Masters of Horror

Happy New Year, and welcome back! 2011. Do you think 12 years ago you could imagine what all will be going on in 2011? Would it just blow your mind to know how much has changed, and could you guess what would stay the same beyond the obvious? Well, I'm back from hiatus and I'm here with some hopeful mind blowing. First on the agenda is next week actually. I will unleash Killing Time - Horror E-Rag(TM) Issue 3-1 next Friday at it's scheduled time. Bit of a tease time here. There just might be PSY3007 Act 7. There is also a bonus piece of fiction. That's enough for now about that. In other news I will be setting a price for the currently free audio story "The Hard Price" in the store. Don't worry I'll be releasing the new free audio story "Firehouse" to replace it as the audio freebie. This won't happen immediately so there is still time to get your free copy of  "The Hard Price".

I am now doing something concrete with the "Umbral Intentions" name. You've maybe seen the name before--like here in early December. I kind of had no solid idea of what to do with it for a long while. I wanted to use the name and keep control over it so I bounced it around to different blogs--mainly mirrors of Inchoate Ascendant actually. Well, finally I bought a domain for it and decided to use it as I originally intended. It is a companion to the "This Mental Eventide" site in anticipation of the RPG of the same name. Umbral Intentions, among other things, is going to be host to a brand new blog for Joshua Gavin Rhoads. Josh is your guide to a side of reality you didn't know existed and a struggle we all might only hope to be drawn into in our worst nightmares. I think that is enough excitement for one night. See you next we for the Killing Time release.

Music: Haushinka by Green Day.

Killing Time - Horror E-Rag(TM) Issue 3-3 available now. A camping trip collides with a most bizarre horror. A necromancer's acolyte has a chance at more out of life. The boys had their trouble, but so did Sally. A prolific horror author illuminated. Inbred cannibals. He can't help being a hero. This and more inside.

Yes, the new issue is just out today. The first thing I find that I have to talk about is this issue's poem, "Gathering in the Field of Ed Greely". This was a standout for me; from the vision I had of it that I laid out, to the final execution. I think it's very evocative and I enjoy the subtle unsaid story at which it hints. The first story "Invincible" is a freaky bit of work. It calls upon your sense of hearing. I think it would make a great short video if you could stand the sound. Check out the image immediately after it. The other story "Dare Try" is, I'll admit, a two-parter again. It is also the return of the story inspired by a song entry. The last bit of fiction is part three of "Sun Cycle" titled "A Perceptive Afternoon" and covers Sally's side of last issue's nasty encounter with the living dead, and more. 

The article front of course kicks off with the "Letter From the Editor" where I talk a little bit about nightmares and the like. There's even what I thought was an incredibly interesting factoid about particular bad dreams and Canada. This issue's "Ghostly Illumination #3" covers my favourite author, the prolific and horrific Graham Masterton. The whole issue is again pulled together into that cohesive whole in the "Sommatoria #3" at the end. While I don't often speak of them I want to make special mention of the back cover. The back cover is always a teaser or alternate version of what will be the next cover. Until you read Issue 3-4--to be released on April 22--you can only guess to which story it actually belongs. Until then, keep creeped, and go buy the new issue to do that.

Music: Paint it, Black by The Rolling Stones.

P.S. Check out the special sale prices on the Spleen-Mart(TM) front page.

I've been a huge fan of pen and paper role-playing games for a long time now. They were a perfect fit of fun, and well... games, and a chance to work on writing, storytelling, world-building, and audience involvement. My game company of first choice has always been Palladium Books(R), almost entirely due to its owner and chief author, Kevin Siembieda. Kevin said in some interview or the like somewhere that "RPGs are, after all, part novel, part text book, part instruction manual, part art book and all imagination." You can just see where I get my eclectic creative drives that just can't seem to stay in one single vein. I don't know where I would be without the hobby. As I said it kept me writing, creating, dreaming while awake, even while I tried to learn and utilise a quicker path to a lucrative skill set. Without them I'd have been in the audience only for years.

I've been thinking about of this all because I have an urge to advocate the purchase and consumption of role-playing games by fiction authors. One doesn't need to actually play them or figure out the rules or anything like that. Most are settings books, though you can find more technical ones. They have places, people (from archetypes to individuals to nations and beyond), conflicts, plot hooks, and overall ready-done research. They do have to be treated like reading other people's books, which is to say as inspiration rather than a source out of which to lift elements directly. Then again you can't exactly plagiarise reference books either, so this shouldn't be a foreign idea. There are even books on game design that cover everything you might need to build your own settings, mythoi, and all the nitty-gritty. Call this my advocacy right here.

Music: Rag Doll by Aerosmith.