The Hugo nomination period is officially open, which seems like a good time to remind folks about my links post gathering eligibility and recommendations from others. I'll continue to update through the nomination period so keep sending links my way! acwise.net/what-have-yo...

Historian Peter Ackroyd, re: 1920s Bright Young Men: "[Men] wear attractive wristwatches and constantly consult them with a flourish of the forearm. This is now considered to be a sign of effeminacy, and an invert may be called 'terribly wristwatch' or accused of having a 'wristwatch accent'."

I wanted to make movies, but realized I'd have to work with people. I wanted to write books, but publication is anything but guaranteed. I realized people would pay me to write for video games. I also realized I no longer hate people. And, well, here I am.

"For all its mystical quality, fog has a materiality that embodies the metabolism of this rocky world."

I'm working on the dialogue system for Hydeaway today- thanks to some help from folks in the GameMaker discord, I was able to get conditionals working! Hydeaway is a game of personal horror. A corpse is on your parlour floor. Find out how it got there. #Hydeaway #JekyllAndHyde #indiegames

Chapter 2 of Bright Young Things is at my publisher and I'm really happy about it- but it does mean I have to catch up on all the stuff I was neglecting to get it out the door. Including the student game I don't think I've talked about on here much?

docs.google.com/document/d/1... Today's useful reference: a glossary of Wodehouseisms.

I do not like the it. I know I will probably have to learn the it at some point, and some of how much I hate it is that I just don't know how to use it in ways that don't suck. But I do not like the it, and I really wish the it was optional.

www.iwm.org.uk/collections/... Another resource I found today that is incredibly useful for anyone writing about the World Wars: the Imperial War Museum has a huge, publically-searchable archive of photographs, writing, and *film*. If you want visceral detail, you will find at least some here.

I am reaching the very end of the chapter, and am pleased to inform you all the 'tea flavour selection' subroutine is ~400 words.

Anyway, I'm just about done with Chapter 2, and half of the wordcount on this thing is a) your childhood friend's pronoun options and b) your ability to choose your favourite beverage and whether you want milk/sugar/lemon in your tea. Which is on brand, for me.

PSA for anyone who is having to research How To Alcohol- Wikipedia and WikiHow are your friends. WikiHow is actually a weirdly good source for this. They have articles on how to drink most kinds of alcohol (as well as how to make Monster Energy cupcakes???)

One of the funniest things about writing a game set in High Society in the 1920s is that a) everyone drinks like a fish and b) I'm a teetotaler. I'm frantically googling things like "WHAT TEMPERATURE DO YOU SERVE SHERRY AT" and "HOW TO DRINK BRANDY???"

So I'm still wrangling with the gender/pronoun systems in Bright Young Things. One of my love interests can use any of seven different pronouns and four different names. (You can set all of your love interests to be NB; the game randomizes between pronouns.) My word count is rapidly increasing.

Hey all you gamers claiming to "want shorter games made by fewer people who are paid more to work less" here's your chance to put your $15 where your mouth is: a spooky & elegiac exploration game made by ex-Bethesda & Ubi devs. It's excellent. Buy it & prove there's a market for games like this!

New selling point* for Bright Young Things, my Wodehouse Meets Watchmen IF game: You can be a member of the Diogenes Club, the Drones Club, the Bellona Club, or the Egotists Club. (As well as several new gentleperson's clubs.) *Implementation skills permitting.

Coming up on the end of Chapter 2 of Bright Young Things! In this chapter, you pick a favourite drink, meet an old friend, and deal with that classic antagonist of 1920s fiction: HORRID RELATIVES.

If you're writing any historical fiction set in the UK in the first half of the 20th century, I can't recommend www.1900s.org.uk enough. It's run by a retired academic who's trying to archive what life was like then for normal people, and it's got all kinds of little details you'd never make up.

I'm going to invent a new neopronoun that doesn't conjugate like 'he/she' JUST so that the coding work I did for Bright Young Things' pronouns feels justified. There is exactly one gender-neutral singular pronoun that doesn't conjugate like 'he/she' does... and it's the only one I can't leave out.

...I wonder if the reason the ADHD rates have, seemingly, gone up is that within about two lifetimes we've gone from "anyone who can afford it has a full-time disability aide" to "only very rich people have an assistant, and only the turbo-rich have an assistant who helps them outside of work."

Hello, friends! I write a series of short stories called THE MISADVENTURES OF SAWBONES AND ITS MENAGERIE, about a grumpy plague-masked veterinarian and the magical creatures it helps. One part James Herriot, one part Dungeon Meshi, one part Murderbot. Get them here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0CPX6NHS8

I love medieval fantasy (heck, I'm writing some), but I hate how much medieval fantasy has polluted the Google search results for anything related to the middle ages. This is what I get when I search for "water mill gate medieval":

I finally fixed the cover for The Unicorn's Beard! I was never satisfied with it- I got a cover off Fiverr and got exactly what I asked for, unfortunately. But I've leveled up my graphic design skills a few times (thanks, Sims) and can make my own covers, now!

