It's a crisis to be enjoyed, not a crisis to be in...well, crisis mode about when I'm a little slower on certain releases or have a night when creativity isn't flowing as it should.

Much like life IMO, writing should be enjoyed along the journey, not stressed on the destination.

I think the conclusion I've come to for the moment is this: even if writing is a midlife crisis for me, that doesn't make it bad. If anything, creativity seems like a decent way to have a midlife crisis rather than doing something dangerous or acting reckless.

Following up on this, I went and did some online research for signs of a midlife crisis. I'd say that I had some of the symptoms, but everyone had absolutely different ideas of what a midlife crisis should be. I showed some signs, didn't show others. The data was inconclusive.

Oh man! That is all kinds of fantastic!! Really cool award!!

Aww, no pics of the amazing tape dispenser? Sounds really cool.

Either way, congrats on the well deserved reward!

As for next year's plans...with life settling back down, I want to get back to being creative. Current goals:

- Releasing 4 creative projects, including a novella that was sponsored years ago

- Returning to social media

- Doing another 10-day writing challenge

- Maybe making a Newsletter?

Additionally, I took home two medals in the 2025 Massachusetts Poetry Olympics: A Bronze in the Villanelle category & a Gold in the team event.

Fun event that definitely stretched my poetry skills, hoping to enter again next year.

- I released two stories this year, a horror short story (Omen Bears) and a mythological fantasy novella (Yara).

- Four of my stories are in wide distribution, allowing them to be found in places other than Amazon.

- Two of my stories are now available as audiobooks

Totally should! It's a super fun genre to write!

B for trophies/awards, A for everything else.

On one hand, I don't even know where or how I'd go about selling it or if it's even any good anymore. But on the other hand, I can't help but smile when I think of having a game I built on sale next to my books at cons. Is that the wrong reason to try & make a card game?

5/end

Today, I find myself looking at the game documentation & card spreadsheets, wondering whether I should do anything with it. A part of me is considering just leaving it untouched. I don't even have a theme after all. But another part of me wants to finish & release it.

4/🧵

In any case, while looking at my old games, I came across an old card game I was working on for one of these challenges. It's a bit of an alteration of Triple Triad that has a couple different decks & a 5x5 playing board. No art yet, but I did have a couple good playtests.

3/🧵

See, about 8-10 years ago I also took up the 1 Game A Month gamedev challenge. The idea was to create a different playable game each month. As I was very new at the time, mine aren't. They have a lot of bugs & not great gameplay. But I don't like to throw things out, so...

2/🧵

books2read.com/u/3JY7vK