Books Read in August 2024

Oops, a few days behind on this. I went a bit overboard reading in August and September is definitely slower. Almost all of these books were from my library since I wanted to keep participating in my summer reading program there, which is partially why my reading in September is slower. Also because my kids are back in school and all the Internet Archive discourse on Bluesky (not getting into it) was very annoying to me as well. Even the conversations around “real” libraries have been annoying and heavily focused on how libraries are good because they give authors money which, sure, that’s nice, but there’s lots of other reasons why they’re good.

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar – After hearing this books described as a modern classic in the last few years I finally read it. It’s really good! Not a whole lot to say past that but I recommend it if you like gay time travel stories.

1984 by George Orwell – It’s weird having an opinion on this book after reading it for the first time. I’ve seen it referenced billions of times and the influence that it had on pop culture that I mostly knew it all anyway. But I think it’s good?

Orbital by Samantha Harvey – I really liked this one. It’s just about the lives of people in the last days of the International Space Station before it’s decommissioned. I absolutely love sci-fi stories that feel like they are heavy on vibes and there aren’t explosions and punching and this one delivers since there’s not really a “plot.” The novella did well with critics but it explains why opinions on places like Storygraph are more divided.

Welcome to Wine: An Illustrated Guide to All You Really Need to Know by Madelyne Meyer – Yep lol, I just wanted to know more about wine. This was a good intro to that and not too long.

Red Rising by Pierce Brown – Apparently this is a massively popular series but I didn’t really care for it. Not “bad” but nothing exciting to me either.

Some Are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun – Just a really good collection of poetry by a local author in Ann Arbor. I picked this one up about a year ago at Booksweet, which has now changed ownership but still seems very good.

Artificial Condition by Martha Wells – The second Murderbot novella. I’ve read this one before but just really like Murderbot and wanted to read it again. I think I’ve only read the first 3 books so I’m looking forward to getting to the new stories soon.

Captain Disaster: The Dark Side of the Moon by Dave Seaman – This is a short story novelization of his free point-and-click adventure, both are available on Itch. Fun, quick read. Most people should do novelizations of their games.

The Fireborne Blade by Charlotte Bond – Very enjoyable fantasy novella. The middle drags a bit and it spends time setting up more interesting things in the sequel book instead of doing it here, but I had fun reading it.

Venus in Furs by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch – Public domain read on my Kindle. I don’t know, shrug. I get why it’s important but don’t think I would recommend it to others.

Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany – My first Delany book! Liked it but probably wouldn’t recommend the audiobook to others since I feel like you need to take your time with it and parts and possibly even reread things?

The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo – Another novella in the Singing Hills cycle. I’m glad I kept reading these. Wonderful series.

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros – Good book. Don’t have a lot to say about this one. It’s not really the kind of book I would normally read but checked it out since it’s popular and was part of a recommendation post from my library. Won’t read the sequels but that doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Nothing But Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw – It’s fine. I like Cass Khaw but this didn’t work as well for me like their other books. Even my review seemed to be more positive than most on Storygraph, but I didn’t think it was bad. I think a lot of people felt pulled in by the fantastic cover art. Like everyone says, the characters are just kinda annoying, but not in a way that’s interesting. Oh well. Go read their other stuff though!

Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne – I listened to the audiobook by Tim Curry and man, absolutely incredible. The story itself is good but Tim Curry really elevates everything.

Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny – My first Zelazny book and it won’t be the last. I actually started reading this because we were playing Chronomaster in Adventure Game Club, which he worked on, and I wanted to actually read one of his books. Good stuff.

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne – I guess I am a big Jules Verne fan and I’m fully onboard with Captain Nemo’s bullshit.

Tom Baker at 80 – Ok lol, this is an audio release I bought from Big Finish about 10 years ago and I have the signed cd. I finally listened to it. It’s fine! It’s just a 2 hour long interview with Tom Baker and his career. He’s still working with Big Finish and doing more 4th Doctor stories to this day!

Into the Riverlands by Nghi Vo – There’s one more of these that I also read in September. Highly recommend the whole thing.

The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket – Listened to this because Tim Curry does the narration. He’s great, I thought the actual book was whatever and then I read the Wikipedia page for the author and he seems very annoying so I don’t think I’ll do the sequels.

