Hey everyone!
This week, my second-oldest daughter and I started working on Home Sweet Home, my contribution to a 4-game collection (The Welcome Wagon) that Nate, Tim, Kanishk, and I are working on together.
This project has been in the works since January of this year. My initial draft was completed forever ago, but when I started formatting it, I realized I have qu...
2024-08-20 16:52:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey friends! Despite my kids being home and our kitchen being under construction, this summer has been extremely productive. Here's what I have going on right now:
1.) After two weeks of waiting, Plane is finally being processed at Ingram. Hopefully, I'll be able to order our first proofs this week, so the print-and-play PDF can be released by September. It ended up becoming a huge book. At 160 pages, it's massive by solo TTRPG standards. The add-ons came ...
2024-08-12 15:50:19 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone!
I'm pausing billing, because I feel weird taking payments without offering anything substantial in return (and yes, I know that Patreon is built for this kind of thing, but still).
The last few months have been crazy. Here's an overview of the projects I've been juggling:
Plane way overfunded on Kickstarter. All stretch goals unlocked. The amount of work this resulted in was utterly ridiculous, lol. Thankfully, the work is fun, so it r...
2024-06-03 17:09:50 +0000 UTC View PostWell, I did plan to come in here and announce the launch of our Kickstarter for Plane, but we funded before I could even draft the post!
As I write this, the campaign is at $973 with 31 backers and 24 days left to go. We’re $27 away from hitting a major stretch goal—a guided campaign ...
2024-03-20 20:16:00 +0000 UTC View PostHello friends!
It’s been an exhilarating (read: nerve-wracking) few weeks at AstroFusion Command, and I’m thrilled to share the progress we’ve made on Plane, our first journaling RPG.
Artistic Evolution: First and foremost, Plane’s vibe has undergone a remarkable transformation. I’ve been refining the art style to better capture the mood of the game, which has been hard, because I’m a perfectionist and this is the first ruleb...
2024-02-19 20:20:51 +0000 UTC View PostHey everyone! Today is a very special day for me, one I’ve been looking forward to for weeks. It’s NEW CAT DAY!
NEW CAT DAY!!!! SQUEEEEE!!!
If you aren’t interested in pets, scroll down, because this is all I can think about right now and I’m dying to talk about it.
As those in our Discord likely already know, our extremely beloved German shepherd, Emma, died in her sleep on Christmas night. She had been part of our family for eleven and a h...
2024-01-18 14:44:47 +0000 UTC View PostHello beloved supporters!
As the new year unfolds, we're thrilled to share some fantastic updates from The Dread Machine. Your support has been the backbone of our journey, and we're excited to take you along on our latest adventures!
Issue 3.4 sold more copies on release than any previous issue! Arcane Advisors, your epub copies are ...
2024-01-03 17:00:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Last week, I embarked on a pop culture pilgrimage.
New York ComicCon is where fandoms collide and an insane amount of creativity is on full display, from the art (which is literally everywhere) to the elaborate costumes people wear. With my very first Professional badge in hand (around my neck, actually), I set off to explore potential game design connections...and maybe also see Katee Sackhoff in person (but from a distance, because in my brain, that's somehow less weird than ...
2023-10-17 17:24:06 +0000 UTC View PostDownload it today!
Like, now. Right now. Otherwise, you'll forget.
Then, set a calendar reminder to read it, or else you'll end up with a hard drive full of unread issues.
Don't be like me. Be better than me.
2023-10-03 15:45:15 +0000 UTC View PostI've been keeping pretty quiet about the solo RPG Kanishk and I have been working on, mostly because I'd want to avoid any kind of deadline pressure. This is the biggest project I've ever attempted, and the stakes feel pretty high. However, the more progress I make, the more excited I get, so I'm going to share my secret news here.
In Plane, players assume the role of an interdimensional teleporter operator for AstroFusion, the multiverse's best (and only!) interdimensional tra...
2023-09-27 14:55:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! Sorry about the prolonged silence. We’ve had some obnoxious, stressful behind-the-scenes problems that needed to be resolved. Now that all the fires have been put out, we have an update for you! (This one will be long, but the important parts are in bold, so it’s scroll-friendly.)
First, we broke up with KDP. It’s a very, very long story about Terms and Conditions, glaring omissions, and a corporation’s refusal to respond to questions about any of ...
2023-09-19 20:26:29 +0000 UTC View PostIn this issue of The Dread Machine...
Go west and weird, join the Goth Girls' Gun Gang, explore the bottom of the Mariana Trench, learn what cicadas taste like, hide from the corporate warlords, and sew your fractured self together.
Climb to the top of the pyramid scheme, find the joy in devouring, and save your stupid boyfriend. Pick a door, pick a door, then pick another door-and hope none of them open into the void of space.
