It's been a while and lots of things have changed but I've got some mojo back

Well thankyou to any readers who actually read this piece as it's been a good 6-7 weeks since I updated anything on the site here. I apologise to everyone and I'm getting back on the horse as far as enjoying my hobbies go.

To sum up for those who haven't followed:

- I separated from my wife just over 2 months ago
- I've had to find a new friend network and try dating for the first time in quite a while(you think tournaments are scary lol)
- I've been spending a lot of time at my new martial arts gym
- I can't really get enthused for Warmachine as I was getting into it when the whole split happened (plus I've grown to dislike metal models)
- Old Shatter Hands has been a great friend and also gotten me having good fun with 40k again so I'm happy about that.
- I've gotten my mojo back for writing and have finally got the last chapter of my current novel on the way to completion after several months of lagging.
- I'm feeling good about life in general and excited to face the opportunities and challenges ahead of me.


Ahem, so with that quick summary out of the way, what's to talk about?

I've been having a great time playing some 40k recently on a smaller scale. Two of my new friends got totally suckered into the game through me and are splitting black reach (husband and wife) so I've played some demo games with them and recently I played a great 750 pt game with OSH.

To be honest I think I could get used to small games quite happily. While I find AOBR games to swing drastically one way or the other they are still quite fun and playing at 750 is a great way to get a good game without too much power on either side. The time investment is a lot lower too, which is important for a busy person like me and a father to a newborn (OSH). I like that we set up and played two full games on a small table in a short time on saturday, where our bigger games suck up a lot more hours than you have free sometimes.

In other news I'm writing at a slow but steady pace on my steampunk/fantasy novel. I'm about 30% through the final chapter and just need to make sure it rounds off appropriately dramatically. I'm excited to finish this one as I have so many more ideas running around in my head, especially now that I've picked up some good novels to get my juices flowing. For steampunk I have Boneshaker and Dreadnought by Cherie Priest along with The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack by Mark Hodder. For my future dystopian work I picked up the Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood for the princely sum of 81c from my local second hand bookstore.


To sum up my upcoming ideas (all working titles):

- Ghost Stars.
A lone ship sent on a desperate mission to end a war in humanity's favour runs into to trouble when the captain and special military weapon's officer die suspiciously. Alone in the lonely darkness of the Eagle Nebula, the newly promoted 2nd in command must lead his crew through the risky path ahead, all the while wondering if there is a traitor in their midst.

- Voice of God, Voice of the Universe
In the near future, civilisation has collasped in the wake of a global conflict whose exact origins have been kept secret. The Vocare Dei religious group has created the only known semblance of order left. Their domain is central east coast region of the former United States (centred around Washington DC) and they rule it with an iron fist. When Dana Swyler, a lowly cleaner, stumbles across a hidden relic of the war she is chased by the government and an underground resistance force, both looking to further their own ends.

- Most Ancient Deceit
Detectives in (LARGE CITY) are on the trail of a murderous vigilante. Somebody is killing off drug dealers, gang members, mafia and other criminals with gruesome and efficient methods. As the detectives work their case methodically and uncover more evidence, things point towards a killer who is more than human.
***Might do this one as a 2 parter, first half with the police, second half with the killer explaining the other side of things. If you like the C'Tan you might like this idea...... ;-)


Then when talking on a blog the other day about Dystopian steampunk I came up with a new idea. The post was discussing the apparent clash of dystopia and steampunk as the author considered the former to be futuristic and the latter to be historic in setting. To me, the dystopia describes the nature of the setting (decaying, oppressive, negative etc.) rather than anything specific about it's timeframe. I can see future dystopia (40k), fantasy (WFB) and steampunk (Malifaux) setting examples quite easily. In responding to the post I scribbled out an example story idea before realising that I really like it and might use it myself. Just came up with this this morning so it's the least fleshed out in my mind but I like it nonetheless.

- Fillis and his pretties.
The brilliant, but sociopathic, Doctor Fillis breeds a revolutionary strain of bacteria that will allow fusion of the human body with steam-powered machinery, allowing criminals and other undesireables to be remade to serve as a society's labour force. The bacteria spreads too widely though and much of the population is killed or crippled. Those with genetic immunity who survive rebuild society to ensure that they are never threatened by the mechanical-human hybrids the, now-escaped, Fillis created. Breeding is only allowed with other immune people and tight controls are placed on the hybrids. Protagonist comes in and messes with the way things are.



Well that's about all from me now. I'm planning to get some more 40k games in soon, will get my painting back up to speed. I've also got to finish up the Harbinger of Menoth painting and assembly guide I started work on so lots left to do.

