Tales from the Tipsy Mermaid

It occured to me Thursday as I was working on the newly updated D&D archives for this very blog that I've got more than enough material here to create an entire Wanderhaven sourcebook. I think I might actually do that, using the pay-what-you-want model on DriveThruRPG and also maybe drop the damned thing as a free download on Amazon. I'll then add a link in the Foreword where folks can support my other projects, and with luck, that will actually help sell a few copies of other stuff I've written.

I'll have to use AI for all the art, unfortunately, which is a very large part of why I do not want to charge for this "new" project. I realize full well that modern AI creates via statistically driven machine-plagiarism, and that charging for other people's work is a sin. 

Nevertheless, I feel like I should still do *something* with all this stuff.

Anyway. Behold this cover for the would-be Wanderhaven sourcebook, TALES FROM THE TIPSY MERMAID. 

What do you think, friends?

Casa Cabeza in Review: Top Posts of 2024

Our last two posts will be reversed this year. We usually write something like a Christmas letter in this space this week and then do a Top Posts entry in the days leading up to New Years Eve. I still want to do that, but I need to think a bit about the State of Casa Cabeza before trying to sit down to write about it. We lived through a chaotic end to this year with much, MUCH more chaos seemingly on the horizon. I'm not totally sure how to sum all that up just yet.

With that in mind, we'll do our Top Posts of 2024 this week, and if you're interested, you can look for my State of Casa Cabeza post at some point next week.

Memoir Free Book Promotion for Black Friday

Friends, I decided to run a Free Book Promotion on my memoir for Black Friday. It started earlier in the week and ends on Sunday at midnight PST.

If you decide to read the book, please please please leave a review.

You can get my book using this link right here. Let me hear your thoughts!

My memoir

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! 

Who the Hell Do I Think I Am? (2024 Update)

This is a little explainer: Who the Hell do I think I am?

I first published this when I initially joined the Bluesky social network. A lot has happened since then, so I'm re-upping it with an update as of November 2024.

#AsForDynamite: Why Are We Doing This?

Hello friends. I hope this post finds you well. 

Let's talk about AEW.

A common complaint among WWE fans about AEW is that "AEW doesn't tell stories," or more precisely, that AEW tends to book random matches with no built-in backstory ahead of time. Now, usually WWE fans rank just ahead of Navy fans as far as my Personal Fucks Given Rankings (PFGR) are concerned, and indeed, many of these takes have become substantially less grounded in reality since Elon started his nominal pay-for-engagement scheme over on the former bird app. 

But it still got to me this week. 

I mean, I understand that dudes are shooting out random nonsense to try to stir engagement & get Elon's money, but this week still marked spectacularly bad story comprehension.

Quick Explainer: Who the Hell Do I Think I Am?

Friends, it feels like new social media sites are popping up faster than weeds in my wife's garden. What can you do? No one's quite sure which ones are gonna stick just yet, but we're all steady joining these things for better or worse. The hope, at least for me, is that each new site will offer a way to engage a new or different audience.

But every time we join one of these sites, we have to introduce ourselves all over again. That's a pain in the butt.

So. This is a little explainer: Who the Hell do I think I am?

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 22

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wanted to try writing more poetry, and she hoped that this challenge might get her into the habit. She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. 

Today is Day 22.

I don't know if this is my best work. I found today's prompt very challenging.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 19

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wanted to try writing more poetry, and she hoped that this challenge might get her into the habit. She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. 

Today is Day 19.

We've not all loved every single one of these prompts, and though I've personally tried to fight through as many as I could, real life has gotten in the way a few times. We're therefore going from Day 17 straight to Day 19 -- and then probably to Day 21. 

But we'll see.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 17

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenge will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. 

Yesterday was Day 17.

30-Day Poetry Challenge: Day 16

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenge will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. 

Yesterday was Day 16.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 10

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. 

Yesterday was Day 10, but I got a little busy and missed it. Today is Day 11, but that prompt is so lame that I'm going to skip it and do yesterday's instead.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 9

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I started this thing, and then my wife joined after a few days. Now we are all doing the challenge. Today is Day 9.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 7

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I are all doing the challenge. Today is Day 7.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 5

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I are all doing the challenge. Yesterday was Day 5. 

I dictated this piece to Emma on our way up to Berkshire East Ski Resport yesterday morning.

30 Day Poetry Challenge

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 3

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I are all doing the challenge. Today is Day 3.

30-Day Poetry Challenge: Day 2

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I are all doing the challenge. Today is Day 2.

30 Day Poetry Challenge: Day 1

My daughter Hannah suggested this challenge for our family. She wants to try writing more poetry, and she's hoping that this challenege will get her into the habit.

She, my daughter Emma, and I are all doing the challenge. Today is Day 1.

30 Day Poetry Challenge

1. Write a haiku about early mornings. 

Top 15 Posts of 2021

The end of the year is a time for reflection and re-commitment, for thinking about what worked and what didn't, and how we can improve in the months ahead. 

My sense is that 2021 was a lot better for most folks than was 2020, but as we head into yet another year amidst yet another surge of the coronavirus, we are again reminded that we are still a long way from normal. Whatever "normal" means in the year 2022. 

Among other things, it seems like the nation's overall psychology has deteriorated. We've spent so much time physically isolated from one another that we've now become emotionally isolated as well. This has not been good for anyone. Somewhere there's an inflection point between physical health and mental health, and as a nation, I feel like we're already teetering.

I know what this means for my family and my career. It's less clear what it means for my writing and/or As For Football.

I've done year-end wrap-ups like this before, but this is the first time that I've ever tried to integrate my writing for AFF with either my social media footprint and/or with my personal blog. It's been a somewhat fraught experience, introducing even more subjectivity into the process than normal. It's never been the case that the "best" posts of the year were necessarily the most widely read, but when we add in the effects of social media influence, we exacerbate the weird, giving potentially widespread voice to some truly random thoughts.

Making this list was therefore something of a balance. Some of it spoke to me. Some of it spoke to you. Some of it was randomly retweeted by the rich and much-more-famous. What can you do? My all-time favorite post on any platform has had just 387 readers since July 2016.  I don't know what that means other than that what speaks to me doesn't always speak to all of you.

Anyway. The Top 15 Posts of 2021 are after the jump.

Memoir Teaser Trailer

D&D Tab Revision

I edited and updated the blog's D&D Tab this morning.  I wanted to get everything collected in one place and organized at least somewhat logically.  It's all on one page now with the following sections:

• General Storytelling 
• Play Reports
• Wanderhaven: Our Campaign & Story Setting
• The Kingdom of the Western Isles
• Mythology, Religion, and the Known World
• The Wanderhaven Sourcebook
• Wanderhaven Adventures & Adventure Articles
• Travelogue
• Forgotten Realms Book Reviews
• D&D Next and the Playtest Process

I realized as I went through this that there's easily enough unpublished fiction here to put out a new short story collection for the Kindle, so that's my next project.  I may also (finally) collect a PDF of material for the so-called Wanderhaven Source Book, but that's kind of a longer undertaking.  Alas, half of these ideas have been overcome by officially published material.

Anyway, material from the reconfigured tab is reprinted below.  Let me know what you think!