This is all to say that if you're a creator and you're worried about making something that doesn't have substance or doesn't feel deeper, that's OK. Just make the thing that you like as authentically as you can. It may not take you anywhere, but it'll take you places doing nothing never would.

All right, settle down. Thanks for coming to the farm, kids. I’m Miz E. Now, raise your hand if you have a stuffed teddy spider at home. Wow, lots of hands! But do you know what’s even better than a teddy spider? An actual spider that can love you back! Now, who wants to go feed and pet the spiders?

Whether you write smut, games, novels, comic strips, biographies, fanfiction, what the fuck ever... You're a goddamn writer.

Why did we all agree at some point that 2-day weekends are ok?

My husband got me The Story Engine storytelling prompt deck the other day. I'm still trying it out, but so far it seems very flexible and powerful. (And I would much rather play around with something like this than an LLM any day.) Has anyone else here used it?

i hate to do this but I’m gonna run out of money and be in the negatives by tomorrow if I don’t ask for help. An itch payout is taking a little longer than expected. My PayPal email is the fastest to transfer. If you can help out, thank you PayPal: jellyfishlines2000 [at] gmail [dot] com

Okay, I had to push Issue Four's release one more week, because computer problems keep probleming. This seems a great time to grab a copy of previous issues, or a subscription, or just make a donation to support community copies. Please share and spread the word, nerds! ko-fi.com/prairiedrago...

so I was going back through old files and I try not to jerk off in the mirror too much about my own work but I really was touched by the noodly hand of the muse here

📣 Notorious: Tales of Hardscrabble Bounty Hunting is now live on Kickstarter! 📣 www.kickstarter.com/projects/alw... 🚀 Forge a sci-fi trilogy in this solo boxed card game 🃏 450+ unique cards with tons of cool art by @turbotorbo.bsky.social 🖊️ A brand new game & system, in collab w/ @mousehole.press

🔪Welcome to the Genziana Hotel🏔️ Crowdfunding for my gothic horror mystery rpg is live! Investigate the hotel, meet unnerving guests and creepy staff, find dreadful clues, answer horrible questions and discover what happened to Marga, the boyish girl with the wild curls.

“They gave you plain black paint? Bad luck.” Her side of the room is dappled gold. Another test failed & I didn’t know I was being tested. “Maybe—a forest in moonlight,” I say. A laugh. “Amazing—want help?” After, we are striped like tigers. Like light & shade on the jungle floor. Like our new home.

I blame @jasoncordova.bsky.social , actually. I wasn't even following him on Twitter at the time, but he posted something about monster combat in Trophy Gold that really caught my attention, which led me to Trophy, which led me to Brindlewood Bay, which led me to The Between, which...

The short-form Carved from Brindlewood game I'm writing is based on Twin Peaks, by the way. I've pitched it for Volume 8 of Sprigs & Kindling (if I can get it to cooperate before then). Pitches are currently open for three S&K issues—check out the zine below!

If anything, after editing and revising, the game has gotten even longer 😭

Writing a short-form game is hard, y'all! My current WIP is several pages too long to be called "short-form" at the moment. If only I were better at the editing and revision side of writing...

Hey everybody, I hate to ask, but I’m putting out my hat if anyone can help. I haven’t talked about it because I didn’t want to make it a big deal but two weeks ago I had to make an emergency room visit. With the big unexpected expense, start of the month payments I’ve hit a negative balance hard

Sprigs & Kindling sprigsandkindling.com is actively seeking pitches: Vol 6: Endings & Beginnings. Any Carved from Brindlewood-related creation. Due Dec 1, 2025 Vol 7: Gods & Monsters. The Silt Verses TTRPG and Arkham Herald. Due Mar 1, 2026 Vol 8: Short-form CfB. Due Jun 1, 2026 DM me with pitches!

Author and filmmaker Justine Bateman on generative AI

Found this on the AO3 subreddit, and I'm about to let it change my whole life (or at least work really hard to internalize it wrt my writing).

I am still on a KPop Demon Hunters jag. This is pretty intense, moreso than my Encanto jag and much moreso than my brief Hamilton jag. It’s gotten to the point where I, a 55-year-old man, have a favorite KPop Dance Cover troupe. youtu.be/Rwo36UIFM-w?...

Happy October! We have a Sprigs & Kindling Volume 5 cover reveal for you! This volume is themed around the TTRPG Trophy and creator @jesseross.com did the art! It's incredible! You can check Volumes 1 to 4 of S&K here: sprigsandkindling.com

Had the first session of the playtest for my KPop Demon Hunters–inspired playbook and Threat for The Between this morning! Huge kudos to @likethejeans.bsky.social for jumping in and GMing, @raezee.bsky.social for inhabiting the new playbook, and @rebeccahall15.bsky.social for her hard-bitten Legacy!

