In last week’s episode…

…I drew a prompt about a tunnel. I had fully intended it to be a mainstream fiction story, no fantastical or horrific or science fiction or whatever elements involved, but dragons showed up (as they inevitably do), and this story turned out to be a prologue story of sorts for the novel I’m working on Witness to the Scourge. None of the characters from the novel are involved, but the locations are. And some of the concepts.

I have the same problem with writing things like this that I do when running a TTRPG session: It’s never “brief”. Short stories turn out to have an epic scope, even if they’re only short (and this story ended up being close to 3,000 words). And my Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder one-shot games turn into months- or even years-long campaigns. Part of the problem is me being what’s known as a “discovery” writer, or “pantser” (because I write by the seat of my pants, and not from an outline). I suspect if I outlined these things, I’d have better luck.

But let’s move on.

This week’s prompt:

A prisoner wants to improve the tech of a refurbished time machine, but it will set a mass extermination in motion.

I’m thinking pirates! Pirates in space! Not like Treasure Planet, though (although I admit I’ve never seen that movie). I’ve done plenty of research into pirates and pirate lore for various trunked novels and role-playing games, so I do know a thing or two about them, and they’re always fun to read or write about. So these pirates, obviously, have a prisoner that has a refurbished time machine! Because of course.

Of course, the main reason I want to write about pirates is because of an upcoming anthology, Skull X Bones, which will hopefully be launching soon on Kickstarter. They already have a great list of contributors; why not add my name? All I have to do is write the story then revise it in time to make it to the submission window.

This is fine.

In other news…

Yesterday I had sushi with one old friend, beer with another, and when I came home from that, I found that my cousin had sent me a package with this little guy in it:

…along with a really nice card. Yesterday was all about connections.

That’s all for now. Be safe, and be kind, as they say on the Escape Artists podcasts.