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie – Another story I listened to because of Tim Curry! He’s good in this and so is the story. It’s worth reading even if you’ve seen the Disney movie a bunch. It’s not drastically darker like some Disney source material is, but it is a little bit and it’s just interesting.

A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony – Oof, OOF. I read this because I eventually wanted to play the adventure game by Legend and wanted some context. I’ve even been warned about this book before, the AV Club famously has a very negative review of the book. I should have listened. It’s so frustrating. There’s some really fun ideas in here but it’s so aggressively sexist. It really can’t stop itself from saying something awful every once in a while once you think the book stopped being sexist.

A Mastodon Test

I just installed a new plug-in that should post this over to my Mastodon account here. Before this became self-hosted, the blog would post to its own account but I dropped that as soon as Automattic got into AI scraping crap. I also deleted my Tumblr soon after. Oh well, their loss. Apologies if you follow this through RSS and care about none of this!

Books Read in July 2024

I guess I should post on here more. I’ve been pretty busy pretty busy this summer but here’s what I read this last month. You can always follow me on Storygraph

Ariol – A Beautiful Cow: This was a collection of comics that one of my kids picked from the library. It was fine! I never heard of it before

Dragonflight: My first Anne McCaffrey book! I thought it was ok but suffered from some very boring stretches but it has some neat concepts and I liked the ending. I will read more by her at some point in the future.

Exhibit by R.O. Kwon: Big fan of this writer. Didn’t enjoy it as much as The Incendiaries but still thought it was very good. The marketing for the book was very odd to me because it felt like it was hyping it up as an erotic and fun novel and that’s really not what the focus was. Not a criticism of the book at all, just weird that the marketing chose to go with that.

Kindred: My first Octavia E. Butler book! Nothing really insightful to say about this one. Yep, it’s a great book and I’ll need to read more by her. By knowing what the book was about in advance, I sorta expected it to be kind of a slog but nope. It felt like a quick read to me.

The Long Game: My first Ann Leckie story. This is another one of the short sci-fi stories that is available as part of Amazon Prime so I read it. I don’t really remember anything about it and my storygraph says I gave it 3 stars so I guess I thought it was just fine. I’ll read more by Ann because I know this isn’t really representative of her writing and to be honest, I’ve kinda felt “it’s fine” has been the case with all of the stories in this Kindle series.

The Stars Too Fondly: Really fun sci-fi, gay romance novel by Emily Hamilton. I don’t really know if I had seen people discussing it on Bluesky (where I now follow a ton of writers) before grabbing it from my library, but I’m glad I did.

Servant Mage: Meh. Fantasy novella that still felt kinda boring in the middle and I didn’t really find the characters to be too interesting.

Yours Cruelly, Elvira: My Wild Life as the Mistress of the Dark: This is the autobiography by Cassandra Peterson, the actress who plays Elvira. I would have a hard time recommending it to people who don’t know who she is, but I really liked it. Went with the audiobook for this one, which I think was the right choice. I think it’s neat my library had it.

In the House of Aryaman, a Lonely Signal Burns: My first Elizabeth Bear book. To be honest, I have already sorta forgotten what it was about and had given it 3/5 on Storygraph, which usually means I thought it was fine but not memorable. I had checked it out just because it was something I could listen to for free as part of my Audible trial. I’ll read more by her though. I thought it was neat that the main character wasn’t white, it was a perfectly fine detective story, and I was kind of in a weird mood when I listened to it anyway.

The Y in Life: This was a self-published novel by a local author that I checked out from the library because I enjoyed the author’s blog posts about local bookstores and soccer team. It’s a weird one that’s kind of a mess and way too long but I still enjoyed it? Maybe I like when an author knows they are probably just writing one book and just put everything in there. Maybe I should read more self-published books even if they’re messy?

When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain: I really liked the previous book in this world, The Empress of Salt and Fortune, but didn’t click as much with this. But it’s short, everyone else seemed to like it more than me, and I still didn’t even think it was bad, just not great like the first book. Still might read more in the series though since they’re standalone novellas set in the same world.

Streaming

I started streaming on Twitch recently after years of considering it and was surprised to find out that I really enjoy it. It looks like I made a post about it a few months ago announcing that I had one but didn’t really get into it until this last month. It started when I decided to stream the mid 90s puzzle game Gubble, partially as a bit but I genuinely wanted to revisit a game I had played when it was released. I had a blast and other people seemed to enjoy finding out about the game too.

