#art prints of this will be available on my you know what sometime today hopefully

[cozylittleartblog]

The sixty billion double-dollar man.

[writing-in-the-tiny-house]

Don't Interrupt Your Pass!

When we're going through our manuscript, whether we are doing edits or full-on drafting, finishing each pass and taking notes keeps us organized and gives us a sense of progress.

“Brigitte,” Installment One of Tales from Vlaydor, is available on ebook and audiobook. Follow the link to find them on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=brigitte+devin+davis&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Become a patron today! Visit patreon.com/writinginthetinyhouse

Get ahold of Krissy Barton with Little Syllables editing services. She does free sample edits to see if you and she would be the right fit. www.littlesyllables.com

Instagram: @authordevindavis

Twitter: @authordevind

The following is an imperfect transcript of this episode. A complete transcript can be found on the show’s webpage.

[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to the show Writing in the Tiny House. I am on a mission to abolish the idea of the tormented artist by sharing what I know about writing, publishing, and just life in general, so that you can have the tools to produce the content that you have been eager to write. If you have this steps in place, you can produce a short story in as few as three months or a novel in as few as 18 months.

And hopefully through the ideas in this podcast, you will have the wisdom to adjust that timeline if you need to. I am Devin Davis, the guy who lives and writes in a tiny house in Northern Utah. Thank you for tuning in and please enjoy today's episode of Writing in the Tiny House.

Hello, [00:01:00] and welcome to the show. Welcome to Writing in the Tiny House. I am Devin Davis and here we are guys. We are over the hump of July. We have made it. We are more than halfway through the summer, I guess, or at least the summer break. And can you even believe that? So I have been diligently working on this pass of edits with the current work in progress, TIS that I have been working on for a while. And now that it has picked up and it has become kind of a bigger thing. It is definitely gaining momentum in my day to day. And that is exciting. It is so good to be excited for a work in progress again. And I think I have some idea as to why, or some idea as to how I got here to this point of being excited.

But first let's talk about TIS a little bit. Because of its length. So [00:02:00] TIS is a respectable novella. TIS is going to be between 25,000 and 30,000 words, which as a printed thing is about a hundred pages give or take ish, you know, and I believe, I believe that due to its length, I should be able to release it as a printed work in addition to an ebook. So with Brigitte being at 9,000 words, that is only about 50 pages of text, actually a little bit less than that. And because of that, it wasn't really plausible or really worth the time and effort or the energy to worry about finding a way to get it into a printed form. I mean, with a short story like that, Brigitte can always be part of a collection of short stories later on.

I'm certainly not going to rule that out and I'm not going to say that I'm never [00:03:00] going to write a short story again, it is certainly not this work in progress with ti and it is not my next work in progress. My next work in progress is going to be a full blown novel, but. Due to length. Sometimes there is not really a plausible or a logical reason, or really just a feasible reason to provide a printed version of that story.

But with TIS due to its length, I believe that I can release it as a paperback and a hardback. Which is kind of exciting. It's going to require some additional steps and some additional formatting on my end. And I'm going to have to get in contact with the guy who designed my cover art and have him expand it into a full wrap.

So an image that does the cover, the spine and the back, which is what you need for a printed book, but at a hundred pages as it being a [00:04:00] normal novella I don't see why not. And that's cool To have it available as an ebook and a printed book.

And of course, I'm going to turn it into an audio book. All of those things just makes it more accessible, which is cool because we all enjoy books in different ways. And so if all of the ways are covered, then that makes it more accessible to customers, which is cool. So that is already really good news, but I told you that this project has picked up some steam and it is becoming a bigger part of my day today. And I am eager to get this pass of edits done. And I believe that I have a secret as to why. So, this is a good rule of thumb when you are doing your developmental edits, which I call dev edits, or even if you're drafting.

And the little trick that I want to talk about today is don't interrupt [00:05:00] your pass. That means that if you are writing your first draft, make sure that you finish your first draft without going through and futzing over the things that don't need to be worried about right now. Or if you know that there is a big plot hole in your first draft, instead of worrying about going through and coming through that and figuring out where it is.

It is 100% okay. To simply take a note of it in your notebook or wherever you choose to keep notes and then proceed forward in your draft as if you already made that change. The thing is guys, it is so easy in these projects, just because everything here is self-motivated. Nobody has hired me to write this book.

I'm writing this book just because I'm awesome. Because I want to do it and I love to do it. That [00:06:00] can also mean. that because it's just me and nobody is standing there tapping their toe in order for a, in order to get a release date or in order to get pages of the manuscript to read or whatever, because I am on my own timeline and only have to respect my own calendar.

It is really easy to just not do it. And it's really easy to slow down and to lose some steam. So if you choose. To not interrupt your pass. So with your first draft or with your first pass of developmental edits or any subsequent pass after that, what it does is it gives you a sense of completion. It gives you a sense of progress.

And so. , if you have taken notes as to where those different corrections and those different holes need to be, then you can go back [00:07:00] when you are done with your pass. and make those changes later. Sometimes we can get so hung up on a word or finding the perfect word or trying to figure out how a scene needs to play out, even though, you know, what the very next scene is going to be, or as I'm doing with developmental edits right now, sometimes patting out stuff.

So I I just discovered. That there are some little things with the relationship between my main characters that needs to be more developed. It needs to be more mature and it just needs to be more right now, they are just kind of. They, they read as colleagues where in reality, they are lovers.

They share a house, they have a very deep relationship. And so I need to work in the more mature relationship stuff that I haven't done yet. And I can. Spazz out about it [00:08:00] and freak out and go through and interrupt what I'm doing now and comb through what I've already combed through to try to find all of those little places.

Or I can carry on with my pass and simply take note that I need to further develop and pat out their relationship. So that on my next pass, I can do that. The thing is guys, we forget sometimes that we are going to be reading. These works in progress like a hundred jillion times and , and sometimes we. Get impatient.

And we forget that this process takes a lot of layers. There's a lot of building with this. and so it's easy to lose focus and it's easy to become impatient. And so in doing that in interrupting what we are doing so that we can go back and do this spazzy little thing of filling in something or worrying about a word or better developing a relationship now.

It, it can create a lot of chaos and a lot of [00:09:00] disarray in the whole process itself, especially if you are really early in the process now it is important to go through and complete whole passes of your book. And to have a notebook or a place to keep notes so that you can keep track of where all of those changes need to be.

And you can write down where they are so that when you're done with your pass, you can relocate those locations and futz about them. Then also, when it comes to things like word choices or some of these other things where. We're hitting a wall and we can't figure out what's actually happening or how the perfect wording for how things need to happen to lead to the next scene.

Sometimes when we are already past the next scene, we have already finished our past. Sometimes we are in a far better head space to problem solve than we were when we were in the middle of our pass. and [00:10:00] so then we are better equipped to improve our manuscript in those little chunks. And once those chunks.

Our improved upon, we make another pass. That's how editing goes. That is how this whole process goes. You are going to be reading your work in progress a number of times. And so it is important to read it in whole passes. So that is the news for today. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode on developmental edits and whatever.

I've decided to do a little collection of episodes on developmental edits, because that's what I'm doing now. And I am going to be compiling another little clip show on how the developmental edit kind of looks like as I'm doing it. Like I did with completing. First draft with ti. So that will be coming later probably in August.

[00:11:00] And yeah. Thank you for tuning in and be sure to tune in to next week's episode as well. Have a good day guys.

Check out this episode!

[musicrunsthroughmysoul]

Hi dear followers and mutuals, today (hopefully still where you are - whoops) is #settlersaturday and I felt inspired to officially make a post linking to some of my very favorite Indigenous artists, designers, and jewelry makers, plus add a little personal commentary so y’all might be more inclined to check them and their stuff out if it appeals to you. :)

Note: I am even sharing this list under extremely good faith. Time and time again I hear/read - from far too many Native people - that racist people have commented on their posts or DMed them completely insulting, ignorant bullshit that ranges from bigotry to actual intended harm (and I am DISGUSTED AND HORRIFIED by ANYONE who dares to do such a thing. How SHAMEFUL. Although, to be fair, all acts of bigotry are shameful, and that cannot be overstated. DO NOT BE ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.) If you are interested in these artists’ art, let alone if you are reading this, I HAVE to say: under no circumstances are you suggested to harass anybody here, for whatever reason, be it due to: racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, or fatphobia. (And if you’re a vegan who takes offense to Indigenous people using animal hide for their jewelry, you coming onto their posts or into their DMs to “shame” them for it counts as fucking racism, so DO NOT FUCKING DO THAT EITHER. If you must be a vegan or vegetarian, DON’T BE AN UGLY RACIST.) If I find out you contacted any of these artists with malicious intentions, I will make sure to personally compensate these artists for any grief they may receive. Like imagine that situation where some asshole was yelling at a teenage cashier for not making their food right, and every time the cashier was insulted, the person in line behind them put money in the cashier’s tip jar. I would be the person in line behind you tipping them for your fucking nonsense. Do not test me. Just do not be an ugly bigot, thank you.

That out of the way, to the kind and lovely people who follow me - I hope you enjoy these artists’ art as much as I do. 😊💖

@/husquamun on IG and Twitter aka Alex Britt (Nansemond, mixed), website; jewelry maker and beader. They just restocked today with GORGEOUS!!! pride themed jewelry. :’)

@/plain_to_sea on IG aka Paige Pettibon (Salish Flathead Nation, Black, and white), art website; jewelry maker and artist. I intend to buy some of her abalone-incorporated jewelry one day - you do not even know how much I covet it. Plus her jewelry goes VERY fast, so beware that if you want to buy her jewelry you totally have to follow her and be super quick.

@/coppercanoewoman on IG aka Vina Brown (Haíɫzaqv and Nuu-Chah-Nulth), website; jewelry maker. The creator of my favorite earrings of all-time that I own. :’)

@/rosericodesigns on IG and Twitter aka La Tisha Rico (Diné), website; jewelry maker and artist/designer. They have an option set up where one can sponsor a pair of earrings for BIPOC which I really appreciate and intend to do one day (at least one day - I’d love to do it more than once)!

@/stonesongjewelry on IG aka Azie Dee (Afro-Indigenous - Pamunkey); jewelry maker and beader. I will probably never be fast enough to buy a pair of earrings made by her, but god damn if I don’t wish I could be one day. The color schemes of her jewelry plus the gemstones she uses to offset them is just fucking *chef’s kiss*

@/busybeaverbeadwork on IG  aka Gunanáalk’i Tláa/Erika (Lingít); jewelry maker and beader. Her earrings are sometimes made with salmon skin which I didn’t realize until just now, holy shit (so cool)! Vegans who wish to say something negative about that, DNI.

@/hlambert530 on IG aka Harmony (Chumash); jewelry maker and beader. She has a sale coming up on May 30th!

@/swt.grss on IG aka Danica Freeborn (Mi’kmaq), website; jewelry maker and beader. Her most recognizable theme seems to be eels (that are really cute)!

@/sageandsapphirebeading on IG aka Jasmyn Lili (Coast Salish/Tulalip, Vietnamese and Chinese), website; jewelry maker and beader. Lots of beaded rainbows (like, earrings that are literally beaded rainbows) with poms and other cute accessories, and most of their jewelry uses pastel color schemes!

@/chiffons_designs85 on IG aka Zhaawanigiizhigookwe/Chiffon (Afro-Indigenous - Ojibwe), website; jewelry maker and beader. I’m obsessed with her abalone-incorporated jewelry (SURPRISE!) and intend to buy some when I can; her Etsy is still very well stocked and tbh her prices are way more than reasonable. Like for how beautiful they are I wish I could pay more for the ones I especially like, so treat yourself and/or your loved ones to some gorgeous jewelry when you can!

