Still catching up . . .

Hello everyone!

     Happy New Year! Well, it is New Year's Eve here in Arizona for a few hours yet, anyway! I just wanted to give my readers a quick update on how things are going! As you know if you've been following me a while, starting last year around this time I started posting monthly short stories to my series on Channillo.com, Tales From Midhgardhur! I was fairly faithful about posting up until October, when I was hospitalized and could very well have died, as it turns out. I was home before November but still in recovery, so I skipped NaNoWriMo this year (which broke my heart just a little!). Since then, I'm happy to say that my health has recovered fairly well, but my writing schedule is still in pieces. Between illness and recovery and holiday madness, I only just now got around to posting my OCTOBER piece, "The Knocker In The Dark" - my November piece is not even started yet, December was supposed to be a Yuletide story that I probably won't post until next year now, and January starts tomorrow! I've got some writing to do! But now the major holidays have passed, my health is passing fair, and I should have time to work. If you're a subscriber to Tales From Midhgardhur, "The Knocker In The Dark" is now posted and available to read! If you're not yet a subscriber, I recommend Channillo.com - there are some great stories and series available there beyond just the Midhgardhur stories!

     Anyway, Happy New Year to all! Be sure to look for my "Appendix N Revisited" posts on this blog beginning with the Ides of January (that's January 13th for those of you unfamiliar with the rather odd calendar of the ancient Romans), and more stories making their way to Tales From Midhgardhur as soon as I can have them ready!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Appendix N Revisited: A New Project!

Hello everyone,

     I am embarking on a new project which will see its first results in 2017, though of necessity the work begins now. I intend to begin revisiting the literature of Appendix N, reading and writing about what I've read once a month (probably aiming for the Ides of each month). If you're not familiar with the term. "Appendix N" refers to an appendix in the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide, a list compiled by Gary Gygax of the fantasy, science fiction, and weird fiction that was inspirational and fundamental to the original conception of Dungeons & Dragons. The list has come to be revered by many in the "OSR" movement ("Old School Renaissance" or "Old School Revival"), including the creators of the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG at Goodman Games. Anyway, Appendix N has always held a deep fascination for me, as one of the origins of my hobby (what I often refer to as the Hobby) and as literature that I enjoyed reading and influenced my own writing. These days, fantasy literature is a much more securely established genre than it was in the early 1970s when Gygax and Areneson were first formulating the basics of what became fantasy RPGs. Back then, it tended more strongly to the weird, and indeed the related genre of "weird fiction" features prominently in Appendix N.

     So what is the point of all this? Well, in part, it is "getting in touch with my roots" - returning ad fontes to the sources of inspiration for my fantasy RPG Hobby and my own writing. In part, it is an attempt to give some structure to my rather haphazard re-reading of the Appendix N corpus, and to organize my thoughts on what I'm reading. And in part, it's just for fun. So I'm going to start reading now, and you can look for blog posts on the subject starting around the Ides of January. My intent is to work through as much of the actual Gygaxian Appendix N as possible before moving on to alternate "inspirational reading" lists, such as that of Moldvay or the creators of the Pathfinder RPG.

     I hope that reading about revisiting Appendix N may inspire some of my readers to do the same!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd

Just a reminder: "Tales From Midhgardhur, Volume I," is on Kindle Countdown Sale NOW!

Hello everyone,

     Just wanted to remind everyone that Tales From Midhgardhur, Volume I is still on Kindle Countdown Sale through Wednesday, 12/14/16! People have been taking advantage of the sale, but I wanted to remind everyone before the opportunity is gone! If you have last-minute holiday shopping to do and want to give a friend with a Kindle the gift of Midhgardhur, or just get the stories for yourself, now is the time!

Happy Reading! Skál!
~ Colin Anders Brodd