Of Geeks and Car Troubles

Phew! What a week!

First, let me update you all on the writing angle. No submissions this week, but, I am working on three projects right now. Two short stories are in the work and a flash fiction piece for a podcast is also up and running. I’m working on draft two for the flash piece (the one I posted on Friday, in fact), and I am working on draft one for the other two stories, which will be submitted to magazines, one that pays and one that doesn’t. I know, submitting to a mag that doesn’t pay? But, it’s a new mag, and a publishing credit if they take me. So, while I continue to research them, I’ll work on a story assuming I want to submit to them. If I decide not to submit, I still have a story I can submit to other places. And if I do, and they take me, then like I said, publishing credit.

So, that’s the writing front. In other areas of my life, things are very interesting. My wife and I just dropped a huge chunk of change to get some needed maintenance on our car. You know, stuff like oil filter changed, new oil, new tires, alignment, tune up, that kind of stuff. Then, this very morning, on the way to work/school with our boy, the car breaks down. Turns out the plug for the oil filter fell off, and there was river of oil on the side of the road. So, back to the dealership for the fix and a rental car. The good news is that the engine itself was not damaged, they’re going to do the fix, and also replace our wearing breaks (not really in need, but it would be soon, so hey, cool) and a detail, all for free to make up for it being their fault in the first place.

So, rough day today. But this weekend?

Man, it was awesome! A group of friends of mine do this thing every year, a weekly gaming get together we call Hyphen-Con. It’s a two day affair where a bunch of RPG geeks get together and play RPG’s on one day, and board/card games on the second. And I had a blast! I ran a game of Danger Patrol (retro-future pulp sci-fi narrative game, it’s fun, you should Google it) and played in a fantasy game that used the mechanics from the Smallville RPG, which was also fun. I’m not sure I’d be really interested in a Smallvilleesque campaign, but the one-off was pretty cool.

And board game day was filled with awesomeness. Settlers of Catan, Dominion, Puerto Rico, Zombies, Kung-Fu Fighting, and those are just the games I played in. There were a ton of others.

So, great weekend, filled with geeky goodness, and while I am exhausted now, it was well worth it. I’ll probably take a night off of writing today, for recovery as well as other prior engagements, but I’m ready to jump back into the pool tomorrow. So, until then, remember:

No matter where you go, there you are!