@/jiaxin.beads aka Jiaxin (mixed Indigenous and white); jewelry maker and beader. I am lucky enough to own a pair of earrings she made so think of that endorsement as you will. :)

@/lauren.nicole.creations on IG aka Lauren Nicole (Tongva and Chumash), websites; artist, jewelry maker and beader. Her art is GORGEOUS (I’m gonna need a calla lily print ASAP!!) and her jewelry, especially when made with beautiful gradients, is so so lovely. A lot of her jewelry is made with resin, too, with beautiful little elements of nature embedded within (like she uses flower petals and seeds from her garden in them! BEYOND LOVELY AND WHAT WHOLESOME VIBES).

@/beadzbycat aka Cat (mixed Indigenous); jewelry maker and beader. They make and sell stud earrings and bracelets (in addition to beaded earrings and such), unlike most of the jewelry makers/beaders who I follow and am listing, LOL, so the distinction here seemed appropriate to add?

@/nimii_tli_eva on IG aka Eva Angus (Nimiipuu, Cayuse, Łingit, Haida, and Pamunkey); jewelry maker and beader. She seems to be a super well-known Indigenous jewelry maker as far as I’ve noticed, because, like, just a little while ago I saw Katherine Paul (aka Black Belt Eagle Scout) show off a pair of her earrings and I was like !!!! holy shit! She (Eva Angus) makes a TON of daisy chain beaded earrings with dentalium shells, but I prefer her beaded fringe earrings, personally (and would love to buy a pair some day).

@/beksbeads aka Rebekah (Nêhiyaw and Métis); jewelry maker and beader. She makes a lot of small (in terms of dangly earrings) beaded earrings with floral motifs that are cute, but I prefer her fringe earrings with beautiful gradients (and I long to be quick enough one day to get a pair).

@/oyosowsbeads aka Brianna Cervantes (Chumash); artist, jewelry maker and beader. Most of her earrings are beaded hoops, which are really cool, but they also recently made a beaded ring and bracelet and I am so 👀 if they ever make more and make them available to purchase. (I don’t even wear rings that often and I never wear bracelets but a beaded ring would be SO COOL.)

@/flower_chanel on IG, @/inc_flower on Twitter aka Chanel Flower (Red Lake Ojibwe), website; jewelry maker. Unlike most of the rest of the Indigenous jewelry makers I follow, she doesn’t seem to make beaded jewelry, so if beaded jewelry isn’t your thing, her style might be right up your alley!

@/sandrawpb_art on IG, @/plateaupop on Twitter aka Sandra Warriors (Sqilxw), website; artist and jewelry maker. They’re one of my absolute favorite Indigenous artists and I just really appreciate them. (Most of their jewelry is not beaded, either - from what I’ve seen, their jewelry mostly seems to involve metal work and animal bone, which is a cool thing in itself I think!)

@/johnniejae on IG and Twitter aka Johnnie Jae (Otoe-Missouria and Choctaw), shop website; designer. As far as I can tell, Johnnie Jae is an incredibly well-known Native person in tech, but she also sells t-shirts (one of which I own) and other cool things with usually nerd-related designs as well as Native pride (not necessarily as in queer pride, LOL) themed stuff!

@/pinasoulspc on IG and Twitter (Black and Indigenous-led collective), websites; artisans. Most of the jewelry and other art is made by Oaxacan artisans on behalf of Black and Indigenous-led mutual aid projects and conservation/sustainability projects, many of which are in Mexico. I am lucky enough to own a pair of glass blown earrings by them! 💚

[epochxp]

Epoch Xperience Interviews Nordic Weasel Founder, Ivan Sorensen

Mr. Sorensen needs no real introduction to many miniature wargamers. His company, Nordic Weasel Games, has taken the historical miniatures gaming world by storm, and he’s become the force on Wargames Vault. His formula of “substance over flash” has produced good games for a very reasonable price, and he has taken full advantage of PDF technology to produce a quality product one can buy and have in your (virtual hands) the next day. 

Without further ado, I give you Ivan Sorensen:

Biography

My name is Ivan Sorensen, and I am a game designer and self-publishing writer of miniatures games, as well as the odd role-playing game. Under the moniker of Nordic Weasel Games, I have worked as a game writer for close to 7 years. 

I am an avid player of board games, miniatures games, role-playing games, video games, and anything else I can get my hands on. I have spent half my life on this planet in Denmark, where I was born, and half in the United States, where I currently reside. I am married, have one kid and two cats named Scruffy and Lancelot. 

Unlike a lot of historical games writers, many of my formative miniatures gaming experiences actually came from science fiction games, so I suppose that has given me a little bit of a different perspective.

So, how did you get started in writing rules? Was there an “aha” moment, or did you fall into it?

At the risk of sounding cheesy, I have basically always created little dice and board games for myself, using Lego pieces or other things that we had available, usually based on video games I had read about in magazines or other ideas like that.

When I was 12 or so, I remember getting a copy of White Dwarf magazine from a local gaming club I had joined, and it blew my mind. We had some limited exposure to the idea of space marines and all these things from the Milton Bradley Hero Quest and Space Crusade board games, but the idea of battle games played without a board, using miniatures and dice was too much to resist. I knew I had to get into this, and as I had no money for it, I sat down to write a game I could play with my Space Crusade figures, which would look as much like what I imagined Warhammer 40.000 would be like.

Since then, I had pretty much always been the “rules guy” in the gaming groups I was part of, whether we were playing miniatures games or RPG’s, so it just came naturally over time, I suppose. As I got access to the internet and later got access to ordering things from the UK or US, I devoured every game I could get my hands on and was even remotely interested in. 

The start to writing games that were any good was my own attempt at creating a World War 1 game system (titled Trench Storm). I had shared it online, and to my great surprise, it began catching people’s attention and got a (very) small following, with people even purchasing miniatures to play it. Eventually, I was contacted by the US distributor for IT Miniatures, who offered to print it to promote their 20mm figure range. The rest is, as they say, history. Once in a great while, a copy of that game still pops up on eBay, it seems! 

How did Nordic Weasel Games come to be? 

So that story took place right around the time I moved to the United States. After moving, I had a lengthy period where I did not have my work permit yet, so game writing seemed like an obvious distraction, resulting in Fast and Dirty, a sci-fi rules set that you still see mentioned online here and there.

As the years went on, I kept tinkering and building things but mostly for my own enjoyment. Sometime during the fall of 2013, I started seriously working on a new game system for WW2 skirmish actions that I felt had some real potential to go places. At the time, I worked at a relatively dead-end middle management job at an incredibly toxic information technology company. You know the sort of job, where you have been there for too long, and you hate every minute of it. 

Come the spring, I decided to take a gamble that I could make enough money from game sales to make it worth pursuing and quit. I figured if I could find a way to do it without putting money on the line, then if it all bombed, I could just walk away and find something else to do in life.

Consequently, Five Men in Normandy was released on June 15, 2014, and as of today, we are still here! 

What is in the future for Nordic Weasel?

Hopefully, many big things! The biggest priority for 2021 specifically is to get into print books, though there are a lot of stumbling blocks in terms of layout requirements and so on.

I always keep a list of projects I would like to do, though I try not to talk about them too much in case they fall through. I am the sort of guy who always starts with 20 ideas, so by the time the unworkable ones have been weeded out, there are 2 or 3 left. 

What I can say is that I am actively looking at fantasy miniatures battles, and I would love to do more WW1 and Black Powder era gaming material. 

The real big question is that I am also very much at a point where there are just too many things to do it all alone. I cannot write 4 or 5 new games, support an entire back catalogue, and update old titles all by my lonesome, so I look forward to trying to solve that in the future. I suppose this is a good problem to have, but it is certainly also an intimidating one!

Is there a period of history you want to write rules for but have not?

We have worked extensively with the two world wars and the black powder era in general, as well as 20th century-to-modern era battles, and with Knyghte, Pyke and Sworde we even delved into medieval warfare.

The one that stands out as something that would be fun to do is World War 1 air combat, complete with goggles and scarf flapping in the wind. A little romanticized sure, but great fun, and there is a lot of fantastic models available.

For a historical era I have not touched on at all, I would say that while I have done games that cover it among other 19th century conflicts, a dedicated American Civil War set is something I would be very keen to do.

There are a lot of fantastic rules out there for the period, of course, but I feel like the “Weasel” approach of being solo-friendly and campaign-oriented could carve out a nice space of that market. Plus, I find the era quite fascinating. Growing up in Denmark, I was never really raised with a particular view of the conflict, but having married into a proud Vermont family, it is, of course, unavoidable. 

Can you tell our readers what goes into rules writing?

I think this is something that is intensely personal, and the rationale for writing something can be varied: It may be due to sensing an opening in the hobby space that does not seem to be catered to currently. It may be that I have a personal passion for a given setting or era, or it may simply be that I have a clever game mechanic and want to build a game around it.

The process for me usually starts with sketching out a page or two of keywords, mechanics, and things I’d like to hit on a notepad. Then I work on building it out with simple sketches for the main areas of the mechanics: Activations, movement, shooting, morale, and so forth. Basically, carving out the cornerstones of the game system. At this stage, it is entirely possible it feels like it’s not going anywhere, and it goes in the bin. 

If the core idea seems to have merit in this skeleton form, it’s time to test it out with some generic troops and see if it actually feels fun on the table. From there, you just build out from it: Get other people to read and play it, read it out loud to yourself, etc. Figure out what parts need ironing out and improving and which are good. 

It is really all an iterative process. Once I know the game has legs to stand on, I start writing out the table of contents in advance, so I can “fill in the blanks” as I go. If I know I am going to have a section later for off-map support, I can keep that in mind when I am developing each piece of the mechanics and so forth.

Eventually, any project hits “The Suck (TM).” This is whatever part you hate doing the most, whether it is layout or proofreading or points systems or whatever. For me, it is terrain rules, funny enough. I never read that section of a rulebook, and I never enjoy writing it, but you must. “The Suck” is where your game will probably die because if you let it overcome you, you will put the book down, and every time you click on the word processor, you will immediately be faced with it. The best way to defeat “The Suck” in my experience is caffeine and not letting up: When it starts rearing its ugly head, it is time to keep going and don’t stop until you are through with it. 

Has desktop publishing and PDF only supplements changed the face of the hobby? Has it affected the quality of the product we see today?

Absolutely yeah. It’s not that long ago that a game being available in PDF was a novelty, whereas today, if a game is NOT available in PDF, you are going to lose sales. 

I think the barrier of entry has also dropped dramatically. Even a basic word processing package can churn out a PDF document that you can distribute online or sell. Of course, with proper page layout software, you can achieve much greater results (as some of my friends are rarely missing a chance to tell me), but you need to examine what your skill limit is. Any tool has a skill cap, to borrow a video game term. If you are not currently good enough at what you do to push up against the limitations of your software, burning 200 dollars on new apps will not make your books any better.

It is funny, though, because the wargaming field is so diverse in the type of things we see. You can pick up relatively big-name games that are incredibly plain-looking: Black and white, no art, rudimentary layout. Then right next to it, you see a PDF that is full-color, original artwork, and gorgeous. And the two can be viewed as equal value to the audience. 

Of course, eye candy DOES sell, but I think once you are beyond the Warhammer circles, gamers become a lot more content-focused. 

What are your favorite historical periods and why?

The 19th Century, the two world wars and the Russian Civil War. 

Really, the whole era from circa 1910 to 1925 or so is fascinating to me: It is, of course, the transition of the old, romanticized world to the world of modern warfare, as well as being incredibly diverse in the sort of things you can see. The Russian Civil War sees tanks and armored cars, partisan bands, nationalist militias, Red and White guards, Cossack cavalry armies, Anarchists, and anything else you can shake a stick at. It is really a wargamers heaven for finding odd units to model up on the gaming table.

