michelleklein.com

Who Would You Rather Be?

Houser and I have laid down the bones of Mechadia, a world where steampunk technology, victorian society and faerie folk all meet.  We have four continents for the players to explore, oceans, an underworld and islands in the sky where airship pirates hide and lords fear to send their navies ... um, air forces ...

We are now working on fine tuning some of the original writing so that Martin can run a playtest in June.  Martin is the head of Savage Mojo, also known as the All Around Good Egg (because he is one).  He's the big boss, Alan is writing the rules, Amy and Avery are illustrating.  Then there's Houser and me, the writers.  Ok, that's the cast of humans.  Now on to the cast of fey ...

I am working on making the fey races playable.  The selkies are too playable right now (beautiful, mysterious and tragic) and the boggarts are too undesirable (smelly, lazy creatures), the pixies and the sprites are both cool but a little too easy to mistake one for the other.  I'm going back through all of the fey and balancing them.  Houser is working on the plot point campaign.

When I make a WIP post about my work, it feels odd to me because I am writing about writing.  If I am sitting here writing something (I think), shouldn't I be writing the book?

That Symmetry Poem

Last night I was reading to my seven year old son, Archer from 'The Family Book Of Best-Loved Poems', which is the same poetry book that my parents read to me when I was little.  It's literally the same book because I took their copy after I moved out.

Archer and I read a chapter of whatever book we're reading together every night before he goes to sleep (reality: before I kiss him goodnight, he waits 5 or 10 minutes and then he turns on his night light and starts reading his books, hoping I won't catch him.  He hides the books under his pillow as he falls asleep, but he's bad at cleaning up the evidence, so I find his stash the next night when I put him to bed.), and sometimes I add a couple of poems.

So, I opened the poetry book and he said, "Does it have your favorite poem in it?"

"The Wreck of the Hesperus?  Yes, it does."

"No, that symmetry poem."

"Symmetry?  Let me see.  No, I don't think it does."  I have, at this point, looked up 'Symmetry' as a title, found nothing, and then turned to page 279 to read him the poem I was originally going to read.

"You know," he says, "what immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry - THAT poem."

"Oh," said I.  "It does.  In fact, here it is."  I showed him the poem that I had selected to read for him, which was this poem:

The Tyger

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?                     --William Blake

I have always loved the powerful imagery of the forge in this poem, and the questioning of the creator.  Both concepts are already strongly featured in our world of Mechadia.  Until last night, I hadn't realized how much this poem is part of my psyche, though apparently Archer already knew.

What is a Suzerain, anyway?

The short answer to "what is a suzerain?" is "overlord".  The details are here in the definition.

The longer answer to the same question is "Suzerain is a universe created by Savage Mojo, and it is just like the real world but with magic, focusing on heroes who can travel to different parts of time and space. A magical past, present and future awaits them."

"The Suzerain universe is a complex mix of places and times. In fact, it’s every place and every time. In fact, it stretches outside of time as we know it. In fact, it stretches beyond the idea of ‘places’ as we know it.

Suzerain defines locations as realms, whether they’re mortal realms or immortal realms. Figuring out what realms exist can be tough, which is where the Celestial Map comes in. You can see the map on the Welcome page of this website. It’s the main image on the page, full of intriguing links to click on".  -from the Savage Mojo website

Check out the Celestial Map.  It's really cool.

Some of the realms in the universe have already been created (for example, Untamed Empires, which you may recall as the home of Mr. Vermilion's Carnival, among other things) but some realms have yet to be dreamed up.

Mechadia, the dream-vision of the Duke of Crossed Gears, is a combination of faerie lands and steampunk technology, and the Mechadia realm book is what Houser and I are writing right now.  Well, not right now, because right now I am writing this blog post.  But you get the idea.

Right now we're sketching out the world - where you can go, who lives there, what the conflicts are for characters to be involved in and beset by.  I can't say too much, because that would spoil the book, but there WILL be Airship Pirates!

Resolutions and Revolutions

I've resolved to make this blog a more friendly place to visit.

Welcome!  Here's a little intro for those of you who don't know me personally (or those of you who do and want some more embarrassing details).

10 Random Things About Me

1. I committed my first crime at age 3.  I rang the Liberty Bell.  My grandparents distracted the guards at Independence Hall (where it was kept in those days), and my parents quickly shepherded me out the exit.

