Category: On Writing

Cool Sword Day: Requiem

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The best magic swords don’t start out magic. They earn it through demon blood.
For Cool Sword Day, I’m breaking down the evolution of Requiem, the skymetal blade I invented for the Splintered Land series. It doesn’t begin as a glowing, chosen-one artifact. It starts as a heavy, unyielding piece of steel forged by a skilled smith who was a towering inferno of bastard energy.
Our hero, Geneve, chooses Requiem over the pristine, fragile glass weapons of her holy order because she learns that perfect obedience shatters on contact with the real world. Over the series, the blade graduates from a plain chunk of metal with a severe grudge against demon kings.
It’s the story of a bad man trying to be good, and a good woman trying to be better.
It’s a cool sword, man. Read More …

Why You Liked … Dispatch

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Gaming, whether as a form of entertainment or art, has had a troubled relationship with ‘storytelling’. Many people comment on the story of games as being good or bad, but they often mistake agency for story. A story has a start, middle, and an end, with meaningful characters, consequences, and crucially, pacing! Games often suffer from a lack of these, but since you’re swinging the sword, the act itself is important, and you spend less time worrying about why you’re swinging it. Get this review on Spotify or Apple, or watch the YouTube version: Good or bad, it’s rare for a game to take advantage of the medium in the telling of the story. Let’s get into medium by using movies as an example, and the crippling problems that came about when silent movies became… loud. There was a real Read More …

The Well of Lethe: 7

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Korvus exited the elevator on the medbay level. The lighting flickered, a sure sign of an ailing reactor or control system. Neither failure was survivable on Lethe. If both died, the oceans would hunger in, scouring the inside of the prison colony like the high-pressure acid bath it was. I need to hurry. He picked up his pace. Herald’s cannon was locked in its firing position over his left shoulder, ready for whatever might come. How much ammunition do we have?||:KORVUS HERALD:||It was a short jump, so there wasn’t much computational residue from the drive. It only leaves you eight shots in the Adjudicator. I know you’re itching to use them, so I’ll say this once: don’t. You definitely won’t survive, and I probably won’t. Second, I’ve got twenty rounds in the cannon. Twenty isn’t a lot.||:KORVUS HERALD:||It’s more than Read More …

The Well of Lethe: 6.2

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Navigating a ventilation shaft is grim, but for Korvus, finding what looks like shedded snakeskin is just the start of the weird. When he pops out, the guards are gone, his only company a sarcastic AI. Inmate Verity, a self-proclaimed former convict, helpfully suggests the missing guards went out the same way he came in, then accuses him of seeing God. Read More …

Why You Liked … Eenie Meanie

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I’m calling it: the Samara Weaving Effect is a thing, and Eenie Meanie is proof. I’ve seen her in everything from Ready or Not to this flick (a film that made me want to import a gas-guzzling muscle car). This movie gets her. This isn’t your daddy’s Ocean’s 11; it’s a heist of consequences where being a numpty actually costs you. It’s got car chases that’ll make you want to call a chiropractor and a story that’s less about a vault and more about feelings. Basically, it’s a crime flick with a therapy session attached, and it’s dope. Read More …