Honestly, my love of history, in general, comes from one source: “All Quiet on the Western Front.” I think anyone with a passion for history has that moment where they realize that history is not about abstract concepts and kings and dates but is about real people who lived and breathed and had dreams and hopes. “All Quiet” was that for me, and it left a life-long impression on me when I read it as a teenager a few years from the age of the characters in the book.  

What do you see for the future of historical miniature wargaming?

Oof, that is a dangerous question. I think I managed to predict the rise of “Warband” level games (games where you play a small force in skirmish actions and with some level of character progression between games). Right now, that idea has set the fantasy and sci-fi miniatures scenes on fire, with everyone churning out their own version of the concept. 

In historical gaming, there are elements of it, but it has not been embraced to the same extent, possibly due to the grognard bias against skirmish games. I think if I had to put money on something, I would say watch out for historical skirmish games with campaign aspects or character progression in the next year or three.

I also think solo gaming is going to continue to gain in popularity and respectability, with more games developed primarily or even specifically for solo play. I am super excited to see this field because there is a lot of things that can be done here with how enemies arrive on the table, fog of war, and so forth, which is not possible in a conventional opposed game.

Playtesting, how important is it?

Very, but it’s also very misunderstood. I see people post all the time on forums about how they have been testing their game rules for 5 years. That sounds very impressive, but if you are only getting together 3 or 4 times a year in that time frame, you are basically starting over each time. Additionally, just playing the game with your own group is fine to iron out the basic problems of a game, but it will lose its value very quickly. 

To get actual feedback, give the game to people who cannot ask you questions and let them figure it out. Now your text must stand on its own feet and must work without you being there to explain the intentions. That is the real test. I would say three games played by strangers is worth more than ten games with your usual Saturday group. 

Of course, tracking down people who can understand the rules, will play the game, [and] report back to you, AND aren’t crazy is a challenge. If you post online, 50 people will say they would love to, and of those, two will read the book. Once you find reliable people who can give you good feedback, cling to them for dear life. 

 What are the benefits and pitfalls of self-publishing your own wargaming rules?

The biggest advantage is, of course, that you are in charge. What you want in the book goes, if you want a supplement, it will happen, and so forth. Additionally, your game will reflect what you wanted it to be. I think in [self-publishing], you get a lot clearer creative visions and indie gamers tend to gravitate towards that: A game that has something to say on the topic is extremely attractive, even if you disagree with a particular conclusion.

I try to do as much myself as I can, though, of course, I do rely on outside sources for things like artwork, feedback, etc. Part of that is that this way, I know I can support the product down the road: If I want to fix a rule where we came up with a better way of doing it, or I want to add a new section, I can do that. 

The downside, of course, is that you are on your own: Your art is as good as your own wallet can make it, your book looks as good as you can make it (unless you pay for it), and so forth. You also must promote it yourself. If you are writing for something like Osprey, they have marketing power and money to put behind the project. 

Anything else you would like to say to our readers?

Before you write a game, ban yourself from reading any game on the same topic for a few months. If you are writing a WW2 tank game, put all your WW2 games in a box and do not open it. You should be spending that time immersing yourself in the topic in the form of books, music, documentaries, or anything else. Never ever another game.

Also, it cannot hurt to blast some metal albums, at least in my experience. 

--

At Epoch Xperience, we specialize in creating compelling narratives and provide research to give your game the kind of details that engage your players and create a resonant world they want to spend time in. If you are interested in learning more about our gaming research services, you can browse Epoch Xperience’s service on our parent site, SJR Research.

--

(This article is credited to Jason Weiser. Jason is a long-time wargamer with published works in the Journal of the Society of Twentieth Century Wargamers; Miniature Wargames Magazine; and Wargames, Strategy, and Soldier.)

[darkestwolfx]

15, 20, 36? 🧡

Writer’s Ask Game – Answer #1

Thank you so SO much for the ask! I know you put this in on like Monday, like practically straight after I put up the post, and I’m like super behind in answering it! So really, thank you so much! I’m super sorry it’s taken me so long to pull together my answer for you, but hopefully that will be okay. Once again thanks for asking, I had so much fun answering these ones. Anyone else who wants to ask anything, feel free! 🧡

So, let’s get going;

15.  How do you deal with writer’s block? This is a good question! So I have a couple of ways which I use – sometimes I’ll work my way through them all, or some of them I’ll use if I’m on my own at home, or likewise won’t use if I’m out in a coffee shop say. This is my current list of go-to things though;

1. Re-read. This is the first thing I’ll do, because usually, somewhere along the line I’ll find something I’ve missed or a plot which I can further explore, or just something which gives me inspiration to pick up. At the very least, I can find any errors I’ve previously missed. Sometimes though, I’ll end up reading the same section over and over to no avail, and that’s when I usually decide I need to move on and try something else unless I’m willing to go crazy!

2. ‘What-If’s’. I play a little bit of a (sometimes) pointless game with myself and words. So from the place where I’ve become stuck, I’ll start throwing out suggestions of ‘what if… this thing is said/done’ – any kind of thing which might give a route for the plot to go. Sometimes I just end up with a collection of stupid ideas, but occasionally one of them will lead to inspiration. I did say occasionally though, this doesn’t seem to work for some topics.

3. Something New. I’d usually only do this with shorter works or chaptered works – and basically I just leave it for a while, and start on something else (which is usually one of my writing pet-hates, but sometimes I just reach that point where I can’t be fussed to keep sitting, staring and trying, and getting nothing). Usually, the moment I try and move onto something else my brain kicks back in. If not, I sometimes manage to just get something new going, or I sit there for a while trying to do something new, before my brain finds the way to finish the old one.

4. Print. Sometimes this won’t apply if I’ve already started the work on paper, but as with most things in this day and age, our lives are made easier by technology in many ways. I have long preferred to write with an actual pen/pencil in hand, but sometimes this isn’t doable, or my hands get tired (much quicker than if I type) and it’s easier and less time-consuming to turn towards typing everything up in the first place and removing the re-typing phase. However, sometimes I still like to be able to read things on paper; I think sometimes being dyslexic plays a part in this as I can amend things in many, many colours. Occasionally putting the paper back in my hand and working my way through it all will help me to find a little spark.

5. Re-read feedback. I get a lot of inspiration from my followers and I really value reviews and comments on my work! Often when I’m struggling with writer’s block, I will bring myself back to those wonderful pieces of feedback. There’s always something else to mine from all the constructive and lovely praise you give to me, and sometimes that little thing is all I need to be able to find.

6. Outside World. I essentially ‘give up’, but without telling myself that. I resign myself to the fact that ‘maybe today isn’t a writing day’ and do other things; go for a walk, read a book, watch TV/Films, do some art work… Anything really which isn’t connected to a pen and paper or my keyboard. Sometimes, nothing comes to me and I end up spending my day doing lots of different things, but occasionally whilst doing one of these other things, the perfect solution presents itself and I can dive straight back to my writing.

7. Why? I take a moment to try and ask myself if there’s any reason why I’m getting writer’s block. One of the main causes for me, is clock-watching. If I know I’ve only got two hours before I go to work or something like that, those hours seem to become ‘lost time’ essentially. If I have a whole day free I’m much more likely to get something productive done, likewise for instance if I’m on a six hour flight or couple hours train journey – because there’s little else I can do in that time. Sometimes, lack of sleep means my brain is too tired to throw any words at me. Bad moods are another one, and sometimes I might not realise I’m in a bad mood until I take a moment to step back and ask myself why. I find it so much easier to know what I need to do to fix my writer’s block if I can pin-point some kind of reason for why I have it in the first place – especially if that leads me to working out whether the block is coming from me or the piece of work I’m trying to write. If it’s a certain piece of work, I’ll ask why that could be giving me writer’s block too, and if I ever can’t answer that, I’ll usually try methods 5, 6 & 8 and see if they make any difference.

8. Scream. This is possibly my favourite one – especially when I’ve exhausted all the others and nothing’s worked. And this one I would definitely only do at home. Basically, I just scream at a wall. It’s a great way to release tension, my anger at not being able to write anything and just whatever it is that is hanging over me. Usually after that, I feel better and I can write with a cleared state of mind.

 20.  How many WIPs and story ideas do you have?

Oh no, I have way too many! Usually I try and get the ideas I have written before I note down more, and I try not to leave too many works ‘open’ so to speak, as I find it easier to try and write with some kind of continuity and without too much cross-jumping. But, hey, right now I just have far too many of them floating around - I’ve even made myself a ‘to write’ list because I’ve found myself with more ideas than I can usually keep in my head! So I make it out as about;

17/18 (TAG based, probably more like 23/24 if you include my outside works).

And I’ve probably miscounted the odd one or two!

36.  Last sentence you wrote

Well, this is an interesting one! And I’m aware the answer is probably going to make very little sense. A point (actually no, a reward of your choice!) to the person who can guess what this sentence relates to! Humour me guys, go on and guess?

“Out there were hundreds of tiny golden stars that he could see clear as day; although he couldn’t remember exactly when night had fallen, nor when he had ended up lying by the pool, looking into the rippling blue depths which appeared strangely comforting as he hugged the glass of the old bottle in his patchy, colour-bled hands.”

I hope that gives you some answers!

Anyone else want to throw me some questions, here you go: https://darkestwolfx.tumblr.com/post/611517979081998336/a-writers-ask-game

[a-black-pegasus]

Working, and Living Freely

Part one

Heyo! Shout-out to @gatlily for the idea! Warning metions of like basically being prejudice, and there is a murder, and I mean it is DBH so...

I hope I did this story justice.

______________________________________________

Markus scanned the news article, the headline read, "Increase In The Arts, Critics Amazed by Amuters Sculptures!" The article went on to speak about the increase in artistic fields, fields thought abosolete and unnecessary since the beginning of Android creation. Humans were starting to push out new paintings and creations, poets and writers were publishing new works and writing at such speeds that the news was calling it the "Second Renaissance". Humans everywhere were jumping on this boat of new creativity.

And they were leaving the Androids behind.

Markus knew, what the news article didn't tell him, that though this wave of art was great and good even, that it was a way for the humans to fight the Androids.

Not all the humans were like this. Some simply created the art for arts sake like Carl did. But many, many made art because people claimed that because Androids were machines that they couldn't. That it was simpley, and purely a human concecept that no machine, no matter how self aware could do.

He swiped the screen, the next article headline read, "Famous Android Singer, Runs Away! Contract Claims Ownership."

Markus sighed. They were free, but peace was another thing entirely.

***

"Conner, get over here! I want you to take a look at this!" Lieutenant Hank Anderson waved the Android over.

Conner looked up from the shattered lamp he was examinaning. "What is it lieutenant?"

Hank got off his knee with a groan. "Well, we have two bodies over here but..." Hank muttered, gesturing to the bodies.

Conner stepped over, and bent down to take a look at the two bodies slumped on the ground, one was an female Android and the other a male human. Conners first reaction was to check and see if the android could be re-activated, but after further inspection it appeared that the machine was beyond repair. It had a bullet hole threw the head, multiple marks on the arm and tears in its lower clothes. A quick search in his database told him that the hole was caused by .45 caliber.

"Hank, look for a gun!" Conner shouted.

"Were not complete idiots Conner." Hank shouted back. "We looked, and we found a gun, but it's not a match."

Moving on to the human he looked over the stiff body. It appeared that the man was killed by a strike to the head with a blunt object. He too also had tears in his clothes— and a large rip in the sleeve. Lastly Conner scanned him for any details he might have missed. Traces of alcohol lingered around his mouth, and hus finger prints matched the ones on the deactivated Androids arms.

It was a mystery alright.

The spilled beer beside the corpse had been stepped in, and a small trail led back out the door. Following it would have been pointless however, due to the rain.

