7/1/14 Update

Hello, everyone. It's been a while since I've posted anything. I don't have any chunks of creativity to share at the moment, but I thought it might be nice to write about what I've been doing.

My daughter is on summer vacation, and she seems to have decided that she wants to spend nearly every waking moment with me (she is sitting next to me and drawing as I write). I am honored and touched by this, but the fact remains that it's an extra thing making demands on my energy. Therefore my productivity in other areas has gone way down. I wouldn't have it any other way, but that's the way it is.

I have also been working on putting together a profile for Patreon. For those of you who aren't familiar with Patreon, it's a crowd-funding website. However, instead of donating a lot of money at once for a big project, people donate smaller amounts of money repeatedly for someone to create content on a regular basis. Sounds simple enough, and it seems like a good fit for what I'm trying to do here, but how do I pitch an ongoing project to do whatever the heck will keep me sane and feeling like I have something resembling a life? Not so easy, but I'm going to make the attempt. When I've finished my profile, I'll be sure to let you know.

There's also something I've been holding back from you guys. This page is supposed to be a repository for my creative endeavors, and for the past few years one of my most creative endeavors has been to run a roleplaying game for my husband and a couple of my friends. I haven't mentioned it much because roleplayers (at least the ones with any social awareness whatsoever) learn pretty early on that no one wants to hear about their roleplaying except other roleplayers. But you know what? It's part of who I am; it's one of the creative things that keeps me sane, so I think I'm going to write about it on here from time to time.

I am running a Changeling: The Lost game, one of the games in the World of Darkness universe. For the uninitiated, World of Darkness depicts our real, modern-day world, but adds a gothic, supernatural flavor. Changeling is one of the most complex, interesting games in that universe, and it has also been described as one of the bleakest. Odd choice, I know. "A storytelling game of beautiful madness," which has a reputation for being bleak, and I'm using it as a way to stay sane and cultivate a sense of hope. But there's something about it that really sparks my imagination, so that's what I'm going with. And recently, the publishers of the game have released a rules overhaul that I think will make it much more interesting to play. So much of my usual creative time has been devoted to familiarizing myself with these new rules and figuring out how best to incorporate them into my game.

Now that my family has gotten into a summer rhythm, I'm sure there will be more creative endeavors to come. But that's all I have for now. Time to go for a walk.