2.  If I were on Jeopardy, the category I'd want to see on the board is 'Greek Mythology'.

3. I have kept paper journals since I was 8 years old. The first complete story I remember writing was "The World Squeakies", a dramatic retelling of the 1980 World Series with mice as the Phillies and cats as the Royals.

4. I'm always cold, even in the summer.  It's not a medical condition, I'm just a reptile.

5. I am a second generation pirate.  My father flew the Jolly Roger in his office first.

6. I love '80s dance music, but I hated it back in the '80s.

7. My son wants to be a mad scientist when he grows up, but he also enjoys writing poetry.  I hope he can do both.

8. I have a horrible memory for song names/artists and for minor movie actors' names.

9. I will remember your astrological sign, but probably not your birthday.

10. My soul is drawn to ships and the sea, both in art and in life.

Your turn!  Tell me 10 things about you in the comments.  Or tell me 1.  Or 11.  Whatever floats your boat.

Here's one more thing about me - my husband and I are collaborating on a project for Savage Mojo that involves the Fey and Steampunk.  Martin has given me permission to post some WIP blogs, so stay tuned!

Catching Up

It has been almost a year since I posted here.  Let's catch up.

My flash fiction story, Echo was published by Every Day Fiction.  It's a tale of a nymph and a tape recorder.

My flash fiction story, Mutilation was recently published by Every Day Fiction. A young prisoner finds wisdom from some older inmates' mistakes.

Mutilation was one of EDF's Top 10 stories in the past 30 days. 

Talisman Studios rebranded ourselves as Savage Mojo (same products, same people, new name).  Flames Rising did a nice write-up about the name change and the reasons behind it.  "After years of creating great gaming titles under the name ‘Talisman Studios’, we’ve decided that it’s time our real name… Savage Mojo… became known in its own right. After all, we focus on the Savage Worlds and Mojo Rules! roleplay systems, so it makes sense to use the name we gave the company."

Also, I got married on October 4th.  We had a pirate themed wedding and it was a lot of fun.

Happy New Year!

Free Musketeers!

Characters created by your humble narrator are now available from Talisman Studios ... Musketeers, a myserious Lady, a Cardinal of dubious virtue and a beautiful portrait painter (among others).

Illustrated by the talented Alida Saxon, written by me, I present to you the Free Musketeers Story Cards, specifically written for Suzerain but convertible to supplement your plot in any roleplaying game that involves swashbuckling.

Happy Friday!

Stolen Kiss

Today my short short story (it's about 200 words) Stolen Kiss is up on Every Day Fiction.

Last night we dreamed of angels.

A Gallery of Rogues

My latest written creation - a set of eight pirate background stories and one smashing introduction - is now available.  It's called Pirates Set 2.

The Gamescapes Story Cards are published by Talisman Studios.  Gamescapes products fill out your roleplaying campaigns with additional characters, weapons, locations and story seeds.  The Pirates characters in particular have many twisted inter-relationships and a lot of room for a Storyteller (or Marshall or GM or whatever you call yourself) expand and improvise.

Contained in this set: a 21-page high resolution pdf with 8 full color character cards plus a choice of backings. There are two pages of backstory and individual character descriptions to accompany each portrait. As a bonus, we're including cut-out tokens for each character, allowing you to visualise them on our Gamescapes story maps.

Get the Pirates Story Cards here.

A little teaser from the intro. story:

Jacques DuMaison’s head felt clear despite the rum, despite the lateness of the hour. The masked woman took his arm when he offered it, walking beside him to the dueling green. He noticed that she too walked with a sure gait, though he’d seen her drink several sailors under the thick oak tables at the Bosun’s Quarters.

“It’s pitch black,” he said.

“There are provisions for darkness,” she replied, striking flint and tinder to find and light the lamps that surrounded the green’s perimeter.

He fingered his rapier, waiting for her to return to him. When she did, he said, “I have rarely lost a duel, ma chere.”

If you want to know what happens next, read the Story Cards!

Black Sails

My short story, His Mother's Son has been published in Black Sails, an anthology of tales of Pirate Fantasy published by 1018 Press.
There are 16 stories in the anthology, a swashbucklingly good read from beginning to end!

Order a copy of the book here!

Arr, Matey!

My pirate short story, His Mother's Son is going to be published in the Black Sails anthology from 1018 Press.  Black Sails will be out in print in late May, so you won't have long to wait if you want to get a copy!