Hank shifted impatiently. "So? Anything?"

Conner sighed. It was either the android killed the human, or the human killed the android. But them someone came in and killed the one remaining. They needed to find out more about that third person. Since their was no sign of a break-in it had to be someone the man knew.

Conner shook his head. "I....need more Lietenant!" He addmitted. "What do we know about the victims?"

Hank walked over to the kitchen table and read the file. "Not much. Kyle Farley, age 48, works for a newspaper. No girlfriend, no wife, family is down in Texas." Hank paused as he scanned the print. "Likes to drink, has a few tickets for D.W.I though."

"And the Android?"

"Well...." He shifted a file over. "We know that shes a SP1000. Someone paid big bucks to have her made" Hank said.

Conner tilted his head. "What does that mean?"

"Well you know, S.P. Special Programing, it means she was privately ordered by some billionaire, probably to get even richer." Hank shook his head and moved on. "Other than that, we don't know. We can probably track her model back to the original owner and stuff. Find a name, what she was used for, but after that," he shrugged. "Devients kinda did their own thing."

Conner turned back to the man. "There has to be more." He thought. Patting the man down, he felt a slight buldge in his pocket. Sliding his hand in, Conner pulled out a wallet, and in the front pocket was a punch card to a place called "Riley's Running"; Some sort of Dinner.

It had seven holes punched, out of the ten available

He stuck it in his pocket, and walked over to the table where Hank still stood. "Grab your keys Lietenant, I think I got a place to start."

****

They arrived at the diner where they spotted a greeter at the door. Her face grimiced for the briefest moment when she saw Conner, but in the next instant she had plastered a smile on her face.

"Hello! Welcome to Riley's Running, how many are with you today?"

Conner stepped forward. The name tag on her shirt said Jorden Lee. "Hi, we would like to know if this man looks familiar to you." He held up a picture of Kyle Farley. As soon as the greeter saw the picture her face fell.

"I don't know him."

Conner gave her a look. "Yes you do. Do you know where he is?"

Having been caught in a lie, she scowled at them. "No I don't know! And if I did I would stay 100 miles away from there if I could." She snapped.

Hank stepped forward. "Well you don't have to get a restraining order, 'cause he's dead." He said flatly.

She tilted her head, her eyes widining slightly. "Well, that's news to me. If it's just you two I'll take you to a table now."

"Actually," Hank Inturrupted. ",we'd like to talk to anyone who might have known Kyle. Do you mind if we poke around?'

She looked behind her, to the nearly deserted dinner. "Fine. Whatever."

She stood to the side and allowed Conner and Hank to pass.

"I'll ask the kitchen staff, you go talk to the waiters." Hank ordered.

But conner was already heading in the direction of the kitchen. He stopped. "Why?"

"Why?" Hank echoed. "Because your young and good looking, and I'm hungry." He added as an afterthought. "And because I'm you're superior, and I said so....so screw you." Hank smirked, stalking off to the kitchen pass Conner.

Conner lifted an eyebrow at his retreating back, and went to go question the waiters. They knew Kyle mostly by sight. He was a regular, came every Friday night when they had the one dollar beer special. Kyle often caused trouble.

"Yeah I know him. That Jackass is dead huh?"

Conner nodded to the human waitress while name tag said Rebecca Homer.

"He used to go after Hailey. Really ground my gears."

Conner blinked at the commet. "Whos Hailey?"

She saw his look. "Sorry, just a saying." She apologized. "Anyways, Haileys one of them deviants. Came 'round here looking for a job. Boss gave her one right off, thinking he could squeeze extra hours outa her. Anyways Kyle spotted her right off the bat. Apperently she looks like some sort of singer or something."

Conners hand turned silver, he likes a picture of the dead Android from the crime scene. "Is this Hailey?"

She shool her head eyes wide. "Yeah! That's her! What happened?!"

Conner lowered his hand the picture disappearing. "She died."

"I know that genius, I meant how?" Rebecca snapped.

"We don't know exactly, were pretty sure Kyle did it and...." He stopped short. "I don't think I should be talking about it."

Rebecca sighed. "Feel bad for her you know, Kyle was always, well....you know?"

Conners face remained still. "What?"

"You gonna make me say it?" She huffed. "He was always making eyes, and snide comments, sometimes as the night went long he would get grabby."

"Why didn't your manager give Kyle a different waiter?"

Rebecca looked away ashamed. "Riley said Kyle stayed longer when Hailey waited him. Good for business." She furrowed her eyes. "I should have said something, but I just kept out. Are you sure you can't fix Hailey?" Rebecca looked up hopefully.

Conner shook his head. "No, I'm afraid not."

Conner processed all that he had received. My had a lot of people who didn't seem to like him, but not enough that they would kill him.

"Do you know where Hailey used to live?"

Rebecca looked up thoughtfully. "Don't know for sure, but you could check with a friend of hers, Lily Drews. Lives downtown." She shrugged.

"Thanks." He handed her a twenty, and turned to go get Hank. When he was got to the kitchen, he found Hank leaning against the counter eating a burger.

"I see you've interigated their menu choices." Conner smirked.

Hank waved him off. "Don't give me a lecture plastic, I paid for this." He said taking another bite.

"Well finish quickly. We got another place to check." He said stepping back out of the kitchen and heading to the car. The greeter looked coldly at him as he walked her way.

"Are you leaving soon?"

"Yes" Conner answered.

She raised an eyebrow. "Where's your owner?"

Conner was about to correct her but was beaten to it by Rebecca. "Lay off, Jordan."

Jordon shrugged. "What I'm only asking."

Rebecca rolled her eyes. "Don't listen to her, she's just mad Riley hired an Android."

Hank finnally came out of the kitchen as Jordan scowled at Conner and Rebecca.

"Ok Conner let's... Did I miss something?" Hank looked between the three if them warily.

Conner continued for the door. "Nothing let's go." Shrugging behind him, Hank followed behind.

______________________________________________

You know what I'm proud of myself, like a responsible writer I wrote ahead, so I basically have the story all done. I have a bit of tweaking though So yeah. -_-

Thanks for reading! And as always feel free to leave a writing prompt in the ask box!

cause guess what it's opened now whoo!

@ask-connor-detroit @gatlily

[cearyfloyd]

Scandinavian Style Free Fall Printables

Add some pretty fall decor to your home with these Scandinavian style free fall printables. Muted fall colors and a modern design that will go with any fall decor!

Free Fall Printables Blog Hop

Today, I’m joining Kristen from Ella Claire for a free fall printable blog hop. These seasonal printable hops are always one of my favorites, so get ready for some beautiful fall inspiration. You’ll find lots of gorgeous free printables to choose from so be sure to check them all out at the end of the post!

Decorating with Fall Printables

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that creating seasonal printables is one of my favorite things to do! They’re such a beautiful and easy way to add a seasonal touch to your home and there are so many different ways that you can use them.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to decorate for the seasons, printables instantly add some visual interest to your seasonal decor.They’re also really inexpensive and don’t really take up any space if you’re storing them between seasons.  {TIP: If you use the printables in a frame, just store them in there and rotate the prints each season. They stay damage-free, no extra storage is required, and you’ll know exactly where they are each season!}

Printables can be used for so much more than just putting them in a frame.  Here are a few of my favorite ways to use them…

add them to a clipboard

use them for a card – Just fold some cardstock in half to form a card and glue the printable to the front.

use them as place settings – print out 2×3 or 3.5×5 and place over a napkin or place setting

make them into tags

make a framed canvas

transfer them onto wood

create a chalkboard transfer

Free Fall Printables in Two Designs

For these printables, I used a bit of a softer color scheme using blush, mustard yellow, and soft browns  I think it makes such a pretty palette and would work well with golds or copper metallic tones. There are two designs for you to choose from. They’d work well on their own or print them both and use them together!

Fall is Proof that Change is Beautiful Fall Printable

I always have a hard time with change, so I thought that this quote was perfect for me. There will definitely be lots of changes this fall, but hopefully this reminds you that change can be good sometimes too. This printable works with more traditional fall colors as well as more neutral decor. I think it would make a pretty card or place setting card for a fall tablescape too!

Stay Cozy Fall Printable

One of my favorite things about fall is all of the coziness that it brings. Think fall sweaters, hot apple cider, snuggly blankets, and a warm scented candle. Whatever you love, this printable will help you bring that cozy feeling to your home!

How to Print out Printables

Whenever I post a new printable, I usually get at least a couple of emails about how to print them. I thought I would answer some of the most common questions here to help you out.  If you have any other ones, just let me know!

How Do I Download the Printables?

To download the printable of your choice, you just need to click on the link and then download the print to your computer. I have all of my printables in Google Drive so if you’re having troubles, try using Google Chrome for your browser.  It seems to do the trick!  If you’re not printing it right away, be sure to save it somewhere that you can find it again.  Having a specific folder specifically for printables works great to keep things organized and you can always find it in subsequent years if you want to print it again.

What’s the Best Way to Print Out the Printables?

Once you’ve downloaded the printable to your computer, you can choose to either print it at home or send it out to a local or online print shop {Stapes, Costco, London Drugs, Walgreens, etc.}. If you choose to print at home, you can use either a laser or an ink jet printer. The ink jet printers do seem to run through the ink faster than laser printers, so if you’ll be printing a lot, a laser printer may be your best option.  If you’re going to be printing something larger than an 8.5×11 {or just don’t want to use up your ink!} you will need to send it out to a printer.  I like to mark to NOT adjust the colors as I’ve had some funky colors come back when I don’t do this.  Make sure you’ve chosen the correct size for formatting so nothing gets cut off! {see below}

Why Isn’t the Printable Printing at the Right Size?

I often have multiple formatting sizes available for each print {i.e. 4×6, 5×7, etc.}. This just indicates that the ratio of the height and width of the print is compatible with that printing size so nothing will be cut off when you go to print it.  Most home printers, however, will still print it out to fit a standard 8.5×11 piece of paper unless you change the settings on your printer. All printers are a bit different on this so I can’t speak to individual printers, but on our printer, we can change the photo size that we want printed and I just make sure to do this before printing if I’m wanting something other than a 8.5×11.  If you’re trying to print something smaller that just comes in a 8×10 or 8.5×11 size, you can still print it out smaller. You may just need to click on the “fit to page” setting so nothing gets cropped off.

Download Your Free Fall Printables

If you would like to download your own fall printables, just click on the link for the print {or prints!} you would like as well as the formatting size you would like. If you would like it printed in other sizes than what I have listed, just make sure that nothing important is getting cut off.

DOWNLOAD FALL IS PROOF THAT CHANGE IS GOOD 5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

DOWNLOAD STAY COZY 5×7 / 8×10 / 11×14

I hope you enjoy these! If you use them in your fall decor, let me know or tag me in your photos. There’s nothing I love more than seeing how you use them!

More Free Fall Printables

For more beautiful fall printables for your home, check out all of the gorgeous designs below. The hardest part is always choosing which ones to display! 

