FLY SOUP

The first four chapters of my latest branching narrative gamebook: Dreamwalkers  are out on Tales: Choose Your Own Story and looking good. I'm enjoying writing this story on commission for Tales and have great hopes of getting all ten chapters out by May 2023.  The story is about a group of teens who find a way to visit one another's dreams, but (you guessed it) when their dreams turn to nightmares, some of them wind up dead. I'd describe it as the Goonies meets (the original) Flatliners . Hit this link to download the app and read the story:  https://link.talescreator.com/Q2PRVqqgqsb Also, loving the cover art. It's so nice when publishers spend the time (and money) on artists who're able to capture the vibe of a project like this. I have no complaints about any of the covers or interior art they've created for my work so far.

For the past 4 years SIFTER has released a list of all video games made in Australia in order of their release date. This years' list, boldly titled 2022: The Definitive List of Australian Made Video Games,  can be found here . I have no idea exactly how "definitive" it is, but it does contain great new titles from Australian game companies like Mighty Kingdom, Tin Man Games and Playside. Tassie game makers have 5 games on the list, 2 of which are mine: Cat's Claw and Darkendore . Yipeee, go Tassie! The industry is small here but we do our best.  The other 3 Tassie games were released by MarineVerse (a VR sailing game), Smash Attack Studios (party minigames), and Motely Pixel (fun side-scroller).  I'm pretty sure there are a lot more games being developed in Tassie than are on this particular list, but finishing what you start is important in this industry. I write on a contract basis and I'm paid for completing my work, which gives me a strong incentive to...

 Much as I hate to brag... *Ahem* My branching narrative stories Cat's Claw and Darkendore have recently shared top spot on the Tales: Choose Your Own Story app. This makes me very happy. The app management team are still in the "writer and community building stage" right now. But even so, the number of readers appears to be steadily growing. There must be over a thousand stories/games on the app now and I'm so happy my stories are being read, even at this early stage. I hope that, when Tales team switches from app development, to the serious business of attracting readers in large numbers, that the stories will enjoy a similar degree of popularity.

Just going to drop these here. I'm only a few scenes away from finishing Darkendore. Some of the art is still pending, but have a look at this. It's a fair indication of what you'll see if you choose to download the Tales: Choose Your Own Story app for iOS or Android (still in beta I think).  Apologies in advance for the poor graphical and sound quality. That's on me. Between my sub-par video screen-capture skills, and the video conversion here on Blogger, it hasn't translated super-well. Still, I figured they're worth worth putting up to give an idea of what I'm up to.  

I've been really busy in 2022, mostly writing for a mobile platform called Tales: Choose Your Own Story . It's a great, new(ish) app that I believe offers a lot to both readers and writers.  In early 2022 I put the finishing touches on Cat's Claw , a small 's' superhero who finds herself in a huge pile of captial 'T' trouble. As far as I can tell it's going well on the platform and as such is getting promoted by the app managers. I'm currently writing the final episodes of Darkendore , a young-adult (kinda grimdark) tale about reapers, and what they get up to in their downtime, and their uptime I guess. In fact, it's pretty-much about what they get up to all the time. I'm loving writing Darkendore as I originally tried to get a grant from Screen Tasmania to produce it and was knocked back. But the first game company I pitched it to greenlit it immediately. Unfortunately, that means it's not set in Tassie now, but I love it anyway.  Tales ...

 So I joined these guys: They seem like a pretty inclusive bunch and since I'm branching into crime writing now I thought it was a good idea. They've already put me onto a couple of informative (and free) online seminars. Honestly, as most of my work (including the narrative design) comprises some level of mystery and danger, crime writing isn't much of a stretch.  Plus - I'm loving it already!

No one who knows anything about the Skywalker saga can deny the final scenes of The Mandalorian Season 2 are anything but spectacular. The arrival of the mysterious X-wing, the green lightsaber, the black-gloved hand, all build toward an exhilarating and surprising reveal. Personally, I thought the return of Luke Skywalker in the prime of his Jedi powers was an awesome sight. My partner on the other hand? Not so much. My partner isn't a long-time Star Wars fan. She doesn't know much about the Skywalker clan and doesn't much care to find out BUT, she loves the Mandalorian and she especially loves little Grogu.  Toward the end of season two's final episode, while I was getting more and more excited as clues began to drop as to what was about to happen, my partner was becoming frustrated and confused. "What's going on?" she asked, bewildered at the sudden and unexplained turn of events. "Who's this guy?" At the time I was too overwhelmed with ch...