It’s been a busy, but a fairly good week. We finished another gaming article which will soon be coming to a Kickstarter near you. I’ll let you know when it is available. We are working to incorporate the playtester’s changes to Biremes and Triremes, our book-sized gaming supplement. We hope to complete the edits by end of October and hand it back to the editor. It will probably come out sometime in 2022.

Steve was interviewed by Sports Illustrated, who were kind enough to link to his latest book. So for those keeping count, this means he’s been mentioned by the New York Times and Sports Illustrated as well as a number of more modest publications. I couldn’t be prouder!

I’m taking another course from Dean, this one is on Power Words. It’s a great course! It underlined for me the value of Goodreads. Having a place to keep one’s read books with ratings and occasional reviews has been a great boon when Dean asks us to look back into our favorite books and authors to understand how they make the magic happen. It’s also a great place to make bookish friends.

One of the lessons Dean pounds home with some frequency is the importance of trusting one’s internal creative voice and writing without fear of making mistakes. I got a reminder of that this week in a slightly different way. I have a number of pictures in my office from supporting Kickstarters. Some of my favorites are watercolor animals by Alex Hubbel like this one.

Steve picked up an owl painting and said, “This is beautiful! What is it?”

“A Beautiful Mistake,” I said. Then I explained to him about Alex Hubbel’s 100 Beautiful Mistakes which I backed way back in January 2019. It was one of the best Kickstarters I’ve ever backed. We sometimes get so focused on the false promise of perfectionism that we forget that nothing is perfect and the beauty is all in the way we frame our art afterwards. Nothing gets that across to me better than Hubbel’s beautiful art. I asked myself, what beauty am I failing to produce because I’m afraid to make a mistake, failing to realize that there is as much beauty in my mistakes as in my successes.

November will be an exciting month for me. I am taking Dean’s Collections Course on Relationships, which means I will be writing a story a week for five weeks and then learning how to put it together into a collection. I will also work on my novel through NaNoWriMo. That means I’m expecting myself to produce about 75,000 words in November. November and December will be intense. Fortunately I enjoy intensity. If you are looking for me in November, I’ll be at my keyboard growling at interruptions.

One bit of excitement for me is that one of my favorite authors, C.L. Polk is going to be doing NaNoWriMo with us. Right now they are in the middle of Preptober and organizing for NaNoWriMo. If you want to follow what they are doing, you can be part of their Patreon for as little as a $1 a month (well worth it in my opinion).

Hope life is intense in a good way for you as well. Be well, friends!