Fall Countryside Landscape by Ella Claire Claire & Co. | Vintage Owl by Maison de Pax | Leaves of Change by anderson + grant | Apple Preserves Label by Boxwood Avenue

Fall Printable Recipe Cards by Designthusiasm | Give Thanks Barn by Live Laugh Rowe | Pumpkin Painting by Craftberry Bush | Enjoy Labels for Your Fall Table by My Sweet Savannah

Apple Orchard Art by Lolly Jane | Welcome Fall Banner by Shabbyfufu | Fall Jar Labels by Nest of Posies | Autumn Bakery by Handmade Farmhouse

Set of Three Pumpkin Printables by Taryn Whiteaker | Vintage Truck Heritage Pumpkin Farm by The Happy Housie | Change is Beautiful by Clean and Scentsible | Leaf Collection by My Someday in May

My Fall Printable Collection

Are you still looking for more free fall printables? I’ve made a lot over the years and created this free fall printable post so you can find them all in one place. I’ll update it as I add new printables to the collection, so be sure to save or pin it for future reference. Here are a few of my favorites…

Fall Favorites Free Fall Printable

Pumpkin Season Free Fall Printable

Fall Favorites Bucket List

The post Scandinavian Style Free Fall Printables appeared first on Clean and Scentsible.

from Home Improvement https://www.cleanandscentsible.com/scandinavian-style-free-fall-printables/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[theonyxpath]

(Sometimes, even I have trouble thinking up a general fun title. No real reason, just not connecting to that part of my brain today. Maybe, it’s something to do with that symbol above…)

This week our Monday Meeting crew were still talking about the impact of the Corona Virus (go figure), and generally letting off steam over the situation. We’re all trying to be responsible and self-isolate, wear masks and such, and social distance. So far, we’ve all been fortunate not to have been stricken ill, or to have lost loved ones.

There have been some effects across our various creative teams, but we’re doing what we can to help out. Our first developer “Town Hall” was so successful that we’re doing another set in a couple of weeks – just so our creators know they have a place to ask questions, vent, and really just to be connected and listened to.

For our core Onyx Path team, there’s been some self-care put together, with Eddy taking a couple of days off at the end of last week just to get a break from maneuvering in the virus situation, and this week Matthew needs extra time, so Eddy and Dixie are interviewing some of the Gehenna Gaming gang for the Onyx Pathcast. Which is a change they are flexible enough to make happen.

Lunars art by Gunship Revolution

Meanwhile, Behind the Facade of This Innocent Looking Bookstore…

We sent the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter over to WW for review. Once they give the OK, we’ll set a date – hopefully soon. They have their own issues with the pandemic over in Sweden, but right now are still approving what we send, so more hopes that everything remains good over there.

EDIT: Actually, as I was finishing up this blog, they got back to us with the OK! So the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter will come online on Tuesday, April the 28th, at 2pm Eastern US time!

Related to that, Travis Legge is starting a Twitter game for M20 Technocracy Reloaded – as he says:

“And then like BOOM black suits fill the room up.”

I have the extreme honor and pleasure of bringing Technocracy Reloaded for Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition to Twitch starting May 5th with Phil Brucato, Jacqueline Bryk, Hiromi Cota & TK Johnson

Don’t miss out! Head over to https://twitch.tv/theonyxpath, follow & subscribe.

Be seeing you.

That’s a very stellar cast of players, so this promises to be a real treat – while at the same time providing an in-depth look at the new book.

Plus, before that specific Actual Play series arrives, we have our usual great list of programs for many, many of our game settings being played which you can find below in the Blurbs!

During our meeting, we received word that DriveThruCards is back to being able to print PoD cards, which is great! Coincidentally, just before we heard that news, Eddy let us know that he heard that the Expedition card game is back in stock on the Expedition store!  Since our own Scarred Lands is the theme of one of the supplements and allows players to add in SL creatures, treasure, and adventures, that’s great news and yet another option for a fun diversion.

You can get the cards via DTRPG as well, and I also hear they have online way for multi-player quests, so that’s even better these days!

Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties art by Michele Giorgi

Finally, here’s the news about our latest sale of physical books from our friends at Indie Press Revolution!

Exalted 3rd Edition and Dragon Blooded Deluxe Edition books and screens are 20% off all April (while supplies last).

Select Onyx Path books with Storyteller Screens are 25% off April 20 through May 24.

Scion Book 1 and 2 (Origin and Hero) are available together for 25% off April 20 through May 24.

Check out the specific book and screen sale bundles here: https://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Deals-and-Specials/

That’s it for this week, so please all take care of yourselves, and we’ll see you soon in one of our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter will start at 2pm Eastern US time on Tuesday, April the 28!

Onyx Path Media!

This week features an in-depth interview with the folks from Gehenna Gaming. Who are they, what are they up to, and how did they do such a great job running their Virtual Horror Con?

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Tune in to our games this week on Twitch! There’s a lot of games coming up, including: V5, Scion, Pugmire, the fantastic and new Storytellers with Coffee chat, Changeling: The Lost, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, Dark Eras Werewolf: The Forsaken, Chronicles of Darkness, and a new Deviant: The Renegades game! 

This week you should look out for the new Chronicles of Darkness game, Tooth and Claw. You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Trinity Continuum – Aberrant: Community Service: https://youtu.be/oY9gGocsTtU

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/1OiLEtvunkM and https://youtu.be/M9qJVeyvxmY

Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood City – Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/deky_yW-0Ho

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Have you checked out the Botch Pit‘s gaming transcripts? Have a look on their clean, beautiful website, and check this one out for a Chronicles of Darkness game: http://thebotchpit.com/new-england-by-night-season-1-session-01-im-not-making-anyone-a-supernatural-yet-transcript/

New England By Night | Season 1 | Session 01: I’m Not Making Anyone A Supernatural Yet [Transcript]

More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans:

Episode 98: Looking Back Atratus speaks with a Supernal Being with a single purpose: Determine what caused the death of her twin brother, Gabe. The ghost of Gabe and the rest of the cabal support as Atratus resolves the last anchor to her past.  https://youtu.be/hGxqIjQTa0U

Episode 99: Looking Forward   While the cabal speaks back through a scrying spell, they learn more about Gabe’s college experience and the notorious Specter Aviation. Plans are made for retribution and then the cabal begins planning searching for the last grimoire.https://youtu.be/Cjo5vaoDvtM

Here’s the Story Told Podcast where recently they’ve interviewed our developers about Exalted Essence and the great houses of Exalted 3rd Edition: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/

Did you miss that Garblag Games have commenced a new series of Mage: The Ascension? Here’s where you can find the first episode: https://youtu.be/yN47_NjYxtA

Roll the Role continue with their Scarred Lands Gauntlet of Spiragos actual play! Roll the Role is a fantastic show, so please do give them a look: https://www.twitch.tv/rolltherole

And the wonderfully named Scabby Rooster continue their actual play of Scion, right here on their Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/scabbyrooster

One of Matthew’s personal favourites, Devil’s Luck Gaming, continues their Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle over here: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming Please do give them a follow!

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:

1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.

2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.

3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.

4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition continues its fantastic sale at IPR, soon to be joined by Game-Line Bundles! Check them out!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week the Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties for Dystopia Rising: Evolution will be available in PDF and PoD versions on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday!

Traveling across the wasteland and dealing with all manner of beasties isn’t an easy job, but someone’s got to do it. Using their wits, their strength, and a whole lot of luck, they manage to tame, kill, and drive off creatures that threaten areas of newly built civilization. 

Some highlights of Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties include: 

• Details on some of the terrain and mutated animals you will find in the post-apocalyptic wasteland. 

• Rules for presenting six distinct creatures in your series, and also for customizing your own. 

• Stories about Helnau and her beast-hunting crew as they travel across deserts, through forests, and deal with some of the worst the wastelands have to offer. 

This Wednesday also features the debut of Distant Worlds for Trinity Continuum: Aeon in PDF and PoD versions on DTRPG!

Distant Worlds expands the setting of Trinity Continuum: Aeon with new worlds, new alien mysteries, and rules for playing actual aliens, the secretive telepathic Qin.

Distant Worlds requires both Trinity Continuum: Aeon and the Trinity Continuum Corebook to play. Inside, you will find:

Further information about the eight extrasolar worlds described in Trinity Continuum: Aeon, including new dangers and new opportunities for adventure.

Detailed write-ups of 10 new planets, including one that is home to a recently contacted intelligent alien species.

New technologies for interstellar travel and colonization, as well as a wealth of new devices created by aliens, and new Edges and Paths specifically for interstellar explorers and settlers.

The secrets of humanity’s alien allies, the mysterious Qin. This section includes descriptions of four Qin interstellar colonies as well as rules for creating and playing Qin characters and for designing and using custom-made Qin biosuits.

Conventions!

Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

The Book of Endless Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy – Wrapping up contracting.

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Contracted.

TC Aeon Terra Firma – One artist was delayed by Covid in Italy, but their art is coming in.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Tweaking some art re: WW art approvals.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

WoD Ghost Hunters

Aberrant – Contacting and contracting.

Pugmire Adventure 

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Rolling along.

Legendlore – Kickstarter on hiatus.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Awaiting approval.

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

Duke Rollo Book

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart 

Pirates of Pugmire 

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Getting ready to send to WW/Paradox.

Scion Companion – Tweaking art re: proofing notes.

Contagion Chronicle

At Press

TC Distant Worlds – PDF and PoD versions on sale Weds!

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Prepping PoD files.

Dark Eras 2 – PoD proof shipping.

VtR Spilled Blood – PoD proof shipping.

DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties – PDF and PoD versions on sale Weds!

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

They Came from Beneath the Sea!

Geist 2e Anthology – PoD proof coming.

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Page XXing.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

20 years ago today, White Wolf launched the New Bremen DigiChat environment. A persistent online setting with hundreds of people online at any given time, it was an early success in playing RPGs with others over the Internet. As Impish Ian Watson sez:

“It was fun in the sense that it was all the wildest WoD stories in one place. When, during V20 development, Vampire players talked about some of their favourite memories happening when they botched? That was NB every day. It was frankly ridiculous and I burned out pretty hard, but I look back on it fondly.”

[gfjolle]

I recently interviewed Pamela Gossiaux, author of Mrs. Chartwell and the Cat Burglar, Trusting the Cat Burglar, and the most recent title: Romancing the Cat Burglar.

Please tell us about your new title and where it is available?

Romancing the Cat Burglar takes place in Paris, a city I fell in love with several years ago when I visited. I had a lot of fun writing the story because creating the setting gave me a chance to remember the beauty, the timelessness and the art of that wonderful city. And of course, the food! I wanted to capture enough of the atmosphere in the book so the reader feels like he or she is there! In this story, the third in the series, Abigail has to impress her boss with her presentation at the Louvre and bring in some funding for their library or she’s going to get the boot.  Tony’s along for the ride and wants to search for his family’s history while he’s in Paris. But when Abigail’s ring gets stolen, and mysterious paintings start to appear in Paris’s finest museums, the two get caught up in a dangerous hunt. As they seek answers, the line between right and wrong blurs. With Abigail’s future in jeopardy, and Tony’s reputation following him, how far will they go to find the truth?

Why did you choose to tell this story?

I wanted a story that is fun and flirty, but also brings in a question about integrity. Abigail has always walked the straight and narrow, but Tony is a reformed cat burglar. When they start tracking a thief and much is at stake, how far will they go to help the one they love? This book talks about “crossing the line” and when, and if, it’s okay to do so. My other books have a theme in them too: Mrs. Chartwell talks about forgiveness, and Trusting the Cat Burglar is of course, about trust. My characters ask questions about things that I sometimes find myself struggling with. Don’t we all from time to time?

How did you research the book?

I went to Paris! I also took French back in college. It’s a bit rusty now, but between Google Translate and my hazy memory of the language, hopefully I didn’t mess it up that badly! There are some French phrases in there, and the Parisians sometimes speak a word or two of French to give the book an authentic feel.

Please describe your current work?

I am working on a fourth Cat Burglar book, which will be out later next year. It’s about a stolen violin. My sons both play violin, so again, I thought I’d write about something I know. My most current project that I’m in the middle of writing right now is a Young Adult novel, that will hopefully be out in the spring. More to come on that later.

Which writers inspire / inspired you?

Well, Gregory French, of course! I have loved Madeleine L’Engle’s books since I was a kid. I read such a wide variety of genres today, and some of my current favorites include Joshilyn Jackson (I love her characters!); Connie Willis (Sci-Fi and fun with some great research thrown in!); Patsy Clairmont (Christian inspiration and humor); and of course the awesome J.R.R.Tolkien and J.K. Rowling for world-building. And C.S. Lewis because he’s so quotable. Why do you write?

