Shark Bone

 Social media started out as a novelty and became something that a good many people can't imagine living without. I use Twitter a lot. I love it. My wife is on Facebook and Instagram constantly, keeping in contact with family and friends, and for her business. My son spends so much time on Instagram and TikTok, that it's a wonder he gets anything else done. Every platform has its issues. They are bad with privacy, or made some changes that suck, or are owned by The Devil™. Everyone has their preferred site, and trash talks the ones they don't like. Yes, I'm generalizing and exaggerating. It's fun. But, the fact remains that no site is perfect. I'm on Twitter. I have been for over a decade. I love that site, I love the people I've met and connected with there. And now, all signs point to its inevitable demise. In my circles, the question of 'Where to Go Next' is being thrown around left and right. People say Mastadon is the place to go. Or Hive. Or… t...

 I have been obsessed with the ocean for… a very long time. "Save The Whales" and "Dolphin Safe" campaigns likely started that love when I was in elementary school, and "Shark Week" fanned the flames, along with making me fall in love with the animals. When I was working the phones in a claims office and trying to decide what I wanted to study and do as a career, marine biology was a serious contender, for awhile. The ocean, its animals, its effects on the Earth, have fascinated me and been of great import to me. However, I'd never made it out to even see the ocean until four years ago. It wasn't until yesterday that I got into the ocean and swam in the surf. It was a lot of fun. Feeling the power of the waves, watching and listening to them come in and out, feeling the ebb and flow of it around me legs, it was wonderful. However… as I was driving back home and marveling at all the sights I'd seen, I realized that this experience has closed a...

  This post contains affiliate links for DriveThruRPG. If you use one and make a purchase, I will earn a small percentage of that sale, and it will cost you nothing extra. Thank you for your support! For the TLDR rating, click here! It’s no secret that I am a big fan of tabletop role playing games. Also, I’m pretty sure I’ve written that exact sentence on this blog at least once before. I play a lot of games. I read a lot of game books. I think that my reading time is likely evenly split between game books and fiction books. Non-fiction is thrown in there, too, but I read a lot fewer non-fiction books than I do fiction and game books. Okay, getting out of the weeds, there: I recently picked up Claim the Sky , which is a superhero supplement for the Cypher System by Monte Cook Games . I read through the book, slowly and bit by bit and… I gotta say that I really love it. The Book Image from MonteCookGames.com Like all of the Cypher System books I have, it’s a beautiful book. The ...

 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...

The neon lights flashed and flickered, giving the crowd surrounding the starting line the look of a rave. They were loud and staring, staring at the two machines crouched just behind the white line that had been hurriedly sprayed across the street. A light drizzle fell on the whole scene, making the dark pavement reflect the lights and faces, distorting them as the water trembled in time with the deafening music. Laach gripped the steering wheel as his vehicle rumbled beneath him. Though the night was cool, sweat beaded his forehead and he nervously glanced to his left, to the vehicle sitting next to his, to the driver inside. The other driver caught his glance and smiled at him, a mocking, arrogant smile. Kurt looked confident. Of course he did; he’d won every single ’scraper race he’d ever competed in. Laach jerked his head back around to face the front, nervously twisting his hands where they gripped the wheel. He had to win this match. If he did, the money he’d win would pay his...

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...