Drax and his tendency to take everything literally is a highlight of the Guardians movies. Cosplay by Mystery Style Cosplay.
Apologies for the darkness of the photo.
Serial Story 2019 – Results
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
You voted and this year’s serial story will be an Adventure Mystery, written in the third person, with 2 regular human main characters in an original setting.
That turned out to be pretty vague and I decided a few things.
- I want to write a classic YA style mystery
- I want it to be on a space station
- The Welsh words for Star Child translates into the perfect name for a YA mystery.
So without further ado I give you the description of this year’s serial story:
Seren Plentyn and the Secret of Hokulua Station
Hokulua Station is the newest in generational exploration and protection space stations. Brand new and not quite working right.
Seren’s dad is the head or engineering for the new station and in charge of getting all the bugs worked out before the rest of the colonists arrive. That leaves her with plenty of time to explore. Something isn’t quite right though; weird noises, things going missing, and power drains that no one can explain.
Seren and her best friend Jan are going to do their best to figure out what is going on before someone gets hurt.
This should be an interesting and fun year.
Later Days,
Éric
New World Magischola
I have talked about this LARP event before. It’s back!
Three nights, four days in full magic school – sounds amazing to me!
This event (and yes, only one this year) will be taking place in Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts on June 20-23, 2019.
This college is wheelchair accessible and will have gender-neutral bathrooms (I like that they added that).
There’s lots of information here, FAQs here, and tickets here.
So if you’re interested in spending a weekend this summer living in the wizarding world, let me know and I’ll help you arrange transportation.
Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.
Last Day to Vote – Serial Story 2019
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
VOTE! You have until tonight at midnight. Get your opinion heard and your story told.
What should be the primary genre of the 2019 Serial Story?
- Adventure (36%, 4 Votes)
- Supernatural (27%, 3 Votes)
- Fantasy (18%, 2 Votes)
- Detective (9%, 1 Votes)
- Science Fiction (9%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...What should be the secondary genre of the 2019 Serial Story?
- Mystery (55%, 6 Votes)
- Comedy (18%, 2 Votes)
- Urban (18%, 2 Votes)
- Romance (9%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...What should the point of view be?
- Third Person (55%, 6 Votes)
- First Person (45%, 5 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...How many protagonists should there be?
- 2 (73%, 8 Votes)
- 3 (27%, 3 Votes)
- 1 (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...What should the main character(s) be?
- Normal Human (64%, 7 Votes)
- Personification of a Concept (Death, Liberty, etc) (18%, 2 Votes)
- Special Human (Super Hero, Chosen One, Magic user, etc) (9%, 1 Votes)
- Anthropomorphized Animal (Human looking fox) (9%, 1 Votes)
- Non-Human (Alien, Elf, Dwarf, etc) (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...What should the setting be?
- Original Alien / Fantasy (36%, 4 Votes)
- Alternate Modern (27%, 3 Votes)
- Future (18%, 2 Votes)
- Aether-verse (Elizabeth Novels) (9%, 1 Votes)
- Past (9%, 1 Votes)
- Everdome (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 11
Loading ...If you have any other comments or suggestions please feel free to let me know.
Éric
Madam Malkin’s
Madam Malkin is a pretty great seamstress, but that’s because she has magic on her side. You should see the stuff my mom has made!
Post-Apocalyptic Disney
I love it when groups of friends really take a theme and run with it! this group went above and beyond.
Top 5 Reasons for my Burnout
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
It’s easy to sit back and say that my burnout was because I did too much and I need to stop doing so much. Unfortunately it’s not that easy. I’ve thought about it a lot and here are my top 5 reasons for my burnout.
5. Empathy
This sounds like a silly reason but a lot of people in my life have been having a hard time. It hurts me not to be able to help and I may get a little obsessive with worry.
It’s like my brain decides that if I worry for them it’ll help. It doesn’t. I need to see the signs and try to stop. I still care about those in my life and will try to help, but stressing out for them is useless and painful.
To a certain degree it also means trying to dissociate myself with what I read in the news.
4. Sleep
I don’t get enough sleep. On a good weeknight I’ll get 5 hours. That’s not even close to enough for me. I feel best when I’m getting 8. Unfortunately the good weeknights are rare and due to a bad mattress, bad dreams, and being sick; I was getting maybe 4 and in sections of 1 hour at a time.
I have a much better mattress now, and I’m trying to be healthy so hopefully I’ll be getting a solid 5 hours more often.
3. Personal Days
When I was a young warthog… I would take a day off to rest and recover if I didn’t feel well. Having severe allergies meant that happened more than I’d like. Since Dragon was born I’ve stopped doing that. The reason is a combination of work issues and trying to build up a surplus in case of emergencies.