Sadly the camera I used for other model pictures was my ex's and now I have to get a new one. To make up for the lack of eye candy in this post, please enjoy the following cosplay sororitas pic ;-)

Picture from Grimdark on DeviantArt.

My first cast models have arrived! Woot!

Okay, so some good news for me right now :-)

Curtis at Ramshackle Games received shipment of three figures I sculpted for him a few weeks ago. You can see two of the figures below.



The third figure was another corpse marker. It's a curled up small person with a knife in their back. Curtis did point out I could have done it a little bigger as it's somewhat of a dead hobbit (his words) but they came out nicely in the sculpts.

In any case I now have 8 sculpts of each figure to distribute as I see fit, which is cool. I'll be painting a set up as soon as I get the time and energy so I can send pictures to Curtis for the webstore (he's been very busy with his Fantasy Orcs) but if anyone else nearby would like a set, let me know and I'll see how I can best get them to you.

The only caveat is that you must blog about Ramshackle games and how cool it is ;-)

All the best to everyone,

Pictures coming when I get home.

Getting very busy and sadly have lost the vibe for warmachine right now.

Hi everyone.

First of all, apologies for not being more on top of the old blog process. I've been working out a lot of things with my wife's decision that we need to separate and I've been on quite the emotional rollercoaster. Big thanks go out to Old Shatter Hands for being a great friend and keeping me involved in things (your baby shower was so fun!).

Emotionally I'm getting better with things and I think I've started to create the mental separation that I need to get on with my life and start moving on from the pain and hurt. Hopefully my wife will have all of her stuff moved out soon and I can stop seeing her clothes, our pictures etc. and feel so sad. Also the quicker she moves away, the sooner I can stop thinking about how she's managed to start dating someone already.

The bad news too is that I have really lost my interest in Warmachine right now. I think it's because I got into the game fairly recently and now it is associated with such a difficult time in my life that I just feel like I don't want any part of it for now. Thankfully I haven't spent much money on it yet and there is no need to get out of the game, but I do hope that in time I will rediscover the fun of playing it.


In other news I've joined the rather hardcore and extremely fun Frederick Fight Club. I've done nearly 4 hours of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, pad work and Mixed Martial arts training the last two nights and my body is aching so much. I'm planning on doing 2 hours per weeknight and 4 hours on saturday to make the most of my monthly fees ($100 per month is not cheap on my salary) but that does cut into hobby time a bit. Still I figure that I will be pretty ripped, stacked, cut, chopped, diced, torn or whatever words you like in just a few weeks. Perhaps it will put off my 40k opponents if I become a cage fighter and give me a psychological edge :-)


I think I will be able to put some more energy back into the hobby as I get more time to hang out with friends and come to terms with the major changes I'm going through so thanks to everyone for reading and posting. I appreciate all messages of support and I have been following people's blogs with interest, even if I don't always post.

All the best

Pete

Can the power of the blogosphere find me somewhere to live?

So I hope everyone is doing alright,

Due to the difficult situation mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm thinking of moving into Washington DC proper. Currently I live in Frederick, Md, which is a great small city and really cheap but I think a change of scenery physically would help my mental scenery to change.

The issue is that I don't have a huge salary and I will be on a reasonably tight budget. So what I'm wondering is if anyone knows anybody (friends, family, whatever) who might like a roomate for a rent in the $700-800 region.

Ideally I'd like to be as downtown as possible in DC and close to a metro station. Perhaps this is a reach but you never know until you ask.

Thanks in advance to any offers.

Pete

Keeping Busy Part 1.

Hi everyone,

So the blog is going to shift a little bit for the near future as I'm going through a bunch of stuff in real life. This particular post could apply to gaming as well though so it can stay.

The merits of keeping busy.

So since I'm starting to deal with things I've stepped up what I'm doing a whole bunch and I have plans that need to be worked on.

Done:
- Make plans with OSH to hang out. Looking forward to seeing how his wife is looking now with the incoming baby.
- Planning to bike into DC tomorrow and enjoy the good weather. I'm going to do a museum or two and try to meet up with an old friend from college who moved here.
- Tomorrow night, going to grill and have a beer with my buddy Boxer (morning show host for 98.7 WMZQ-FM) from work.
- Emailed a writer's group in my town that I can join. I have novels (steampunk, space thriller, dystopian sci-fi, horror) and children's stories that I want to finish/start and having a group of people around will be good for me, both for this and for generally keeping busy.

Planned:
- Join the Mixed Martial Arts Gym in my town and start really training again. I have done Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and more in my life but I want to get that fighting spirit (and body) back again.
- Paint up more models when I have a bit of downtime; don't want to be sitting around feeling lonely or sad.
- Learn to draw so that I can add illustrations to my children's stories. That way even if they don't get published for real, I can make copies for friends and family.
- Get out and go hiking, biking, swimming or whatever while the summer weather is still so good.
- Finish my almost complete novel! Grr, been doing this for too long now.

