By way of a comment at the Castalia House Blog, an interesting analysis of the shifting sands of The  Politics of Star Trek by Tim Sandefeur.  Worth noting is how the modern refusal to ground Star Trek in the fertile soil of actual, no-fooling morality characterized by stark contrasts between...

You may have noticed that my wizard’s tower included a wooden base.  That one was 3-mm thick wood, but after a recent pet shelf building exercise, I found myself left with a few extra pieces of MDF and Oh Em Gee is this stuff a lot easier to work...

Full confession:  I’ve spent a lot more money than usual on wargame terrain lately.  My side gig paid off, and I’ve dumped a lot of the extra dough into terrain that I don’t have time to build.  Plus, it was my birthday.  You’re going to start seeing a lot...

A literary pal asked for a proofreader for one of his projects, and as a fan of the guy I leapt at the chance.  Editing, I have no experience with, but I can find a mis-spelled homophone like a boss.  (At least when it isn’t my own work I’m...

“None of this makes any sense,” says the latest bargain bin Ripley in this year’s Alien: Covenant. Truer words were never spoken. What is it about the Alien franchise that makes it so susceptible to climbing up its own butt? The last several movies have tried to be both...

EXTANT! publishing announced its intentions back in June: More than ever, there’s space in the market for new ideas and new voices – and that means there need to be plenty of dynamic new venues where the emerging writers can experiment and polish their craft. Where better than in...

Good news for all of those prognosticators who predicted a resurgence in short fiction.  It’s not just you and your closest internet neighbors who believe it.  Check out this message from the world of tabletop RPGs.  Goodman Games, the cats behind the long running Dungeon Crawl Classics line of adventures...

Looking down the length of the barricades in the culture war on which I stand, I see nothing by faces I’m proud to fight alongside: Makes me feel like one of the Gondorian knights standing behind Aragorn and Gimli and Théoden King at the Black Gates.  How the heck did I...

Graveyards can be tricky terrain pieces to build.  They have a lot of fiddly bits that become very delicate and damage prone.  For my fantasy terrain box, that’s one hassle I’d like to avoid, so I just bought a resin graveyard from Monday Knight Productions.  This piece measures four...

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