Shark Bone

 This is a Revival! A New Beginning™! A return to what I once was and did and wanted to become. Really, that's all hyperbole. It's been over a year since I've updated this blog and I've done a lot  of soul-searching in that time. My childhood was such that I didn't have an opportunity to figure out who I am and what I want from life until recently, and it's been a long, confusing struggle to understand myself. However, I feel like I've made significant strides, recently! I am more comfortable with myself than I have ever been. I am working on my shortcomings and I have chosen directions in my life that are taking me to places I want to be.  One thing that hasn't  changed is my love for the written word, and my love for stories. I am a forever-GM. I'm constantly running games for my game groups, and rarely get opportunities to play in tabletop roleplaying games. And, to tell the truth, that's the way I like it! I prefer to engage in this hobby by ...

 This is a short piece I wrote for submission to a zine last month. They passed on it. I'm very proud of it, and I like it a lot. I hope you enjoy it, as well. --//-- The ship bucked, throwing Captain Opa into the console where he'd been writing a letter to his family. The console's edge slammed into his gut and hip, drawing a surprised and pained grunt from him. He managed to catch hold of the console's edge before the violent shaking threw him into another surface in his cabin. With calm but hurried motions, he saved the letter to his partition where it joined the others waiting to be given to his family when they returned to their home stellar system and planet, then hit the key and opened the ship's intercom. "Bridge, this is the Captain. What's going on?" He modulated his voice to radiate calm. If he panicked, so would everyone else, and panicked people couldn't do their jobs. A strained voice answered as if the person speaking were facing a...

Chances are, if you’re reading this, you know I’m a big fan of table top role playing games. You might have listened to my old podcast, Shark Bone, or you follow me on Twitter. Most of my online presence has to do with table top RPGs. Initially, this blog was supposed to be apart from them, but they are such a huge part of what I like, I found that trying to separate them was short-sighted, and not very true to who I am. Besides, they are stories. And if this blog is about anything , it’s about stories. In my gaming group, there is one story that is something of a white whale: Orpheus . I’m talking about the role playing game published by White Wolf in the early 2000s about ghosts. It is a story that spans 6 books and is rather epic in scale. I had the opportunity to play in a game, almost from start to finish, near to the beginning of my gaming career. It was intense and amazing. I created and played two characters for the game, experiencing their tragedies, learning about myself, a...

"Hello, Stranger!" you say to me, as I sit at your table and pull the pitcher of beer towards me. "It's been quite awhile since you've been around here, telling your tales." I grab a mug from a neighboring table and toss the dregs onto the straw-strewn floor and wipe it out roughly with the bottom of my shirt before filling it from your pitcher. I meet your gaze and down all of it before slamming the mug down with a satisfied sigh. "Indeed it has," I answer. "But, I'm back!" I grin and chuckle to myself before adding, "For a time, anyway." --//-- So much time has gone by since I've updated this space! It's hard to believe; it feels like it's been forever, and at the same time, like no time has passed at all. But, here I am! With more to share! More words to write and thoughts to give shape! I've been writing up a storm since my last update and have jumped from one project to another, at least twice. In that t...

It looks like it's time for another blog post! Despite my desires to post more frequently, I've only been able to get about one post up per month. Perhaps in the future, I'll be able to post more frequently. I'm currently writing a short story about a group of young adults who have fallen into monster hunting. The story was inspired by the role-playing game and novels of #iHunt , which are fantastic by the way, but I wanted to approach that subject matter my own way. It's been a fun ride, so far, and I'm really enjoying the characters I've created and the story that's unfolding. I started writing it with only the vaguest of plans, so the events that I end up adding to the story surprise me, more often than not. The act of writing this story, of sitting in front of my laptop and typing out words, is extremely enjoyable. While I've known for quite awhile that I like to write, this project has brought that home. And, it helped me realize another thing...

The statue sat on the glass display case, uncaring as the man and woman standing on either side of it argued. They bumped the case with their gestures, rocking the small figurine on its uneven base, as their words grew more and more heated. "We had a deal!" the woman yelled. "I have emails, from you , agreeing to $500 for this piece!" She waved her phone at the man as if it wielded some kind of magic. The man growled in response. "That was before I learned its history. Its worth !" the man yelled. "It's worth ten times what we agreed, which you obviously knew! You were trying to rob me!" The case rocked a bit more as the man's belly bumped against it while he jabbed an accusing finger her way. "Me?" the woman shrieked, "rob you ? You're the one committing robbery here, and..." she began to dig in her purse, then raised a small revolver from it and pointed it at the man, "I don't have to take it!" ...

Today, I decided to write something inspired by my favorite book, Armor by John Steakley. I'd love to say that the first time I read this book I was struck by the characters and the storytelling and, I suppose I was, but I honestly can't remember my first time. This is an amazing book that I have read so many times over the years and one I try to read once every year. While I'd love to talk about how much I enjoy the book and why, what I really want to do is talk about what I find so intriguing about it: The story is told in two parts and the only character that takes constant part in both parts is a suit of armor. Armor. This isn't just any suit of armor, but an advanced scout power suit that's capable of running for days without any support and tearing through hordes of enemy bugs. That's damn impressive, but nothing compared to the pilot of the suit of whom the first part is about. He. Just. Will. Not. Die. And then, his part of the story ends and we foll...

This past weekend, I experience an epiphany. My family and I went to an outdoor concert of The Desert Winds , led by my son's band teacher. That man is so passionate about music. He shared his passion with the audience through introductions and history snippets of each piece the band played. He shared his feelings about a couple of the pieces, and explained why one of the pieces was so important to him, having been a favorite of an old teacher of his who passed away a couple years prior. I wanted to feel that same passion about something in my life. I want my life to have that same color, that same rhythm, that same passion that he showed. I thought about it a lot, and I realized that I do feel that in a small way, for the written word, for stories. I figured that If I can learn to experience that same fire for the written word and the stories that I love, I can experience that same excitement for life that he showed. The written word has fascinated me for a very long time. It...