Just read Stardust Family by @porochan.bsky.social - it's an incredibly haunting short manga about a world where people have to be vetted before they can raise children, and about the inspectors who vet them. It's really good and I'm keeping an eye on the 'horror one-shot' they're teasing.

Went to see Shakespeare in the Park last weekend. Going again tomorrow. If you're in greater CLE, highly recommend this take on the Scottish Play!!

really good write-up of this whole situation with payment processors enabling right-wing censorship of adult games www.pcgamer.com/gaming-indus...

There are no - absolutely zero - “legitimate” concerns about trans people in any context. THAT is the only correct answer. The entire trans panic is made-up garbage. THAT is the only thing Democrats should be pushing. Anything less is unacceptable.

Called Mastercard today. An injury to one is an injury to all, and all that.

Oh ewwwwwwwww, I added a bunch of jazz standards to my playlist for Bright Young Things, and uh... Today I learnt that there's a reason of "Let's Fall In Love" that's incredibly, horrifically racist! O_e

Sometimes when you're writing, you've got an assumption that you've never bothered to check, because why would you. Totally benign assumption- totally wrong. For me, lately, that's been "animal transformations are one of the, like, default generic superpowers, right?"

Oh boy. I just finished The Dispossessed and I am having Complicated Feelings about it. .... Mostly because this is a story about a State versus a cult.

Time for the newest meme! One like, one non-political opinion.

@amaditalks.bsky.social If you want to chat about mysteries, I'm game! I'm usually a cozy mystery kind of dude, but I've been reading a lot of Japanese honhaku-ha mysteries lately and they're an absolutely fascinating blend of Golden Age detective fiction and Gothic horror.

I am neck deep in gender/pronoun options for Bright Young Things today and boy howdy I can see why a lot of games don't even bother with a binary gender selection. I've got *sixteen* pronoun options, and they're totally disconnected from your character's gender or lack thereof. I'm in Heck.

Absolutely wonderful -- and well deserved -- news of IWTTO being shortlisted for Best Anthology at the British Fantasy Awards. Well done to everyone involved, and especially to Bona Books's fantastic team.

Working on the pronoun selection screen for my Choice of Games game tonight. @gendercensus.bsky.social has been invaluable in helping me figure out where to focus my energy/what options I need to include most. If you're planning to write something inclusive and you're not trans, USE THEIR REPORTS.

check this out: the practical magic soundtrack

When you're doing historical research, you will inevitably come to a moment where you realize that your mental image of a time period is several years too early. A lot of the time, things you remember as being from "the 1920s" are actually from the 1930s, reflected through nostalgia.

So I've been playing Date Everything lately. It's a good, charming game, but I nearly put it down within the first 30 minutes. Why? Well, I wrote for a gijinka/humanization game for years, and it taught me one thing...

www.patreon.com/posts/134041... I've got a teaser for my Patreon patrons - some notes on my #choiceofgames game dev, and a new cover for The Unicorn's Beard!

I'm gonna post some teasers for my current projects on Patreon today- including a new cover for The Unicorn's Beard. Stay tuned!

The thing is, there's different kinds of conservatism, and some are less wrong than others. I have a lot of thoughts about that and can share with the class if you like.

Save money, and then save Thornback Hollow from an insomnia plague! Get Mask of the Plague Doctor for a snifter over $5.00* - why, that's cheaper than the price of eggs, probably. #interactivefiction #choiceofgames *more if you're not in the US, sorry, sorry, it's Steam's fault.

Good news- I'm not dead! I've been working on a large project with #choiceofgames- it's called Bright Young Things. One part Jeeves and Wooster and one part cape comics. I've also been taking a crash course in German, trying to get ready to move (again!) and dealing with apartment issues (AGAIN).

We almost missed Book Quote Wednesday! This week it's all about what we NEED, in a quote from @malcolmschmitz.bsky.social's brilliant "Hazard Pay". 🏳️‍⚧️ Dysmorphia? Meet Magic Sword. Magic Sword? Meet Dysmorphia. #bookqw #BookQuoteWednesday #BQW 💙📚🪐📚🌈🚀💫🏳️‍⚧️📚

I just called my reps with @5calls.org. They're both Republican senators, so it probably won't do much good, but we've got to fight this stupid budget. You can too. Here's the script I used. 5calls.org

My partner is the most patient person on earth. I'm working on Sawbones #3 (after two false starts!) and as such I have made them listen to Tubthumping. Three times in a row.

Currently reading THE NAME OF THE ROSE. It's one of those books that's, somehow, *exactly* as good as everyone says it is.

Sorry for the inactivity- with school starting and some other personal stuff, I've been having what the kids call a Normal One.