Because I can’t NOT write. Creating stories is something I’ve always done. It’s my passion and I don’t feel complete unless I am creating. I guess I have a lot to say and I want to get it all down on paper. Also, writing fiction gives me a grown-up excuse to play with my imaginary friends!

What are your common themes?

Although I don’t always start out to write Christian books, I find that my faith creeps into all of my stories. Our beliefs are a part of who we are, and my stories are a way, in part, of my exploring my faith at a greater level. For example, in Trusting the Cat Burglar, Abigail has to decide if she can really trust Tony or not. But the greater question the book explores is can we really trust God? God lets some scary things happen to us. How/why can we continue trusting Him despite this?

How often do you write and where?

I write every day. My goal for my own books is 2000 words per day, because I have a full-time job as a writer/editor for others. I write in my office when the family is home. That’s a closet transformed into an office in my bedroom. But when I’m home alone and the house is quiet, I bring the laptop to the kitchen table, where I can look out back and watch the birds come to the feeders. It’s so peaceful and pretty. And when I write, I am always surrounded by my cats. Usually one of them is on my lap.

What question do you wish I had asked? 

What is your advice for aspiring writers? I am contacted by so many people who want to write a book but don’t know where to start, or don’t have the time, etc. Some writing can be cathartic, or just for fun, and that’s okay. But if you want to write a book for publication, I believe in a Butt in Seat approach. The only way you are going to get a book written is to write it. Every one of us has a story in us, and some of us simply have to tell it. If you are one of those people, sit down every day and write. If you only write on page per day, that’s 365 pages per year, which is a pretty big book. And I don’t believe in writer’s block. I worked as a journalist for many years, and when there’s an 8 a.m. breaking story and you have a 9 a.m. deadline for the paper to go to print, you don’t have time for writer’s block. You just write. Train yourself like you would for any other job. Just show up, do the work, and it will get done.

Thank you, Greg! I have enjoyed talking with you and I can’t wait to read what you are working on next!

You can find Pam and her fine novels at the following. Don’t hesitate, these are great mysteries by a brilliant writer.

  Website:https://pamelagossiaux.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PamelaGossiauxAuthor/

Twitter:https://twitter.com/pamelagossiaux

Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Pamela-Gossiaux/e/B001JP3CI2/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

BookBub:https://www.bookbub.com/authors/pamela-gossiaux

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pamelagossiaux/

Pamela Gossiaux Interview: Cats & Hearts I recently interviewed Pamela Gossiaux, author of Mrs. Chartwell and the Cat Burglar, Trusting the Cat Burglar, and…

[lindsay36ho]

The Art of Listening — Updated Notes from Berman’s Bench

Since the first edition of Boris Berman’s Notes from the Pianist’s Bench was published in 2000, it has been read by countless pianists, piano teachers, and piano students throughout the world. The book has been translated into several languages and adopted as a required text in universities and conservatories. Just recently, it was published in a second edition, available in both print and electronic formats. Piano Street’s David Wärn met Mr. Berman at the Cremona Musica Piano Experience, to talk about the contents of the book, and about the changes and updates of the new edition.

Boris Berman performing at the Cremona Musica Piano Experience, September 2018

– Mr. Berman, please tell us how the new edition came about.

– I first wrote the book because I noticed that I kept coming back to the same issues with my students. So, I thought maybe I should cover these issues in writing once and for all. But it appeared that it’s not easy to cover everything once and for all! The idea of the second edition came up because I felt that quite a few years passed; there are some things I see differently now. Also, new ideas came up in the intervening years which I wanted to include in a new edition.

Notes from the Pianist’s Bench – second edition[/caption]At the same time the publisher, Yale University Press, was interested in getting on the technology bandwagon. We spoke about it and decided that it would be nice to include some audio and video demonstrations. The idea was to find certain moments in the book which are hard to put in words, but easier to understand by hearing or watching a demonstration. When you are reading the E-book this new material is very easily available: you just click on the page. For readers of the printed book, there is a dedicated website through which they can access the video and audio. (View sample >>)

Some of the visual demonstrations actually came to me quite spontaneously: for example, there is one moment when I talk of different levels of clarity, comparing it to perspective in painting. Since I had the opportunity, I could not restrain myself but to give an example of a painting. Of course, it could have been done in print as well, but it felt more spontaneous to do it in a video.

– You put great emphasis on sound — the first chapter in your book is called Sound and Touch. In it, you explain in great detail how different movements influence the sound of the piano. But you also write that some teachers and students neglect the topic of sound. How can that be?

– Well, I had the great fortune to study with Lev Oborin, who among the illustrious professors of the Moscow Conservatory was known as paying particular attention to the sound. Consequently, this was something which was constantly referred to when I was a student, and something which I continued to carry on in my pedagogical work.

There are several reasons why sound is a neglected topic. One is that many students are primarily interested in acquiring velocity. This is what their teachers and themselves are concerned with above all. Additionally, many of them practice on terrible instruments, which don’t give them much chance to discern fine gradations of the sound. Or some of them practice on electronic pianos, which limits the possibilities even more. But I think the primary reason is that too many students are thinking that the way to success is to play as fast as possible, and as loud as possible. Unfortunately, some teachers — by no means a majority, but some — cater to this group of students.

Boris Berman teaching

– You write that we need two kinds of ears: the subjective one, which we use to imagine the sound that we want, and the objective one, which actually hears what is coming out of the instrument. What are the best ways of developing one’s ‘musical ears’?

– Let’s start with the objective ear. There are many students — especially talented students, students with a great imagination — who are so engrossed in.. emoting, that they do not actually hear themselves. I have a student right now, who is phenomenally gifted. But his performances are full of various exaggerations. In our lessons, I ask him to record himself. I have done this on many occasions before, but never so persistently as with him. Then we listen to the playback together, and I point out: ‘Hear this: I don’t think it’s a good idea to play this way because of this or that’. Or he says: ‘Oh, I didn’t realize I changed the tempo so much!’ The thing is: nobody can hear himself objectively 100%, even the most experienced performers, but we all must try to develop this ability. Recording oneself is a very good way of developing an objective ear.

As for the subjective ear: here I talk about creative imagination. You can say, ‘I want to play this place piano’. Fair enough. But there are many kinds of piano, and this intention alone will not take you far. You can say, ‘I want to play it piano with great intensity’. This is is something different — then you have to figure out what creates the feeling of intensity. Because at the end of the day, it is your physical action that conveys such a feeling. It’s never imagination alone, but you have to start with imagining something.

And so you work to get the sound which you think conveys the idea of intensity. Then you suddenly may have another idea: ‘This should be played like a cello solo’. Again, this is something different, this a new task that you put in front of yourself, and so on. This is how many people work. Others need an extra-musical image. Some musicians may have the synaesthetic way of listening to music: they would perhaps say, ‘I want this to be of a dark red color’. If this helps you — fine. Some would say: ‘I want it to sound like I lost the love of my life’. If this helps — go ahead. All this is to spur your imagination. And hopefully, your imagination will spur your technical know-how.

– Is there also such a thing as ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ technique? You write very objectively about how various physical actions influence sound. At the same time, you encourage students to seek their own approach, to find what works best for each person.

– I work with students of different backgrounds and different temperaments, and this all has a bearing on the way they play— but we should probably begin with their physical build. It is clear that a very heavily built, tall pianist, needs different physical actions than a very tiny, delicately built person. I’m constantly telling this to students. And if I have an opportunity — if, for instance, I work with a student, and another student who is built differently is present in the room, I say: “Well, for you it is better to play this way, but she needs something completely different. And if you will be teaching somebody of her physical build, you would need to know what to suggest to this student.”

Each pianist feels what is convenient and comfortable for himself — but the teacher needs to know what will be the most practical and convenient for this particular person. Sometimes, I will say to a student, ‘You see, this can be achieved this way, or this way, or that way. I suggest that you try them all to see what works best for you.’ I often see my students — and some of them are fantastically gifted and greatly advanced — doing something that would never work for myself. But if it works for them — fine!

– In a chapter called The Art of Teaching and the Art of Learning, you mention that some students of today adopt a kind of ‘consumerist’ approach, rather than subscribing wholly to their teacher’s general musical and aesthetic principles. They view lessons as a visit to a supermarket; if they do not find exactly what they want, they just go to the next store. What are they missing?

– You have to realize that every accomplished performer plays a certain way because he believes that it corresponds to his musical, aesthetic aspirations. Somebody may say. ‘Oh, I really dislike his interpretations but he has a gorgeous tone, so maybe I will learn from him the tone but leave alone his interpretation.’ But the tone of a pianist is this and not any other because this is how he hears the music. It cannot be separated.

What students often don’t understand is that a teacher is much more than a provider of useful tips. Of course, we are all constantly learning by picking things up, sometimes subconsciously, but to go to this teacher for wrist technique, and to that teacher for finger technique, and to this teacher for upper arm technique, I find lacking sense.

What you will lose is musical integrity. Horowitz had a fantastic technique,he was one of the greatest virtuosos. Do you think his technique could be organically adopted by somebody like.. Radu Lupu? No, because their whole musical Weltanshauung is very different.

– You write that one of the most important things a teacher communicates to the students is ‘a sense of the right measure’. Excesses and exaggerations — in our physical actions as well as in our musical interpretations — must be avoided. Reading this, I was wondering if you are not too hard on exaggeration? Aren’t there certain situations or stages of development where it can be a good idea to ask students to exaggerate musical ideas or physical motions?

– It’s a very good question; I remember I got a comment specifically about this from a teacher who also thought that I’m too hard on exaggeration. I know the teacher and I know his students, let’s say many of them are very… obedient. Of course, he would crave for somebody to exaggerate! And I was thinking of my own students, who often seem to have no inhibitions… So yes, it depends what kind of students you are working with.

– So, how would you encourage a student not to be too obedient or timid?

– In this case, I would say, after we discussed what their intention is: ‘go for it, don’t be afraid to exaggerate!’ Sometimes I tell students an old joke about how one makes a bagel: ‘well, it’s very simple — you take a hole, and you wrap it in a dough.’ Obviously you don’t start with the hole, you start with the dough — you start with something material. Then you trim it. You don’t start with void.

– And how do you deal with your students’ exaggerations?

– Exaggerations are always motivated by something. For some people, the mere justification might be to be original, or to do something that nobody did before. There are also some people who feel that music becomes more expressive this way. You know, I write about it — it’s so seldom that we musicians say to each other, or teachers say to their students, ‘oh this is absolutely wrong, you treat this piece like a brilliant presto and I feel it is a dark andante’. Usually, we’re talking about “how much”: how much to slow down, how much to make a crescendo… and this is what the teacher needs to communicate. Of course, it’s very simple to say ‘it’s too much’, but I find it very valuable when, instead, you say: ‘this ritenuto would be logical and legitimate if the section was ending here. But it is ending a few bars later. By slowing down so much, you signal that this is the end of the section, and it is not.’ This is one of the ways of dealing with exaggeration.

But often — and here I come back to where we began — the student doesn’t realize that he exaggerates. Early in my pedagogical work, I had a very talented student who played with all kinds of exaggerations, but because he was talented it was still very interesting to hear. And I said to myself: ‘With this boy, I need to be careful, I should not conform him. He has his own vision.’

So, I was kind of pussyfooting around him for quite some time, until once he played in such a way that I really could not accept. I said, ‘Well, I know you want it to sound this way’, and I played it for him, and he said, ‘No no no, I don’t want it to sound like that! And I said, ‘How would you like it to sound?’ And he demonstrated something quite commonsensical. Then I understood that it’s not that he hears it differently. His listening — objective listening — is distorted, and it’s a completely different story.

