What am I doing now?

This is a now page, meant to tell you what I'm working on now. Learn more about now pages here.

June 2022

Work: Here's a big thing. We sold the company that I started as a hobby in 2006 🎉 ( I'm currently employed by the acquirer).

Writing:

  • Short story: How We Won the Demon War - forthcoming from a lovely anthology called Dreams For a Broken World, out November 1st, available for pre-order now!
  • The story On the Sun-lit Side of Venus, was accepted by Apex Magazine 🎉🎉
  • A few friends and I have been playing around with the idea of starting an art collective. More details to come later.
  • Still working away at my weird road novel.

Life:

  • My eldest son graduates from high school this Spring. The passage of time is utter crazyness. I'm unbelieveably psyched for him and the adventures he'll have.
  • We keep threatening to open a 'yard bar'... a very informal, but curated, intermittent cocktail hour in our yard. I will definitely keep you posted (sign up for the newsletter below to make sure that happens).

A Few Recent Photos:

blood moon deep in dialogue the world is a tunnel tiny cities

December 2021

Big things in the works, but no major news to report other than:

Writing:

  • Dispatches from Anarres: Tales in Tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin - reprinted my short story Birds, first published in Strange Horizons. It's out now and would make a fantastic holiday gift.
  • I turned in a story for a new anthology being edited by Julie Day, should come out next year.
  • Laura Moulton's book continues to sell well!
  • I am still working on a new roadtrip-ish novel (word count ~45k words as of December 1. And another POV character has entered the picture...

Work: Walker Tracker as CTO/Founder

Until next time!

October 2021

This month I'm psyched about Laura Moulton's book debuting Loaners: Making of a Street Library. We have had many conversations about this book over the years and it's a delight to see it in the world. Please check it out.

My novel 'The Disappearance of James Chazky' is with my agent and being shopped.

I am working on a new roadtrip-ish novel (word count ~33k words as of October 1). It's the only first-person novel I've written. It has a distinctive voice, and the work is obsessed with NW Mythology and NW stories, and the everlasting battle between systems, and their parts...

I did an epic trip via tiny motorboat, from Portland, Oregon to the mouth of the Columbia river with my son and a friend, marking my 4th river trip of the year so far. These days, I'm happiest out of the city.

columbia river voyage columbia river voyage columbia river voyage

Work: WT as CTO/Founder

August 2021

The novel 'The Disappearance of James Chazky' is with my agent and being shopped.

I am working on a new road novel and a few short stories.

I'm participating in the awesome Poetry Postcard Festival.

It's Summer, so I'm floating rivers when I can.

Work: WT as CTO/Founder




This box is you.

Some adventures can be undertaken name-less. This is not one of them.


Go ahead! it'll be fine...

{{pseudonym}}

Hello {{pseudonym}}!

This is your inventory satchel. Your gathered items, new destinations, and any actions you acquire will all go here. Good luck questing!

(...what is this? Try the help button below)

{{detailTitle}}

Items ({{items.length}} of 18)

  • {{item}}

Destinations ({{destinations.length}} of 5)


Actions ({{actions.length}} of 3)

  

This is a game.

This is a game, built on top of a fairly boring straightforward author's website.

It's part scavenger hunt, part narrative, part fight-scene. The objective, of course, is to fight, and win, against the author.

Items are things you gather. They often look something like this: (←if you've already entered a pseudonym, try clicking on the ambulance...you should see a message 'item added to inventory')

Destinations are places you visit

Actions are things you can do

As you play, new items/destinations/actions will be added to your inventory satchel.

Look for the numbers next to your Items, Destinations,and Actions in order to see how far along you are:
Example
Example number of actions

If you lose the game or wish to become someone else, hit the 'start over' button.

Tip Explore! Many peculariar things are clickable, hidden, or require a certain amount of time to be spent somewhere, or require interaction to work. And as you get deeper into the game, places that were once normal begin to alter.

Fight scene

If you spot any bugs, irregularities, surprises, etc - drop me an email: ben@ideacog.net - thanks for visiting!