I think it’s been good for me to do since it makes me commit to actually playing a game for two hours instead of fighting with my awful attention span and playing the game for 20 minutes, checking my phone, playing the game for another 10 minutes, looking at various websites, and then stopping to do something else. Plus I actually stick with games more instead of starting games and never finishing them.

Since it seemed to help a lot with completing games, I decided to do a game dev stream last night and got a ton done. Again, it helped having people to talk to while I work on my game for a few hours. This was just an art stream where I was making clay art for a short point-and-click adventure. I felt motivated to work on it again after someone at a recent game dev meetup told me that I shouldn’t make an adventure game with clay since it “has been done a million times before” (1. rude and 2. what the hell are you talking about?). I would never do any coding streams because it’s my day job and I don’t wanted to be judged for any bad code, but I’m ok with people seeing me learn how to do clay art and stop motion animation. So I’ll keep doing more of these since it seems to make me more productive and it’s fun.

I highly doubt it will never get too elaborate or have a dedicated schedule. I have no interest in this being a side gig or a thing that makes money but it’s been nice as a thing to keep me focused and make solitary activities a little more social.

Books Read in June 2024

I read a lot in June! It helps that my local library launched their summer reading challenge, which I’m having a lot of fun participating in. I also document all of this on my Storygraph

The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older: Just a fun Sherlock-inspired murder mystery in space with woman and gay. Not groundbreaking but it was a fun, quick read for me. My first book I read by Malka and I would read later books in this series at some point too.

The Black God’s Drums by P. Djèlí Clark: Novella set in an alternate history after the American Civil War in New Orleans, this story is so much more interesting than most of those which just seem to be “What if the Confederates won?” I don’t know if there’s more stories set in this world but I need to read more by this author.

Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey: The first book I read by Mercedes! Just a really well written fantasy books and I want to read more in this world.

Calamity by Constance Fay: Decent romance story set in space.

Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-Mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food by Michelle T. King: I really need to make more of an effort to read history books about food. This is about Fu Pei-Mei and her history of cooking shows and I found it to be really interesting!

The Forever War by Joe Halderman: I’ve been making more of an effort to read The Classics, even though I believe that Having to Read Them is overrated, but I’m glad I read it. It has some huge issues with how it has aged because of sexuality, even if the author is well meaning, but plenty of interesting ideas too and the book was more anti-war than I expected, which is nice.

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo: Good, short fantasy novella about a royal family. Don’t have much to say about it but I liked it and will read more in the series.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein: Another classic I read this much but didn’t enjoy. I completely understand why it’s important and loved, but so much of it has aged horribly and a lot is also tainted by knowing how Heinlein would eventually lean politically and thinking “hmmm….I don’t think it’s just the character saying an awful thing.”

How It Unfolds by James S.A. Corey: Amazon has a ton of short stories they’ve funded so I started reading these too. This is my first by James S.A. Corey as well. I liked it! It’s very short so it’s not a deep story but it’s a fun read.

Foundation by Isaac Asimov: Another classic! Also my first by Asaac Asimov! I watched the first season of the tv show, which I’m aware has almost nothing to do with the book, which pushed me into finally reading the book. It’s good! It feels like it’s not a finished story, probably because it’s a collection of shorts and there’s some books after this, but I enjoyed it.

Lost Ark Dreaming by Suyi Davies Okungbowa: Very cool novella about people living in a very tall building in the future when the Earth has flooded. I want to read more by this author.

Zork: The Forces of Krill by Steve Meretzky: This was a choose your own adventure-style book that was released in the early 80s by one of Infocom’s designers. I was told before reading that it’s not great and I suppose it isn’t, but it’s also harmless and short. The most interesting thing about the book is that the game Zork Nemesis later references it. I bought it for $1.50 at a used book store and it sells for much more than that online, and I think I would have been annoyed it I paid any significant amount for it.

The Scourge Between Stars by Ness Brown: Fun, short horror story in space. Felt very inspired by Alien.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin: A classic and my first read by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s amazing! I guess I’ll need to read everything by her.