Unfortunately those days worked really well. They allowed me to rest, de-stress, and recover.
2. Relaxing
I feel like I was once the king of relaxing. Spend 12 hours reading? Easy. Play hours of videogames? No problem! Zone out while sick and watch an entire days worth of CSI? Did it.
I once watched an entire season of Star Gate SG1 in 2 days.
Now I’ll find myself five minutes into doing something and think, “I should be doing something.” It’s really frustrating that I have to actively force myself to relax.
If I don’t, I end up with a cleaner house, baked goods, and a new hobby… Which is all good but not restful.
1. Inefficiency
Being tired and stressed often leads to just wanting a thing done. It means plowing through instead of trying to find a more efficient way.
That’s not good. This fall I found myself falling into that trap and instead of spending some time innovating, I spent it trying to finish everything.
Efficiency is my go-to word for 2019 (Aside: Screw you, Ford, for making me almost not use that word). The more efficient I work, the more rest and Weditor/Dragon/Pegasus snuggles I can get.
It also, unfortunately, means saying no to things that are not worth the effort even though they may be interesting.
Hopefully you can learn something from my mistakes.
Éric
Blush: Binding and Care
I wrote about binding a while ago, but the other day, a post about self-care while binding crossed my dash, and I wanted to share it with you.
So go check out the post! It includes how to bind safely, breathing and relaxation, stretching, and self massage techniques.
If you’re enjoying the Blush blogs, consider learning more with Blush: The Card Game from Renaissance Press.
Éric’s 2019 Resolutions
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
It’s 2019 and I’m setting my goals for the year. I did really well with last year’s goals.
I’m toning it down a little for this year since I want to concentrate on baby Pegasus.
I make these resolutions to push myself and to do more. Even if I only accomplish half, that’s more than I would have without them. Let’s hope this year is fruitful.
Writing
1. Write a Monthly Serial Story
I like writing these, they don’t stress me and they’re a lot of fun. It forces me to think on my feet and learn not to plan too hard and let the story go where my weird brain sends it.
If you haven’t already voted for the 2019 Serial story, go do that now.
2. Write the Bookend Material for the Short Story Collection
I need to get this finished. It’s not a lot of writing, but once I’m done I can submit to my publisher and see if they’re interested.
3. Finish Paragenesis
I need to finish this book. It’s at halfway now and I really want to see how it ends.
4. Get to the 2/3 mark on Mystery of the Dancing Lights
Once Pargenesis is done, I’ll dive back into this one. It’s at 1/3 now and I finally know what’s going to happen next.
JenEric Designs and Coffee
5. Continue to ensure there’s content 5 days a week on JenEric Designs
We’ve been going for six years now with content every weekday on JenEric Designs and I’m very proud of that. Jen and I have worked hard not to miss a day. I’ll do my best to ensure we keep that streak going.
6. Test, Design, and Produce 2 new coffee flavours
I have one flavour already finalized for debut at Geek Market in March. The second will be tough to choose since I have 2-3 strong contenders.
Editing and Marketing
7. Edit and send Dinosaur Road Trip to a willing beta reader
I failed to finish this last year. I just need to work up the courage and get at it.
8. Submit Everdome for blurbs
I really want to get a blurb from authors I respect for Everdome. So I’ll do the research and write some letters to a good half dozen authors I respect and ask them to read my book and write a quick blurb about it. Most will say no and that’s okay but hopefully I’ll be surprised.
9. Playtest the higher levels of FADDS
There are still some mechanics that need testing and that’s what this year will be about. Building opponents, testing higher levels, and trying out superheroes.
10. Figure out how to market and sell CoasteRPG
I don’t think this is a good idea as it is. A character sheet as a coaster sounds awesome until you realize that it needs to be waterproof and reusable.
I’ll think of something. Hopefully.
Personal
11. Read 20 books
I succeeded at 30 last year, barely, and hopefully I’ll do 20 this year. I love reading and it’s important to me that I keep doing it.
I love reading and it’s something that makes me happy.
12. Don’t Burnout
Last year I overdid everything; work, coffee, and a lot of other personal things.
I need to calm down and scale back some things. I’ve taken some steps to make things easier. I also have to learn how to say no.
It killed my mental health and destroyed my writing productivity.
13. Be More Patient
Part of the burnout was a complete loss of patience. My wife and Dragon took the brunt of that and I need to be better. It’s not always easy on 5 hours sleep but I can/should do better.
14. Play Some Video games with Dragon
I wanted to try and play some simple games with Dragon this Christmas but time and health weren’t on our side. I’d like to play some this year though. Maybe Lego or Disney Infinity.
I hope that list is manageable.
What are your goals?
Éric