Phew, it looks pretty good so far. I'm quite excited to get going with all of this and I think it will be good for me.


On a modelling front it will help as I will have limited downtime (hopefully) and so whenever I get a chance to paint I will really enjoy it. Doing for a short time can also be good as you get to do bits here and there on models that don't seem like too much until you realise you've finished a whole batch and never got bored or discouraged because it was only done in parts.


All the best to everyone and thanks for the good wishes.

Pete

Everything on hold. Real life problems :-(

Hey everyone.

Unfortunately my blog and hobby time are going to be completely on hold for the immediate forseeable future due to some pretty major things going on that will be dominating my life.

While I may get some time in to do painting or whatever, right now I can't even concentrate mentally on anything but what's happening to my life. Even that is hard and so any painting stuff will probably just be used as a way to unwind and try to gain some control over what's going on.

Unfortunately nothing is definite about how the situation will resolve and in some ways that is the hardest part.

Thanks for all of the support you have given and I promise to come back as soon as I can find the time and emotional energy.


All the best to you and I will keep checking in on your blogs.

Thanks

Pete

Great humour piece from Privateer press.

***The following is completely the work of the Privateer press team and was taken from their website without permission. Please go there to read the original Privateer Insider article and to browse the others. They are a collection of really interesting pieces describing things from the perspective of the PP team. One week might be an editor, next a sculptor, studio painter, artist, playtester, photographer etc. They are like GW's daily updates except that they don't feel like an advert for whatever latest product is on offer. Highly reccomended. The following piece made me laugh so much that I nearly spat out my lunch at my desk - not advised if you want a promotion lol. Hopefully you enjoy***




Typos come with the territory for an editor. Most of them we fix without a second’s thought, but occasionally there are those that make us pause to appreciate the glory of an error-induced perspective.

I’m not talking about the use of “there” instead of “their”—that’s just the wrong word—but about the slip of the fingers on the keyboard that turns “the” into “teh,” “dragon” into “draggon,” or “glory” into “gory.” (Ha! “The gory of an error-induced perspective.” Yes, I can appreciate that. I’m a terrible typist myself.)

For example, before handing over the Trollbloods story for editing, Doug warned me he seemed to be having trouble typing Gunnbjorn’s name. “You’ll have to keep an eye out for any stray Bunnbjorns,” he noted. Whether your mind goes to buff Swedes or rabbit ears, the image isn’t exactly what we had in mind for our new trollkin warlock. Then again, perhaps a conversion is appropriate . . .

While I polish up some awesomeness for your Gen Con enjoyment, here are a few sentences showing the entertaining effect of some of my favorites among the typos I’ve seen—or made!—lately.

A small group of trollin crept through the brush.

Trollin are actually the members of a kriel who have to crawl home after a night of carousing, I think.

The leader scammed the stone construction in progress below.

He was such a good salesman he could sell stone to a wall in the middle of a quarry.

Doomshaper is no fresh-faced walrock.

No, that particular wall of rock has been around for a while . . . “Warlock” seems to give many of us particular trouble, and this is only one variation. Also common are warrocks, which I gather are a new weapon class; warcloaks, which besides being snazzy are actually pretty darn useful in the field; and warclocks, which I must admit have a certain Dr. Doom appeal. Plus it’s always handy to know when it’s teatime.

Guts and Gears podcats are great to listen to while painting.

Their album Stray Thoughts is a howl.

Such complexes were used by skorne breaders to develop their enormous warbeats.

Enormous breaded warbeets would be yummy! But, alas, we get only aspiring DJs out to spawn a skorne revolution in techno-bone-crunch-hypno-groove.

Perhaps if he had a hungred trollkin warriors with him he could take it.

Appropriately enough, it takes only a few trollkin to make up a hungred. Fewer if any are full-blood trolls or they haven’t had any breaded warbeets in a while.

The ink contains enough poison and noon-organic material to resist the trollkins’ regenerative powers.

Tattoos made with such ink become invisible for several hours in the middle of the day, making that the perfect time for job interviews and meeting the parents of potential mates.

Dragonspawn are a vicious funtion of draconic blight.

Because what’s more fun than blight? Making dragonspawn from it! Crunchy on the outside, oily on the inside . . .

The Lancer raised its sock shield to intercept the Revenger’s spear.

Spear-repellant textile production is a burgeoning industry in the Iron Kingdoms. Cygnar prefers athletic styles but has yet to master moisture wicking, while Khador is developing a proprietary wool blend from the coats of several indigenous ovine species.