These Fragile Graces, This Fugitive Heart by Izzy Wasserstein: Cyberpunk book. It’s fine. I wish I liked it more because it’s very queer and that part is great, but it also spent too much time over explaining everything to the reader, oh well.

Void by Veronica Roth: Another one of the short stories from Amazon. Fun little sci-fi mystery. Nothing super memorable but if you’ve got Amazon Prime then you can already read it for free and it’s a nice and short read.

A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs: My first John Carter story and also my first story I’ve read by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Probably the last too? Kinda hated this one. I can see how it’s very influential but it’s all very racist and sexist and I suspect it was even for its time. I looked at the description for the next book in the series and it seems to double down on this and reading the author’s wikipedia page confirms he wasn’t a great dude so I’m moving on.

Myst: The Book of Atrus by Robyn Miller, Rand Miller, David Wingrove: I read the rerelease from last year for the book’s anniversary. I enjoyed this much more than I expected! As a long time fan of Myst Online, a lot of this book felt like setup for that game. It’s not high art but I thought it was a fun read.

Books Read in May 2024

Started doing a lot more reading in April so I thought I should start documenting what I’ve read. Not that I ever stopped but it’s picked up a lot as I’ve started doing more ebooks and audiobooks in addition to all the physical books I check out from the library or buy. If you live in the US, consider using the Libby app. Generally I prefer checking out physical books over digital copies since book publishers like to screw over libraries through ebook/audiobook fees, but sometimes this is the only way they’re available to me. I also document all of this on my Storygraph but this feels more permanent to me.

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky: Pretty cool shorter book that works both as a sci-fi and a fantasy story based on the viewpoints of the two characters. This is the first book I read by Adrian and plan to read more. Did this one as an ebook.

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire: Bought this one a while ago and finally got to it in my backlog. I know this one won a bunch of awards so maybe it’s just me but I didn’t care for it. A lot of good ideas but I thought some of the characters were really poorly written and the book could have probably actually been longer to give some of those ideas more time to develop. Oh well. It’s short so you could probably check it out from the library and see for yourself.

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton: This is a graphic novel memoir by the author of King Baby and The Princes and the Pony, two picture books I love reading to my kids. This is definitely not a kids book but I do think it’s Kate’s best work yet. The book is about Kate’s two years working in Alberta’s oil sands to pay off her college loans. I cannot recommend the book enough if you have an interest in graphic novels or memoirs. Just be sure to read the content warnings first since it has some heavy subjects in it. Did this one as an ebook from my library but will probably buy a physical copy at some point.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto: This is another short book that has been sitting in my backlog years after I bought it. Wish I didn’t wait so long to read it because I also loved this one. The book is actually two stories but the main one, Kitchen, is about a young woman who is taken in by another family after her grandmother, her caretaker, has passed away. I guess this book was a big hit when it came out and won a lot of acclaim so it’s not a hidden gem but I don’t see it come up so consider checking it out!

Tea and Murder: Stories of the Xuya Universe: The Citadel of Weeping Pearls & The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard: This is an audiobook I checked out from my library containing two stories, The Citadel of Weeping Pearls & The Tea Master and the Detective. Both stories are set in Aliette’s Xuya universe, a timeline where Asia became dominant in space, but you don’t have to read one to understand the other. I had a hard time following along with Citadel of Weeping Pearls, mostly because it was an audiobook and sometimes that happens with me and sci-fi, but I really enjoyed The Tea Master and the Detective. It’s just a Sherlock Holmes-inspired story but I thought it was a fun read. This was the first story I read by Aliette and also want to read more by them.

The Aquanaut by Dan Santat: I’ve read some of Dan’s picture books before but this is the first graphic novel that I’ve read by him to my kids. Really enjoyed this one as well and thought the art was great.

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes: A Classic Collection of Poems by a Master of American Verse: Another book that had been sitting in my library a long time. It turns out that the universally celebrated poet is very good at writing poetry!

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw: A short horror fantasy audiobook I checked out about a mermaid and plague doctor. Really liked this one with my only gripe being that I thought the gore descriptions went on too long, to the point of it getting tedious. But I still really liked the book! My first by Cassandra but I’ll read more by them.