– How would you like the book to be used? Do you use it yourself as a complement to your teaching?

– I do. Sometimes, I say to a student, ‘You know what, we have discussed this issue, but I also write about it in my book in a more general, or more extensive, way — why don’t you read a certain chapter’. This is how I think the book should be read. Probably not from cover to cover — it’s not a novel or thriller. But I hope that a teacher may assign a certain chapter to a student. We all know that the lesson time is quite short. A teacher has to deal with numerous things: correcting notes, correcting rhythms, correcting specific issues in the piece. The teacher may not have time for a general discussion. This is where I think the book can be very useful. I think that all the topics I discuss should be of interest for professional pianists, but not to the same degree at any given time. What I mean is that maybe at a certain point a student needs some help with certain technical issues. Perhaps a few months later, more general aspects of interpretation will come to the fore. I would hope that different parts of the book can serve musicians at different stages of their development.

The book at Amazon.com: Notes from the Pianist’s Bench: Second Edition

Recommended listening:

Click the album covers to listen to the complete albums: (This is a new feature available for Gold members of pianostreet.com)

from Piano Street’s Classical Piano News https://www.pianostreet.com/blog/articles/the-art-of-listening-updated-notes-from-bermans-bench-9464/

[goldeagleprice]

Community Voice Responses (August 14, 2018)

From the July 20 Numismatic News E-Newsletter:

Are Morgan silver dollars overrated?

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers to Editor Dave Harper.

  I think so. I don’t think the design is particularly inspirational (or aspirational). The obverse is basically a curly-headed blog, and the reverse is yet another tired eagle. Probably OK for the time, but not particularly interesting.

Peace dollars, on the other hand, are pretty awesome!

Henry Mensch Syracuse, N.Y.

  What other coins from the 19th century are readily available in uncirculated condition at affordable prices for most collectors? Morgan dollars have a unique place in numismatic history. Hundreds of millions were minted, then kept in storage vaults until the 1960s. There is nothing quite like holding a silver dollar in hand, especially for a child. The heft of the coin, the brilliance of luster or flashes of colorful toning come in a size many can enjoy without magnification. For the serious collectors, there are the VAM varieties to be found that can be like a treasure hunt. Morgan dollars exist from all the U.S. Mint facilities in operation between 1878-1921. The brilliance of an 1881 San Francisco minted coin can be contrasted with those from New Orleans or Philadelphia. The Carson City minted dollars add a romantic charm to lovers of the Old West. The 1921 Morgans are unique in that they were struck from new hubs copied from those in use in 1904 and earlier. It is the only year we have examples from the Denver mint. Morgan dollars are unique, beautiful, available, affordable and enchanting. How can a coin with so much to offer be overrated?

Timothy Scharr Aviston, Ill.

  Yes. Morgan dollars are the very definition of overrated. Most dates are common as dirt even in high grades. One could walk from one end to the other of an ANA or FUN show walking on only Morgan dollar slabs from dealer cases stacked like paving bricks and never touch the flooring. V. Kurt Bellman Harrisburg, Pa.

  Morgan silver dollars may be over graded sometimes, but they are not overrated. They are highly desirable works of art, very beautiful in Mint State grades. They survive in adequate numbers to be affordable as a type coin for the average collector.

All of the Morgan dollars are over 100 years old, except for the last year of issue. By definition, they can be considered antique. Not many antiques have retained such great beauty after so many years.

Bruce R. Frohman Modesto, Calif.

  Yes, I think the Morgan is overrated. But, it is so beautiful. Maybe the reason it is so popular.

David Donovan Address withheld

  I wanted to let you know that the Morgan dollars are overpriced and with them being rated by another agency will raise the price. As much as I wanted to buy, I will not buy because I’m not going to pay a premium.

Robert Odulio West Covina, Calif.

  Morgan dollars have long been a favorite item of collectors. Visions of the Old West and casinos can’t help but come to mind when even speaking of the Morgan dollar. Coins from the Carson City mint with the famous CC mintmark have always interested collectors. The New Orleans mint, now a museum, brings visions of the Old South during the later part of the 19th century. The San Francisco mintmark can’t help but make one think how many “S” mintmark Morgans were lost in the earthquake of 1906. The fact that holding a Morgan dollar can remind someone of all that history can never make them overrated. Even in XF and AU, these coins evoke interest and are still affordable.

A quick look at a guide shows some Morgan dollars get pretty pricey in MS-65, and only time will tell what effect the recent hoard of the 16,000 pristine Morgan dollars will have on the overall Morgan dollar coin market. Thousands of MS-67 Morgan dollars will certainly have an effect. Then you have to think how many hoards are still out there? I, for one, never thought Morgan dollars were over priced. But I do not have any MS-65 Morgan dollars. Actually, my favorite Morgan dollar is an 1892-O that I would grade in maybe XF-40. I hold it, flip it, spin it, and even like to listen to it as it clanks on a granite counter. I can also SEE it without a magnifying glass. That is a biggie for older collectors. And it will always be worth the price of silver. Try doing that with a coin graded MS-65 or, now, MS-67.

So my take on the Morgan dollar is that it can never be overrated because it is rich in history. And NO the Morgan dollar is not overpriced for new or educated Morgan dollar collectors. Morgan silver dollars and the Henry repeating rifle are American treasures.

Dom Cicio Groveland, Fla.

  How can you overrate a coin that has zillions of examples, many varieties, countless publications, and a reasonable price? Some collectors are of the opinion that, “If you ain’t Morgan, you’re nothing,” which is fine for them but not for the rest of us. Go for it, guys, but leave me to collect what I want.

Bob Fritsch Nashua, N.H.

  I do not think Morgan dollars are overrated at all. They are big silver coins. Attractive. Historical. A big set with many different ways to collect. There are enough “common” ones to go around. They make great gifts. A 1921 Morgan $1 (and a 1922 Peace $1) got me interested in coins.

Ginger Rapsus Chicago, Ill.

  Absolutely not! They are beautiful coins with much interesting history. They can be very affordable while offering a variety of collecting options. These options include varieties, dates, mintmarks, and condition factors. These are coins that some of us grew up with, and we have great stories to tell! And perhaps best of all, the Mint is no longer involved in their production, pricing and distribution!

Story No. 1: Circa 1958, my family took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. On a gas stop in one of the Wyoming towns, my Dad got a silver dollar in change. I was intrigued by the coin because I had never seen one! To the contrary, my Dad had a hissy fit because he did not want to carry that bulky object around in his pocket. Memory fails me, but hopefully I was able to negotiate that silver dollar as an advance on my future allowance!

Story No. 2: Many years ago a friend in the coin business was called upon to do an appraisal for a local bank of uncirculated silver dollar bags that had been held in the bank vaults for many decades. A fascinating story in and of itself, but it actually gets better! A longtime employee of the bank recently told me [and Paul Harvey] the rest of the story. The bank went up for sale. Careful evaluation of their financial statements showed that the silver dollars were listed at face value, common accounting procedure for the banking industry. The buyer of the bank proceeded to sell the silver dollars for the then-current market value. This resulted in proceeds that exceeded his cost of buying the bank!

Max Stucky Colorado Springs, Colo.

  Silver dollars of any condition, mint, grade, or type are never overrated. Overpriced? Maybe. But never overrated. Still one of the most recognized and iconic coin designs ever!

Bret Swanie Address withheld

  They are common as dirt; they were created only to prop up the wealth of Western mine owning plutocrats, so they have negligible historic interest; very few of them were ever used in commerce; and most people who collect them are much more interested in the numbers on the little piece of paper in the plastic than they are in the big, round, shiny thing that’s also in the plastic. So, yes, most definitely, they are.

Bill Eckberg Address withheld

  The sure are. An accompanying article in this issue of Numismatic News revealed that another hoard of these worthless dollars has been discovered in a bank in New York. Oh, great, there goes the value of dollars we had spent a considerable amount of money to add to our collection.

The lies being told over the years about millions of these dollars being melted by the government and/or collectors for the silver content are nothing but that, lies. Those millions of melted dollars just keep turning up in more and more hoards. I think professional coin organizations or companies are intentionally creating this whole fake mess. And anyone who does like that article states about “being excited and get out your checkbooks” is nothing but a fool being separated from his/her money.

Can’t wait for the next “newly discovered” hoard of Morgan dollars.

Alan Anderson Tucson, Ariz.

Editor’s note: Whatever your opinion of the Morgan dollar coin, 270 million were melted under terms of the 1918 Pittman Act and 40 million more were melted during World War II to recover silver for use in other coins.

  This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

   More Collecting Resources

• Subscribe to our monthly Coins magazine – a great resource for any collector!

• Start becoming a coin collector today with this popular course, Coin Collecting 101.

The post Community Voice Responses (August 14, 2018) appeared first on Numismatic News.

[studiobowesart]

If Picasso Painted a Snowman

The following is an interview I did with Howard Lyon for  Muddy Colors regarding the creation of our new book If Picasso Painted a Snowman. Thanks Howard for permission to repost it here! My friends Amy and Greg Newbold have recently collaborated on a book called If Picasso Painted a Snowman. I think this is the first children's book that I have ever reviewed on Muddy Colors (I hope it isn't the last, there are so many great picture books out there). I happened to stop by Greg's house on the same day received pre-release copies of his book (I was there to pick up some black walnuts, he has a GIANT giving tree that I believe, without exaggerating, will let me produce about 30 gallons of ink). This a wonderful book! Many of the readers of MC have kids or are aunts and uncles. This book is for you and yours (I'm including an Amazon link here and at the end of the interview). It is a great introduction to a large variety of artists and their work, but also opens up the imagination to all the possibilities of different artists paint, but also how different thinkers might approach the same challenge. I asked Greg and Amy if I might interview them for MC. Here goes! Where did the idea for the book come from? It all started several years ago when my wife Amy visited Paris with her sisters on a girl’s trip. During a visit to the Picasso Museum she asked the question “What would it look like if Picasso painted a snowman?” She envisioned a book that would teach kids about significant artists and art movements in a fun and engaging way. Honestly, it was to be the book that we could never find for our kids in all the years of taking them to museums. For several years she polished the manuscript, we showed it around and reworked it. Nobody caught the vision of what we wanted to do until Tris Coburn at Tilbury House Publishers in Maine bought our pitch.

What was the most challenging part of creating illustrations in the styles of such a variety of artists? Since I was young, I have always enjoyed the challenge of learning new styles or techniques. Like most budding artists, I started by trying to copy other artists’ work. In high school I did Prismacolor replicas of album covers and copied drawings from guys like Frank Frazetta and the Hildebrandt brothers. I sold some of them for ten or twenty bucks. Once in college I had the legitimate option of creating an old master copy painting instead of writing a paper. My professor told me my Van Gogh was the best copy she had ever seen because I tried so hard to get the materials and surface texture correct. Because I like to experiment with new materials and processes, I also find it very instructive to paint these master copies. Studying and trying to recreate the works of great artists allows you to deconstruct and learn from the masters and it’s something I have done on and off over the years. This book gave me the opportunity to learn about the materials and processes of seventeen different artists. Some of those chosen for the book were quite familiar, as I had studied the likes of Grant Wood and Van Gogh. Others Like Jacob Lawrence and Sonia Delaunay were previously unknown to me.

Grant Woods Snowman - The stern coal mouths are perfect

I dug into their processes online and tried to find books that described the way they worked and what materials they used. My goal was to mimic each artist’s materials and process as much as was practical. Of course there are new materials available today and the time crunch I was under forced me to make some adjustments. For instance, the Roy Lichtenstein piece was created digitally as I had neither the time or inclination to figure out where to screen print it and there was no way I was going to get the Ben-Day dots right painting it by hand. Also, scale was sacrificed on a number of pieces.