Whatever you do, don't listen ...
2023-07-03 14:56:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Originally published by Podcastle, March 2021.
Hey Girl!
From: Amy Shearer (serpentsisteramy@sotesh.com)
To: Heather McBride (mcheather@ymail.com)
Hey, girlfriend! Love looking at your beautiful family on Insta. And congrats on getting into grad school—that’s HUGE!
Furthering your education whi...
2023-06-21 19:26:25 +0000 UTC View Post
At the bottom of the Mariana Trench, Death is a misplaced pinprick, a hairline crack. Owen hears Death tapping at the exterior, testing the structural integrity of the habitat. Irregular ticking echoes through the lab, as if the light deprivation has thrown an invisible clock off-kilter, altering the nature of time itself. Days pass in a blink. A second stretches to eternity while Owen listens to Death searching, hunting for a way in.
A loud creak makes Owen jump. The beaker of solvent ...
2023-06-14 23:00:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Today, I'm reviewing the proof for 3.2, and I have to say, this is pretty exceptional. For starters, this order was fulfilled by a printer in New Haven, which is about an hour and a half from me. If this printer becomes our new fulfillment center, that means much faster turnaround time on proofs and print orders. But also, I switched up my workflow a bit this quarter, which resulted in fewer editing passes and a much cleaner proof!
2023-06-09 14:55:22 +0000 UTC View Post
Monica sent a package. Let's see what's inside!
2023-06-07 14:19:13 +0000 UTC View PostLike a lot of writers, I'm an introvert, a ghost-person who prefers sneaking around the internet, lurking, hoping nobody notices my existence. Needless to say, megaplatforms (like Facebook and Twitter) are not for me. The idea of tens or hundreds of millions of strangers scrutinizing my posts or comments makes me physically ill. So, I'm thrilled with the way social networks are evolving, how they're splitting up into smaller, federated networks. Obviously, this will make marketing a bit more ...
2023-05-26 16:22:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Every year, we host a writer's retreat at the creepiest Airbnb within our budget. Luckily, creepy Airbnbs aren't hard to find when your budget totals whatever you and six friends manage to find between your couch cushions.
Last year, we stayed here, at a place we lovingly refer to as "Gail's Murder Cabin." We wrote stories, played board games, fought intens...
2023-05-18 22:10:42 +0000 UTC View Post
First we inspect the books, then we clean the books, then we pack the books, then we ship the books.
2023-05-08 13:47:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hey everyone! We're testing our new submission management system for the next few weeks. I've got to write documentation for the slushers and figure out how to modify my workflow. If you'd like to help, submit anything (real story, ASCII art, a document written in Wingdings—whatever) here.
Let me know if you encounter any weirdness or ugliness by emailing me at 2023-05-03 12:44:12 +0000 UTC View Post
Remember last week, when I said, "Every summer, I spend a few weeks researching other printers. Usually, we end up stuck with KDP..."? Well, I'm going to show you what that research process looks like.
Today, I evaluated Draft 2 Digital, a print-on-demand and book distribution company we've been monitoring for a few years. Up until last year, D2D only published and distributed ebooks, but now, t...
2023-04-26 21:13:20 +0000 UTC View PostThis week, we've had to deal with some rough news.
Moksha Price Increase: Remember last week, when I told you Moksha's annual subscription increased to $750 per year? I can't justify the expense anymore. (I'd rather pay that money to writers.) So this weekend, we're switching to a free, self-hosted submission management system simply called Submission Manager.
WooCommerce Price Increase: Our ecommerce and subscription management solution increased...
2023-04-21 18:50:38 +0000 UTC View PostWell, I learned this morning that the cost of our annual Moksha subscription went up by $150. I was hoping, as a loyal annual customer, we'd be able to hold our $600/year rate, but nope.
For those of you who aren't aware, Moksha is a submission management platform. Many speculative fiction magazines use Moksha because it allows us to easily add and remove first readers, who can jump right in and start ranking submissions.
However, this cost is substantial. To make up t...
Today, I'm finalizing proofs for Darkness Blooms. My process here is generally pretty straightforward: I pore over every single millimeter of each edition (epub, paperback, hardcover), and if I discover an error, I mark it and circle the page number in red pen. Once the errors are discovered, I open up the files and make the necessary corrections before re-uploading the files.
This should be the last pass before publication. Each story went through several rounds of edits befor...
2023-04-11 21:19:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Behold our fat stacks! Today, I'm preparing to ship Issue 3.1.
A few people placed orders for multiple copies, and I'll be working on adding our titles to every library in the Hartford County system this month, so this is a bigger stack of books than we normally order. (Typically, I buy whatever number of subscription copies we have to ship, plus ten extras.)
This is my little fulfillment station. It's a restored antique, and I love it. I also highly recommend the rest...