All about Me: My Remarkable Life in Show Business by Mel Brooks: While his movies can be hit or miss to me, I also really enjoyed this autobiography by Mel. He intentionally doesn’t go into his personal life in this book, choosing to mostly talk about his works and things that went well and what didn’t. I listened to the audiobook version from my library, which seems like the way to go for this book. I’m just a big comedy history nerd and like stuff like this.

Detriot: A Biography by Scott Martelle: This is a book about the history of Detroit and everything that led to where it’s at today. It’s probably the one I’d recommend if people wanted to know how a city ends up this way. It does a very good job explaining how racist policies, corporations, and other things led to its downfall and the author clearly loves the city and wants to to succeed. My only complaint about it, which isn’t its fault, is that it came out in 2012, at the lowest point of the city when it was bankrupt, and I wonder how things would be different if it were published today. Not that the city is completely fixed, but things have been improving and I would have really liked to have seen the author’s take on it since he has a better understanding of it all than I do.

Doctor Who audio dramas: I also listened to two Doctor Who audio dramas from Big Finish. The Flames of Cadiz and The Age of Endurance. Both are solid 1st Doctor stories and feature the living members of the original cast.

Indie Game Roundup (May 28, 2024)

It’s been a month since I’ve done one of these so I should probably do another before the list of stuff to write about gets too big. This one will be kinda rushed just because there’s so much and I must clear the list! There’s so much I’ve missed too, especially with the bigger releases lately. It’s been ridiculous how many games have been released lately. I meant to publish this yesterday but Itch was down for most of the day. If you enjoy these, consider adding the blog to your RSS feed reader.

HAPPY99 is a tabletop rpg with a GM and multiple people each playing a hacker looking to take down S-CORP, the corporation ending the world in only a few short years. There is a demo on Itch.io and a Kickstarter that wraps up in a few days.

Jet Set Steamboat Willie is a platformer for the ZX Spectrum celebrating Steamboat Willie becoming public domain and the 40th anniversary of Jet Set Willy. Available on Itch.io as Pay-What-You-Want

screenshot of a 2d platforming game showing mickey mouse
Jet Set Steamboat Willy

Hand Eye Society is a non-profit in Toronto doing a lot of excellent work in the indie games space and could really use some financial help right now. Consider supporting them if you can.

This tutorial for using Itch.io seems nice for new users.

elderly woman sitting in a chair in a small apartment
Clothes Line

Clothes Line is a short and free point-and-click adventure. I was sold by the line “Zero references to classic adventure games and zero fourth wall breaks”

Chalicebound is described as a short point-and-click adventure inspired by Shadowgate and looks very nice.

You Are Peter Shorts is a new game by ondydev, who is a game developer I’m a big fan of. It’s described as a Metroidvania beat-em-up hybrid. Their new game is on Steam and Itch.io

It’s also been a good month for dungeon crawlers with the Wizardry remake by Digital Eclipse and this neat looking game Dragon Ruins

Somnabulist is a horror gamebook available in physical and digital forms by Valerie Paris, who has made a few games I’ve really enjoyed.

screenshot of someone standing next to a pool and saying "A beautiful shimmering patina of damp shines on the slick wet tiles all round. Something sprays me but I don't mind as fresh towels will be provided later by the management. My emotional needs met, I may now enter the sea"
Anthology of the Killer

Anthology of the Killer is a collection of 9 games wrapped in a launcher. Winner of the 2024 IGF Nuovo Award!

A Chirp in Space is a cute free 3D platformer.

And finally, there has been a new Indiepocalypse with a new game by tipsheda.

a bunch of yellow guys and one red guy standing in a field next to a boombox

Other Folks Talking About Indie Games

Remember when a ton of games like 1000X Resist came out on May 9? This post covers them better than I could.

This blog has a nice weekly Screenshot Saturday roundup of Mastodon posts.

Indie Tsushin continues doing great coverage of indie games in Japan.

The Database Turnpike

With Google search taking a huge nosedive in the last few years, I’ve been thinking about how effective specific search engines and databases could be. There’s still plenty of general search engines like DuckDuckGo and Ecosia that I’ll keep using but it feels like AI grift stuff may be coming to them as well. So anyway, I’ve started building out a list of more specific databases. I might eventually turn it into a standalone page so I would love to know what databases you like. I’m avoiding Fandom wikis since they’re an awful company and I don’t have a lot of confidence in them in the long term, but please recommend other wikis that aren’t owned by big companies. I’ll keep updating this over the next few days as I think of things and more suggestions come in.

