A Series of Unfortunate Eyevents

Another update on my post surgical condition. Left eye is healing slowly, but steadily. It’s got enough recovered that I’m able to basically function, though reading text can be hard so I’m still not terribly active on slack or twitter yet.

Right eye is being troublesome. It’s mostly healed, but it’s inflamed. This latest follow-up, the doc said fun things like sub-corneal clouding, and needing a post-op epi removal so that they can treat the inflammation if they can confirm it’s been healed over.

On one hand, big kudos to the dedication of the team for working with me on this. On the other hand, I’m anxiously awaiting putting this all behind me.

More to come, helpfully something good.

Typing into the void

Hey everyone!

Quick update here. As most of you know, I went in for laser eye surgery on Thursday, so have been offline as far as any type of text communication. The particular brand of surgery I got was ASA (advanced surface ablation) which is an updated version of PRK. While everything seems to be healing ok, I’m still not at 100% eyesight yet (so excuse any typos) but I am alive and well and seem to be through the worst of the side effects. I’ll have a better update in a day or two once things fully return to normal. That’l also be when I can see any of your comments.

Turns out I get really bored without any text communication in my life, or TV or video games. Hope y’all are having a great weekend and a good day. Eyes are getting pretty tired now, so I think I’m going to wrap it up here.

Peace,

FGY

Spring Cleaning

Hi folks!

Another quick update. I’ve update the look/feel of the blog a little bit, and removed a few of the no longer relevant things (like Ello, and the link to Podcasts that will only go up when I start publishing podcasts again)

A Quick Check In

Good day, friends, fans, and loyal listeners!

A few quick updates

PAX South: The PAXening

This weekend the fine folks at Penny Arcade brought their expo to San Antonio. I can’t always make it to Seattle or Boston, but South is close enough that I’ve got no excuse not to go, and this makes two years I’ve gone and two years I’ve had a great time.

This year’s highlights included live D&D, a sneak peak at an awesome web series, a mental health gaming charity, board games, and of course, a lot of cosplay.

First impressions below the break

Back in Business

*hits switch*

*dusts and sweeps furiously while blog flickers back to life*

Hey everybody! Long time no see.

A long way of saying

Hey everybody!

No flash fiction challenge today, or photos, or anything like that. Just some thoughts that I figured I’d jot down and send off into the ether. Part of why I want to be a writer is to help folks when they’re feeling down, let them know they aren’t alone, especially when it comes to fun things like anxiety or depression, so it really doesn’t do much good if I clam up when things get dark in my own brain spaces, even though the fact I can write about it at all means that I’m heading towards the light, so to speak.

Flash Fiction Challenge: Rebirth of the Dragon

Holy bunches of updates, Batman!  While last week’s flash fiction challenge took almost the whole week to write, I managed to get this one out of my skull-meats in less than a day. The gist of the challenge was to go to this site and generate a D&D character backstory, and somehow turn that into ~1k words. It just so happens that this week marked the sixth anniversary of getting one of my good friends into Pathfinder (a 3.5 variant) and pen and paper in general. At that point my friends group was running a pick-up game of one shots based in a tavern that grew into something more and one day faded away. Add thinking about that to awesome Facebook friends generating more characters, and this is what I wound up with. Normally I end this preamble with ‘I hope you enjoy!’ and I still kind of do, but really, I’m writing this one for me, so yeah. Good times.

“You think this will work, Krecdax?”

The young gnome eyed his halfling companion over the dust covered bar of the abandoned tavern. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“If we get this open, we might be able to save the Dragon.”

Krecdax glanced at the cracked door, the gutted stone fireplace, the rotting roof beams. “I don’t know, kid, maybe it’s time for the Dragon to die. It had a good run, for a tavern, but it’s seen better days.”

“But what if that locket holds untold riches? Or a treasure map? Think of the opportunity! Think of the -“

“Don’t say it.” Krecdax came to the Gold Dragon Inn in its heyday. Some words held more danger than others.

“Think of the adventure!”

Flash Fiction Challenge: Good Intentions

Hey everybody! It’s time for another Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge! . This week’s challenge was to go to the idiomatic and turn on mixed up idiom into a 1k word story. I got “The Road to Hell is a Girl’s Best Friend” and the resulting bit of wording is what poured out of my brain when I read that. Hope you enjoy!

“What’ve we got?” Elaine asked as she carefully blew sand off the lenses of her wraparound sunglasses. Rubbing the sand away would scratch the polarized plastic, and she doubted she’d find replacement lenses anytime soon.

“Convoy, ma’am,” Renner called down from his watch post. “Ain’t flying no flags. Should I fire a warning shot, let ‘em know to be heading elsewhere?”

Elaine fought down the urge to say yes. “Renner, in twenty years, when have I ever asked you to fire a warning shot?”

The guardsman coughed. “Never. Ma’am.”

“That’s right. They can come in if they want. They got something to trade, we trade. They got an eye for trouble, well, you’d best not be wasting ammo on warnings.”

Flash Fiction Challenge (3 sentences): The Wicker Cage

Hey everybody! It’s time for another Chuck Wendig Flash Fiction Challenge! (patent pending)(I assume). This week’s challenge was to take three sentences from last week’s “Write a sentence” challenge, and turn those into a story. I found four that called to me, so I’m bending the rules a bit, but here we go. Hope you enjoy!

The sentences (with credit for who submitted them):

“Wings don’t make the angel, and hellfire doesn’t make a demon.” – furyious

“Shrouded in white, garlanded with marigolds, she lies on brushwood waiting for the cleansing flames.” – Debb Bouch

“She belonged there, in the half light of the moon, where reality was a dream.” – Ken McGovern

“Sometimes, the only thing left to build is a fire.” – Rich Hayden

 

Wings don’t make the angel, and hellfire doesn’t make a demon.

Those words, inscribed over the entrance of the Millennium Foundation’s Paranormal Division, itched at the back of Balan’s mind as he stared at what appeared to be a young woman in the center of the forest clearing.

He’d heard tales. Someone, too steeped in Judeo-Christian symbolism, had fucked it up, and fucked it up royally. Bad enough for the board to think it worth carving the words into the heavy marble haunch. Some fool unleashed a gossamer because it wore a dime store halo. Conveniently enough, the stories always left out the name of the offending agent. Nothing for Balan to clean up, no one for him to go after.