounds in the past), and the characters learn the harsh realities of their families secrets. It uses the Charge! system, which is a derivative of Forged in the Dark. It's also by Fari RPGs, and can be found here. This is Quinn's first official release for his new publishing venture, Cat Culture Studio. Here's a look at the cover:

Next up is Exceptional Youth Camp, an interesting game set in a Soviet era camp for youth who appear to possess special abilities. It's a neat little game, and the imagery really gives you that Cold War feel. Definitely one people should check out. Here's the cover:

 We're all gonna Die is a horror-comedy rpg. It's not set in any particular type of horror outside of being low budget. What I love about this game is the GM is called The Sleazeball! Definitely looks like a fun game. Check out the cover:

I haven't picked up any other games in the PocketQuest series, but a few that I'm going to cover a couple I think stand out to me.

Camp Karate comes across as Cobra Kai the rpg. That's a good thing to me. It's also a lot different than most of the other entries. I do plan on picking this one up when I have the cash to spare. Check out the cover:

Next up is Summer Camp is Hell! I totally dig the concept; your summer camp is sent to Hell, and you have to find a way to get home. Definitely a different take on summer camp horror. It's a bit pricey at $10 for a 20 page game imho, but the premise does sound interesting. I really dig the cover too:

Camp Cryptid stands out because the camp is actually for Cryptids, not people! That's a nice twist on the summer camp theme. Definitely another one I plan on picking up when I can. Check out the cover:

You can check out all the PocketQuest entries here. There's quite a few new publishers involved, so please, show them some love and support!

I'm finally writing RPG material again! Plus PocketQuest!

 After a long drought thanks to the pandemic & work, I've finally gotten the itch to write RPG material again. I think leaving my old job, and how my current job has been less stressful so far, has been a blessing. While I'm still adjusting to working different times (up real early in the AM now, as opposed to being up all night), I'm sleeping somewhat better than I did the past 9 months. My health is much better too, and I'm definitely doing better on both an emotional and mental level.

I've been checking out some games on itch.io, and that led me to a few SRD's for some systems. A few of those peaked my interest, and I've got a couple of ideas I hope to work on in the future. I also hope to get back to some projects I had started prior to the pandemic I never finished.

First off though, I'm taking up the challenge of writing an rpg for Drivethrurpg's PocketQuest. It's like the game design jams itch runs. The idea is to write a game (original or with a system you can use that isn't one of the major ones, like D&D, etc) with a page limit of 20 (not counting front/back covers, if those don't contain rules text).

The theme is Summer Camp, which is a challenge for me. My only exposure to Summer Camp is the movie Meatballs and various horror movies. So making a game to match this theme wasn't easy. I finally settled on an idea to go the route of kids investigating weird happenings at the lake/town where the camp they are attending is located. Once  I got the idea, I needed a system. Enter Breathless. Breathless is a short, fairly narrative rpg from Fari RPG's. They have their SRD posted to the web here, or you can pick it up on itch here.

I also joined their Discord, where I've gotten a lot of help bringing my idea to life. The SRD is a little barebones, but that's not a bad thing. It gives people the chance to modify it to their liking, and each version can stand out a bit more with whatever the author adds to the base rules.

I've got my version of the rules done, which includes some "gasps", which are what specific rules add-ons that are available with attribution to use. Now to just write out some adventures, and stat our some creatures, etc, and I will be finished. I've got 2 adventure ideas fairly well fleshed out, and 2 more idea sparks to work on after that. It also helps that I have plenty of stock art to use. All those sales that Fat Goblin Games did were a godsend in terms of how much stock art I've acquired. 

Anyway, back to work. I'll make another post linking to Drivethru once it is available.

In the meantime, here's a look at the cover I whipped up: