First, two new Mini-Interviews!
First: Daniel Kalban is currently doing a Kickstarter for more of his comic AMERICAN DREAMS…
(more…)Category: The Townhouse of Ideas
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MY SWORD IS QUICK– A Two-Person RPG Playtest PART ONE
GAME TRANSCRIPT: MY SWORD IS QUICK (one-player-and-GM, Park and Barb, The Beginning…)
One day, I saw a vintage paperback cover: a noir detective novel thing.
I said to myself, “I want that vibe in a fantasy rpg.”
I started playing around with adding noir and fantasy rpg concepts (by adding fantasy stuff to classic noir movie/book titles. The first one—the most important one, that really summed it up for me—was MY SWORD IS QUICK.
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“Learning Curve”
by Barb Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper
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The spaceship landed in an empty field.
A car happened by… and slowed down… and stopped by the side of the road.
“Oh mi’God,” said the young woman in the car on the passenger side, “it’s a real UFO.”
“We should call the police,” said the young man driving.
“They won’t believe us without pictures– I’m getting out of the car,” said the young woman.
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Fiction: A Hungry Ghosts story: “The Well” –THE CONCLUSION (part 2 of 2)
(Note: Here’s the rest of the Hungry Ghosts short story from two weeks ago!
If you missed reading the first half two weeks ago, go here and read it now!
Okay, so now, here’s the conclusion (read below)! )
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“I tried to see Tokubei, but he was off inspecting his lands and attending to business,” said Eisai-sama. “So I asked to see Osono. I was told that she would not see me. So, I asked to see her father, a man named Mosaku. I was led to his quarters… I was surprised to see prayer sutras all over his room… and he looked scared of something. When he found out that I was a monk and that I had seen a face in the well water, he begged me to say prayers over the well. I did so…”
“It didn’t work,” I guessed, although since I knew the well was still haunted, it was a pretty easy guess.
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Fiction: A Hungry Ghosts story: “The Well” PART ONE (of two)
by Barb Lien-Cooper
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Kiyoko wasn’t doing well in the battle, and we could all see it. These weren’t just tough peasants with big talk, these were experienced soldiers, and she was a young woman (with her hair cut short, who happened to be passing herself off as a young man). She was not half bad with a sword, not at all, but these were killers, and she lacked the killer instinct.
“We would gladly share our food with you, sirs. None of this is necessary,” I heard Eisai-sama say, over on my left.
“We want the magical pouch of rice you carry! Then we would never be hungry!” shouted the leader of the pack of soldiers as he lunged at Eisai-sama, who easily blocked the man with his sword, the legendary Lightning-on-the-Water.
“…We’re hungry for blood, Takeshi,” the voice of the old man in my head said.
“Starve yourselves,” I told the old man’s voice in my head, “just like these soldiers starve. Just because you want me to use my sword to kill doesn’t mean I want that…”
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“I” Is Another: Barb And Park Talk About First-Person Narration
Park: Earlier today, Barb and I were talking about the craft of first-person narration… so, I thought it might be a good topic for a post. So I begin, now, by asking Barb: Who is the best writer you’ve read as far as first-person narration?
Barb: The first person that comes to mind is Raymond Chandler…
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What Would Barb Watch?
Park: Okay so recently someone in my feed said: “I’m feeling a little out of it and I want to binge-watch something, recommendations?” And I hated all the recommendations, except for old Bugs Bunny cartoons. So… I mean, we, ourselves, have recently done old Bugs and Daffy cartoons, and they were still great. But they’re short, so watching the best of them only gets you so far…
Barb: Okay– recommendations for binge watching: Number one: Backstairs at the White House.
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Crossover: Avengers and West Wing
Park’s Dream Journal: 6/24/2023
I had a dream last night…
The intersection of two great entertainment franchises: AVENGERS and THE WEST WING.
COLD OPEN: President Bartlett is getting ready to have a big conference– in a building in downtown New York– great minds– scientists, doctors, philosophers, even a thinly-veiled version of whoever former president Jimmy Carter is in the West Wing universe.
The secret service and S.H.I.E.L.D. are begging President Bartlett to get superheroes for security, he says no. They beg and plead with him to compromise– maybe JUST Iron Man? He says no. “If we get Iron Man, all Iron Man’s enemies will decide it’s the perfect time to attack. No, I’ve got a different compromise.”
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Dark Shadows Fan Fiction: “The Center of the Light”
The Center of the Light (by Barb Lien-Cooper)
“They didn’t take me as seriously as they should have… because I’m a woman.”
–Dr. Julia Hoffman, Dark Shadows, episode 338
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Dr. Julia Hoffman sat in the break room of the Windcliff Sanitarium with Dr. Dave Woodard… her friend (who wouldn’t mind at all if he were more than a friend).
“All in all,” Julia was saying, “I think my first interview went well. They, of course, wondered if I, a mere woman, could handle running this place,” she added sarcastically, “but…”
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Barb’s Early History of TV
Our colleague Patrick McCray (of The Dark Shadows Daybook) asked us, suddenly, “If you were going to tell people briefly about the history of television, what would you emphasize?”
Well, you can’t ask Barb a question like that and not expect her to do anything with it, so she wrote the following essay. If you are someone who can’t remember a time before the internet, then you might find this educational. If you are someone who can remember a time before the internet, then you might find this nostalgic.
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