Roy Lichtenstein Snowman - I love this one!

The J.M.W Turner painting I made is a miniature compared to most of his other pieces as is the Georgia O’Keeffe, who also typically worked much larger than I could justify. Sometimes materials had to change. For instance I painted the Grant Wood in acrylic rather than oil. It was a speed issue and I rationalized that Wood painted his oils using layers of crosshatch anyway, so the result was very similar.

Georgia O'Keefe's snowman is beautiful.

Is there one that you enjoyed the most or least? Honestly, this entire project was a dream to work on. It was just so fun to try new things. I learned how to make a direct drawing monoprint for the Paul Klee piece, played with gold leafing for the Gustav Klimt painting but the most fun was probably the Jackson Pollock painting. I went all in to figure out what he was all about. I had previously read Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock by William Taylor Adams and I was totally intrigued by Pollock.

As a young artist I scoffed at Pollock thinking that it was just a bunch of random drips on canvas, but as I dug deeper, I began to understand what his “action paintings” were all about. Also, watching the ten-minute documentary filmed in 1951 by Hans Namuth was helpful. In the film, Pollock is seen painting outside and his voice narrates the process. I purchased a large-ish piece of raw linen and several quarts of Pollock-esque colored latex paint for the painting, forgoing the oil enamel Pollock preferred in the name of practicality. I used sticks and hard brushes to drip and fling the paint while walking all around the perimeter just as Pollock did in the film (minus the cigarette and discordant music). It was a little windy and I even had some grass and sticks get embedded in the painting. It was so much fun, there are plans for a Pollock party to let some of our friends create their own “Jackson Pollock”.

What is your hope/goal for this book? As I mentioned at the outset, this is the type of book we wished we could have found for our kids at one of the many museums we dragged them to. We tried to put across the idea that the possibilities are endless when creating art and that you should not be intimidated or limited by what some people perceive as “rules”. There is no right or wrong way to create art, simply techniques that either allow or prevent you from achieving the vision you have for your art. We have tried hard to make it more than just an overview of different art styles. With it’s simple text, it also reads as a nice bedtime story, hopefully appealing to fans of snowman books, gift books, or art books in general. There are enough inside jokes to appeal to adults as well. At the end of the book we have also included expanded bios and art making tips. We hope that parents, teachers and children embrace this book as permission to explore art with freedom and joy.

After reading the book, I want to draw a Caravaggio/Bouguereau/Waterhouse/Watterson/Frazetta snowman!

Are there artists whose work you didn't imitate but you would have liked to? There are too many to count. Luckily we are in negotiations with our publisher to create a follow up book, so hopefully I’ll get to play with another batch of styles with that project.

How did you decide what artists to include? With so many artists to choose from, it became a question of which ones would be recognized, which ones would add variety and touch on major movements and also which ones whose styles I felt confident enough to try to mimic. We also tried to choose artists that we were fairly sure never painted a snowman. Some artists did not make the cut for one or more of those reasons. We also tried to include a variety of artists including women and ethnically diverse painters. Knowing the overwhelming majority of dead white European artists that crowd the annals of art history, we knew it was impossible to give any sort of equality of diversity to the group, so we did our best and focused on the overall variety in the book.

Gustav Klimt Snowman. Beyond the theme of the book and Klimt's style, this is a touching painting!

What other books or projects would you like the audience to know about that you have been part of? This year was crazy in that I have never had two new picture books released in the same year, let alone create all the art in that same year. I did all the art for If Picasso Painted a Snowman from January to March and then all the art for The Little Match Girl (coming from Shadow Mountain October 17, 2017) from April to mid July. In the past, I would have shied away from both of those time frames, but I’m at a point now where I have enough confidence to just say yes and figure out the logistics later. In my twenty plus years as a full time artist, I have worked for most of the large New York publishers and have been fortunate to have my work accepted into all the major juried illustration shows over the years including, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Spectrum, AIGA and Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles. I’ve also done quite a bit of advertising work for clients like Fedex, American Express, Smuckers, Heinz and the like.

from LIFE NEEDS ART http://ift.tt/2BXmYiF

[goldeagleprice]

Community Voice Responses (August 14, 2018)

From the July 20 Numismatic News E-Newsletter:

Are Morgan silver dollars overrated?

Here are some answers sent from our e-newsletter readers to Editor Dave Harper.

  I think so. I don’t think the design is particularly inspirational (or aspirational). The obverse is basically a curly-headed blog, and the reverse is yet another tired eagle. Probably OK for the time, but not particularly interesting.

Peace dollars, on the other hand, are pretty awesome!

Henry Mensch Syracuse, N.Y.

  What other coins from the 19th century are readily available in uncirculated condition at affordable prices for most collectors? Morgan dollars have a unique place in numismatic history. Hundreds of millions were minted, then kept in storage vaults until the 1960s. There is nothing quite like holding a silver dollar in hand, especially for a child. The heft of the coin, the brilliance of luster or flashes of colorful toning come in a size many can enjoy without magnification. For the serious collectors, there are the VAM varieties to be found that can be like a treasure hunt. Morgan dollars exist from all the U.S. Mint facilities in operation between 1878-1921. The brilliance of an 1881 San Francisco minted coin can be contrasted with those from New Orleans or Philadelphia. The Carson City minted dollars add a romantic charm to lovers of the Old West. The 1921 Morgans are unique in that they were struck from new hubs copied from those in use in 1904 and earlier. It is the only year we have examples from the Denver mint. Morgan dollars are unique, beautiful, available, affordable and enchanting. How can a coin with so much to offer be overrated?

Timothy Scharr Aviston, Ill.

  Yes. Morgan dollars are the very definition of overrated. Most dates are common as dirt even in high grades. One could walk from one end to the other of an ANA or FUN show walking on only Morgan dollar slabs from dealer cases stacked like paving bricks and never touch the flooring. V. Kurt Bellman Harrisburg, Pa.

  Morgan silver dollars may be over graded sometimes, but they are not overrated. They are highly desirable works of art, very beautiful in Mint State grades. They survive in adequate numbers to be affordable as a type coin for the average collector.

All of the Morgan dollars are over 100 years old, except for the last year of issue. By definition, they can be considered antique. Not many antiques have retained such great beauty after so many years.

Bruce R. Frohman Modesto, Calif.

  Yes, I think the Morgan is overrated. But, it is so beautiful. Maybe the reason it is so popular.

David Donovan Address withheld

  I wanted to let you know that the Morgan dollars are overpriced and with them being rated by another agency will raise the price. As much as I wanted to buy, I will not buy because I’m not going to pay a premium.

Robert Odulio West Covina, Calif.

  Morgan dollars have long been a favorite item of collectors. Visions of the Old West and casinos can’t help but come to mind when even speaking of the Morgan dollar. Coins from the Carson City mint with the famous CC mintmark have always interested collectors. The New Orleans mint, now a museum, brings visions of the Old South during the later part of the 19th century. The San Francisco mintmark can’t help but make one think how many “S” mintmark Morgans were lost in the earthquake of 1906. The fact that holding a Morgan dollar can remind someone of all that history can never make them overrated. Even in XF and AU, these coins evoke interest and are still affordable.

A quick look at a guide shows some Morgan dollars get pretty pricey in MS-65, and only time will tell what effect the recent hoard of the 16,000 pristine Morgan dollars will have on the overall Morgan dollar coin market. Thousands of MS-67 Morgan dollars will certainly have an effect. Then you have to think how many hoards are still out there? I, for one, never thought Morgan dollars were over priced. But I do not have any MS-65 Morgan dollars. Actually, my favorite Morgan dollar is an 1892-O that I would grade in maybe XF-40. I hold it, flip it, spin it, and even like to listen to it as it clanks on a granite counter. I can also SEE it without a magnifying glass. That is a biggie for older collectors. And it will always be worth the price of silver. Try doing that with a coin graded MS-65 or, now, MS-67.

So my take on the Morgan dollar is that it can never be overrated because it is rich in history. And NO the Morgan dollar is not overpriced for new or educated Morgan dollar collectors. Morgan silver dollars and the Henry repeating rifle are American treasures.

Dom Cicio Groveland, Fla.

  How can you overrate a coin that has zillions of examples, many varieties, countless publications, and a reasonable price? Some collectors are of the opinion that, “If you ain’t Morgan, you’re nothing,” which is fine for them but not for the rest of us. Go for it, guys, but leave me to collect what I want.

Bob Fritsch Nashua, N.H.

  I do not think Morgan dollars are overrated at all. They are big silver coins. Attractive. Historical. A big set with many different ways to collect. There are enough “common” ones to go around. They make great gifts. A 1921 Morgan $1 (and a 1922 Peace $1) got me interested in coins.

Ginger Rapsus Chicago, Ill.

  Absolutely not! They are beautiful coins with much interesting history. They can be very affordable while offering a variety of collecting options. These options include varieties, dates, mintmarks, and condition factors. These are coins that some of us grew up with, and we have great stories to tell! And perhaps best of all, the Mint is no longer involved in their production, pricing and distribution!

Story No. 1: Circa 1958, my family took a trip to Yellowstone National Park. On a gas stop in one of the Wyoming towns, my Dad got a silver dollar in change. I was intrigued by the coin because I had never seen one! To the contrary, my Dad had a hissy fit because he did not want to carry that bulky object around in his pocket. Memory fails me, but hopefully I was able to negotiate that silver dollar as an advance on my future allowance!

Story No. 2: Many years ago a friend in the coin business was called upon to do an appraisal for a local bank of uncirculated silver dollar bags that had been held in the bank vaults for many decades. A fascinating story in and of itself, but it actually gets better! A longtime employee of the bank recently told me [and Paul Harvey] the rest of the story. The bank went up for sale. Careful evaluation of their financial statements showed that the silver dollars were listed at face value, common accounting procedure for the banking industry. The buyer of the bank proceeded to sell the silver dollars for the then-current market value. This resulted in proceeds that exceeded his cost of buying the bank!

Max Stucky Colorado Springs, Colo.

  Silver dollars of any condition, mint, grade, or type are never overrated. Overpriced? Maybe. But never overrated. Still one of the most recognized and iconic coin designs ever!

Bret Swanie Address withheld

  They are common as dirt; they were created only to prop up the wealth of Western mine owning plutocrats, so they have negligible historic interest; very few of them were ever used in commerce; and most people who collect them are much more interested in the numbers on the little piece of paper in the plastic than they are in the big, round, shiny thing that’s also in the plastic. So, yes, most definitely, they are.

Bill Eckberg Address withheld

  The sure are. An accompanying article in this issue of Numismatic News revealed that another hoard of these worthless dollars has been discovered in a bank in New York. Oh, great, there goes the value of dollars we had spent a considerable amount of money to add to our collection.

The lies being told over the years about millions of these dollars being melted by the government and/or collectors for the silver content are nothing but that, lies. Those millions of melted dollars just keep turning up in more and more hoards. I think professional coin organizations or companies are intentionally creating this whole fake mess. And anyone who does like that article states about “being excited and get out your checkbooks” is nothing but a fool being separated from his/her money.

Can’t wait for the next “newly discovered” hoard of Morgan dollars.

Alan Anderson Tucson, Ariz.

Editor’s note: Whatever your opinion of the Morgan dollar coin, 270 million were melted under terms of the 1918 Pittman Act and 40 million more were melted during World War II to recover silver for use in other coins.

  This article was originally printed in Numismatic News. >> Subscribe today.

   More Collecting Resources

• Subscribe to our monthly Coins magazine – a great resource for any collector!

• Start becoming a coin collector today with this popular course, Coin Collecting 101.

The post Community Voice Responses (August 14, 2018) appeared first on Numismatic News.