Back in the saddle.

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The last month has been rough on me. As a result of my push to finish Curse of the Spider Woman, I ignored my body's warning signals and ended up with nerve damage in my hip. Leg numbness and tingling has resulted. As a result of the chronic pain and discomfort, I'd fallen into a depression.


After several months of hoping it would go away, I finally went to a physical therapist. I'm slowly getting better, and that means I'm slowly feeling my mojo coming back. To kick start the whole process, I've taken a short retreat to the Oregon Coast.

Haystack Rock

 To the right is my view from my hotel room. The big monolith is Haystack Rock, the little guys are called (get this), The Needles. Oregonians are pretty funny, no?

Cool sand and oil patterns

Couldn't seem to prevent getting in the water.

World's comfiest pants from Kim Sakkara, natch.

Something about the waves and the wind help me find where my boundaries are broken.

Slowly finding my smile again.

Character Creation, part two

(Previous post here)

Now you have have some (more or less) randomly generated numbers. You are ready to start building your character's basic attributes.

More or less random numbers

Get another piece of paper and right down these  six TLAs:

Weird three letter acronyms

STR  (Strenght) This denotes how much your character can carry and (obviously) how much physical strength they have.

DEX (Dexterity) refers to reflexes, balance, and flexibility. A Cirque du Soliel performer would have a DEX of 18 (the highest number you can get). An average person would be around 9.

CON (Constitution) tells you how much stamina this imaginary person has. It includes their ability to recover from stress or injury.

INT (Intelligence) is a measure of learning and reasoning skill. An example of intelligence in action is how quickly this character learns languages.

WIS (Wisdom) is different from intelligence in that it denotes a person's willpower, awareness, common sense, and intuition.

CHA (Charisma) refers to the ability to lead, their personality, appearance, and skill at diplomacy.


Then place those random numbers randomly on your characteristics.

This character is moderately strong, pretty flexible, smart enough to get into trouble, and likes to lead.

For a person with this kind of dexterity, I would most likely make them a cat-burglar in training, or perhaps a business owner who likes to tumble in their free time.

See how you can get a wide variety of ideas from six simple attributes?

Roll some dice and have some fun! That's why we write, after all. :)

Character Creation

I'm always looking for ways to stimulate my brain. This past weekend, I got a wonderful shot of creativity from an unexpected source.

For the first time in nearly twenty years, I joined a game based on Dungeons and Dragons. Yep, that old role playing game (RPG) that we used to fear would lead the youth of our nation into devil worship.

In actuality, RPGs are an adventure in shared, co-operative story telling. Any author who has co-written a story can tell of the joys of creating a world and quirky characters with another person. I got to have that fun with seven other bright, intelligent, fun people.

Every story starts with a character or eight. Someone with various strengths and weaknesses who gets challenged to push herself. How she reacts to those challenges depend a great deal on her personality traits. Fortunately, RPGs give you a wonderful way to discover those personalities.

Of course, we usually use archetypes (here) or GMC (here). But why not try some thing a little koo-koo crazy?

First, get yourself four six sided dice.

Then, roll your dice.

Remove the lowest number from the cluster.

Add up the remaining dice and write that number down. Do that six times.

Next time - what to do with those numbers!

Moving Slowly.

Last Friday, I visited the Tao of Tea in the Lan Su Chinese Garden. I drank chrysanthemum tea (good for sore throats and allergies), ate steamed dumplings, and then reveled in moon cakes. Moon cakes are a secret obsession of mine.

Outside in the Garden proper, two people were moving through Tai Chi forms. One was a tiny Chinese woman wearing a loose fitting pink martial arts uniform. The second was an older Chinese man who had been playing music for us in the Teahouse.

Tai Chi can be done quickly. But it is usually seen with slow, graceful movements

There is something truly beautiful about moving slowly. I'm always in a rush - afraid to miss anything before death comes for me. This fear drives me to exhaustion - I don't write fast enough, I don't dance enough, I don't give enough to my loved ones. It has ruled me all my life.

The idea of going slowly, of every move being clear and deliberate - is alien to me. I cannot slow down, no matter how much it hurts me.

But the Tai Chi artists outside in the sun- their movements were focused, strong, and deliberate. Somehow, they are getting to where ever it is they are going without fuss or bustle.

What would happen if I slowed down? Just the thought of it fills me with panic.

That panic is a good sign of something I need to try.  Does going slow tie in with my idea of Dare to be Average? Could there be a way to be ambitious without being tense?

I think it's a worthy experiment.