Dungeons & Dragons & Drawing

Once upon a time Often upon fifteen+ years ago, I played that little role-playing game called Dungeons and Dragons. As you'll notice in the "Labels" section on the right, I've mentioned D&D here before, plus in a short product description for Nerdy With Children a few years back. I owe my cousins for introducing it to me, because I loved it, and used it (like many people have) to build storytelling skills, plan and write novels, and enjoy a whole lot of adventures with my friends. I guess you could say this is my attempt to pay it forward!

I've mentioned in earlier posts that, after a long hiatus from dungeon-delving games, I eventually found Descent 2nd Edition. I'm still a rabid Descent fan, which I value for its artwork, its relative simplicity (compared to RPGs, which it isn't), and its short preparation time. In other words, I've appreciated not having to fill what I remember as the very time-consuming role of "Dungeon Master."

However, a few months ago, I discovered a Humble Bundle for an RPG called Pathfinder, which is D&D 3rd edition's Open License rule system re-branded by Paizo Publishing. I wasn't eager to jump back into tabletop RPGs; if anything, I avoided it. However, the bundle included digital copies of hundreds of dollars worth of rulebooks and quest modules for less than $20, which was hard to ignore. I mentioned it to a father and son at my church as well as my two boys, and they all convinced me to go for it.

Do You Want To Build a Scarecrow?

Credit: solaroid by way of TV Tropes

Today's mail brought my copy of Scarecrow, a themed speculative fiction anthology edited by Rhonda Parrish and published by World Weaver Press. (See the cover here; you can order it here or from Amazon.) Along with work by Devil's Arithmetic author Jane Yolen and others I'm excited to read is my short story "The Straw Samurai," which was inspired in part by the above illustration of a tengu. A tengu is a Japanese mythological creature, and my original intent was to write a story about one for the companion anthology, Corvidae, to be continued in a sequel for Scarecrow. Because I had this idea just three weeks before the submission deadline (Halloween, 2014), I had to blend it into a single, standalone story that I barely finished on time. As expected, it deals with both tengu (crow-people) and a scarecrow, but it was chosen for the latter theme.

Here's a quick blurb:

Okamiko is a lonely human girl in a land of Monster villages. She wanders between these cow-people and bird-people and dog-people, struggling to find where she belongs...until a family of chough-children want her only friend - a supposedly magical stick of bamboo - in exchange for a straw samurai.

 Without giving anything significant away, I can also tell you:

• the story is a retelling of the Japanese folktale "The Tengu's Magic Cloak"
• it features anthropomorphic animals, or mutants - a subject I devoted a lot of attention to in this post
• even though the corvidae called choughs (pronounced "chuff") aren't native to Japan, I made my tengu red-billed chough-people because of the similarity in appearance
• it represents my fascination with the subject of supernatural transformation, as explained here
• the main character was inspired by both Ponyo (from the Miyazaki movie, itself a retelling of The Little Mermaid) and my daughter Greta
• I've written two novels set in this same universe of retold myths and legends, and while several excerpts were shortlisted and one was an honorable mention in the Writers of the Future Contest, this is the first story set in that universe to see publication
• it is also the first to be written specifically for a themed call for submissions

It's not a terribly long story, so that's probably more than sufficient preamble. I hope you'll take the chance to read it!

Ninja Turtles and Other Mutants: An Illustrated History

teenagemutantninjaturtlesmovie.com

Egyptian Gods. Fairy tale creatures. Mickey Mouse. Animals have always been used to tell stories, but in these cases - and many, many others - they don't just talk, as in, say, The Jungle Book or Finding Nemo. They also stand upright, wear clothing, and generally behave like humans. They are anthropomorphic (anthro, "human being" + morphe, "form").

In these past two weeks, two blockbusters featuring humanoid animals were released: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy with Rocket Raccoon, and the rebooted Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Critics loved the first and hated the second. Neither quite lived up to my expectations. Admittedly, the hype itself was more entertaining in both cases, allowing me to revisit my longstanding love of "mutant" characters and how they have fueled my own imagination. So I give you my TMNT review by way of this lengthy illustrated history!