Passion projects and free fiction

I get ideas from a lot of different sources. Sometimes when I listen to music, it’s like it’s part of a soundtrack to a movie that I can’t see, but I can definitely feel. I know the way the action should go on screen as I listen to the rise and fall, and from there an idea forms. I’ve got a big appetite for media, I like music, movies, games, books, television, radio, comics, theatre, and whatever else I’ve forgotten to list there. I drink it all in, and in turn it inspires me.

Not everything I get inspired to do is a book, though. I’ve got a rock opera rattling around in my head, but on a slightly more serious note, I make games. I love making games, in fact. More often than not it’s the equivalent of spending a lazy Sunday going fishing: I don’t do it for the end result, I do it simply for the relaxation of doing it. It can be fun to put together the rules, work out the underlying mathematics (never too simple, never too complex), and end up with something that you could play, if you had the time. But occasionally I will have a project that’s more than just a way to work out some stress.

Admittedly, I haven’t properly finished any yet. Neither my tabletop endeavours (including my oh-so-unofficial adaptation of Dragon Ball Z that has my friends always eager for another round of playtesting, and yes, I’ll readily admit I’m a huge fan of the show) nor my text adventures have had that finishing touch applied to them yet. I need to brush up on my coding for the text adventures, for a start. Still, I am optimistic about getting them done, but they’re not the only things I’m working on.

Some years back, over a decade now, I had the idea of doing nothing but serial fiction. Stories published a chapter at a time, on a regular schedule. I am not sure where I got it into my head that I could hold a regular schedule when I was a teenager waking up at gone four in the afternoon most days, but I had lofty goals. These goals didn’t happen, for a variety of reasons, but the idea has never really left me. So it seemed like a logical step to bring this idea back, take it away from my dumb teenage self, polish it up and make it something that could work.

Starting soon, I’ll be putting out some serials: many individual “episodes” that will all add up into full-length stories. Make no mistake, these serials will be just as well written as anything else I’ll be producing, but they’ll still be available for free. I’m still working out if I want to use a regular release schedule or not, but I’m hopeful that either way they’ll prove popular.

Keep an eye out for my first text adventure game, too! I’ve got a lot planned for 2016, but this year isn’t quite over yet, and I want it to end on a good note.

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