Charles Xavier: My school helps mutants control their powers. This is Cyclops, he was my first student and he is totally incapable of controlling his powers. This is Jean Grey, she started with Scott. She also cannot control her powers. And meet Rogue, yep you guessed it, can't control her powers

We're at $3,152 out of $15k and that's amazing! We have just been conditionally approved for a new apartment pending background checks and we're steps closer to getting our family in track to leaving DC! Please share this wherever you can and thank you so much! gofund.me/6ae338dd2

At Queerness in Games con. Watching Avery Adler's keynote

if you can help me (oh my god please help me) i have a glorified tip jar patreon (ive been doing co working two hour sessions and a monthly session for questions. this month i was going to play with the story engine so people could meet it) please don’t use the app they will take 30%

Backed! This looks amazing. So glad I saw this.

I immediately went out and bought Koriko after watching this video. Haven't started it yet, but I am very excited to play it. What I can say is that the boxed set is gorgeous!

Just rewatched "Patience" by Gilbert & Sullivan with my husband, and now I want to write some kind of content for The Between that references the Aesthetic Movement. How hard do we think that would be? I'm thinking kind of hard

I totally forgot I submitted a couple entries in the Degoya County Library D66 roll table, so I was very surprised to see my name in the list of contributors 😅 Anyway, go check out this special DOUBLE ISSUE of Sprigs & Kindling! It's chock-full of amazing creativity!

Here is a hard thing to convince people of. If you had an awesome RPG session last night? YOU DID THAT. Not the game. Not the designers. Not the publishers. You. You were awesome. For many of us, that is SUPREMELY uncomfortable to even consider, and it’s easier to put the games pedestal.

I started a new short story yesterday! Got 1,600 words written on it, too. No, I still don't know what it's about

Howdy. Things are fucked for a lot of folks, but it would mean a lot to me if you’d be able to share or donate to this #GoFundMe. This is going to help @cha0ticstupid.bsky.social, our pets, and I get a fresh start away from the epicenter of fascism. #mutualaid #donateorshare gofund.me/9e6be72cf

replacing Batman fight onomatopoeiae with old midwestern brewery names

This Playbook and Threat are really coming along, mostly thanks to advice and feedback I've received from the Sprigs & Kindling and Gauntlet communities. Thanks everyone!

Wouldn't it be cool if in response to Kpop Demon Hunters being the most successful animated movie of the year/all time/whatever companies paid artists to do cool original projects and more shows and movies and more stability in animation and design. Hahahhahahahahahhaha man. Oh well!

Did a couple 25-minute pomodoros of co-writing time with ppl from Sprigs & Kindling today at lunch and got a lot of words written down! In other, unrelated news, my "short story" is now over 10K words and is nowhere near finished. At least things happen in it now, so that's an improvement I suppose

Not only did Amanda organize an entire week of seminars, playtests, hang seshes and events, but so many presenters recorded themselves, creating a pool of post-retreat resources for /everyone./ The Gauntlet/Sprigs & Kindling community continues to do amazing work.

Just logged off from the end of the Sprigs & Kindling TTRPG Writing Retreat. I had such a good time this week, I can’t even express it. Thanks first and foremost to @iamatrex.com for working so hard behind the scenes to put this together and make it flow.

Oh look, that’s me

I might go back and work on my actual novel. I accidentally opened up the Scrivener file and started reading parts of it and kind of got sucked in

Creative mastermind @signalstation.bsky.social presented yesterday at the Sprigs & Kindling Online Writing Retreat on pitching your ideas to publishers, but also amazing advice on how to think about your creative projects. Check it out here! www.youtube.com/watch?v=2E1u...

This was great! You should watch it!

This was great! It clarified a lot of things for me about writing horror as a relatively horror-averse person

Watched the Australian horror movie “Talk to Me” at the S&K Writing Retreat, and, well. It was excellent! but there are also excellent reasons I don’t usually watch horror movies (those reasons being that i am a huge weenie) But if you do watch horror movies and you haven’t seen it, check it out!

Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City...to bring you Issue #3 of The Hearth Magazine! Itch page coming soon, but for now grab a copy in our Ko-fo Shop. #ttrpgbluesky #ttrpg ko-fi.com/prairiedrago...

Day 1 of the S&K Writing Retreat was super fun, interesting, and informative. I’m definitely looking forward to the rest of the week!

Day 2 of the S&K Free Online Writing Retreat! I'm ready! (I'm not, I am in my pjs and have had no coffee) #TTRPG

The Sprigs & Kindling Free Online TTRPG Writing Retreat starts today! A week of playtests, discussions, workshops, and office hours (think mini-mentorships) centered around Carved from Brindlewood and Trophy! If you are interested, please DM me for the discord invite :D sprigsandkindling.com