Anyway, here’s a few that might be worth looking at:

Academic Journals
JSTOR
OpenAlex
OpenEdition

Board Games
BoardGameGeek

Books
The Conjuring Archive – Search for books about magic
Demian’s Gamebook Web Page
GoodReads
The Online Books Page – Links to archives of magazines, journals, newspapers, and other periodicals
Standard Ebooks – Public domain books
StoryGraph

Comics
The Grand Comics Database

Fanfiction
Archive of Our Own
Wattproject

Film
IMDB
TMDB

Global Myths/Folklore
The Mythology and Folklore Database

Guitar Tabs
Ultimate Guitar

Icons
Font Awesome
Noun Project

Internet
Internet Archive

Language
Online Etymology Dictionary

Local
LocalWiki

Music
All Music Guide
Discogs

Open License Content
Openverse

Other/General
Basenotes – Fragrances
TVTropes

Podcasts
Podcast Index

Search Engines
A look at search engines with their own indexes
List of alternative search engines
Marginalia
– independent DIY search engine focused on non-commercial content
OpenOrb – Personally curated search engine focused on blogs

Tabletop RPGs
RPGGeek

United States Art
Library of Congress

Video Games
The Adventure Games Database
Bundle Browser – Search for games in Itch.io bundles
IFDB – Interactive Fiction Database
IGDB
Game Making Tools Wiki
Michigan Games Database
MobyGames
Point and Click Adventure Games Database on AdventureGamers
Solution Archive

Microsoft, Pay Me to Remake King’s Quest

Had a crisis, started remaking King’s Quest with clay

animated gif of king graham from King's Quest made out of clay and walking around in front of a castle

I absolutely half assed this clay model and the photos and it still took hours to digitize. All for a 15 second shitpost gif. It was really more of a proof of concept for myself and even with the very ugly clay model (or because of it?), I think it’s an interesting look. I also just wanted to see what the process of doing something like this would even be like and now I know. Had a lot of fun learning this stuff. All it really was was photographing that King Graham model and then using Aseprite to clean it up and digitize it. I also used Retrospecs to make it look a little more like the VGA era. Even though I rushed the model and photographs, it still took forever to import into Adventure Game Studio because I didn’t photograph it against a green screen.

I do like working with clay though and kinda want to make a game using it, just maybe a tiny bit more effort put into the models. Picked up more clay yesterday so we’ll see what I come up with after more practice.

That said, huge “could a depressed person make this?!” energy* coming from this gif, haha.

*I’m doing fine

I’m still working out what to even make with this knowledge so if any friends want to make a weird clay game (I can probably do better art than this) let me know.

Detroit Zine Fest 2024

Went to the Detroit Zine Fest yesterday and had a great time. I haven’t been to one since the last Detroit zine fest, since I wasn’t able to go to the Grand Rapids zine fest last August and I should probably go to whatever ones are in Toronto since that really isn’t that much farther than Grand Rapids for me. It’s always a good time and it’s a chance to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while. One nice thing is that while they don’t require masking (which they used to do), they do have a sign saying masking is encouraged and people do it anyway. I wish game conventions would do this. Narrascope does but everyone else has given up on it.

I got a lot of cool stuff too. I’ll try to link to all the artists, although there’s one or two that I wasn’t able to figure out. All the stickers and pins are for my kids. I wasn’t sure if I could bring my oldest to the zine fest or if there would even be anything for her there but it turns out there was and other kids were there as well, so I will have to bring her.

  • The Snoopy and Ditto stickers and Snoopy fashion zine are by Brenda.
  • The Sonic stickers are by Lauren.
  • The orange zine and vintage cats zine are by Hale. Also check out their Itch.io page that is in that link!
  • The sketchbook at the bottom and zines and painting by the right are by swanchime, also a game designer.
  • Stereotypical Diaspora Poetry is by The Reza Minute
  • The brown bag is a subscription to the Floral Observer quarterly about nature and gardening
  • The Sonic stickers are by DROSE ATTACK.

Someone told me I should table with the Locally Sourced zine I made two years ago and still have a lot of copies of, so maybe I’ll do that, get another issue made along with some small $1 ones about FMV games or whatever, and then do one of these? That could be fun.