2015 Blog Archive

Advice • Fiction • Gaming • General Musings • Reviews

12/29/2015 - Until Dawn Review and Reflection
Wherein I spend nearly 4,000 words describing why Until Dawn is the best game of 2015 and is exactly what horror, as a genre, desperately needs right now.
12/14/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Fifteen, or The Jar Jar of Silent Hill
We join Maria of all people on a trip through a scary haunted manner to discover interesting tidbits from her past! Contains neither scares nor interesting tidbits.
12/02/2015 - Goodness Gracious, It's a Guest Post by Breigh Forstner!
Wherein an author of romance and music speaks with me regarding the art of wordcraft and her upcoming Straight from the Heart.
12/01/2015 - Holy Cats, It's a Guest Post by Justin Edison!
Wherein a gentlemen who is not me gets to tell you a bit about his process and a bit about his upcoming novel, The Churning.
11/30/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Fourteen, or Burn it to the Ground
We stumble about the burned-out wreckage of the hotel, reflecting on why James's character is pulled in two directions at once and why this is bad. Also, terrible boss fight.
11/23/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Thirteen, or Hard Truths
We encounter the world's most demanding elevator before discovering that a video about our dead wife that we found in a ghost town's creepy hotel may be a bit on the grim side.
11/16/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Twelve, or Checking In
An interminable boat ride from now, we arrive at James and Mary's 'special place' and proceed to engage with music-box related silliness.
11/09/2015 - Washed Hands is Free (On Kindle)! 11/9/2015 to 11/13/2015
Hope you like book offers, because boy howdy is there one presently available! Washed Hands awaits your excited, sweaty ones!
11/02/2015 - Improbables, Excerpt from Chapter Three
Join Abigail Wren in Whitewater, Washington, a place whose most ominous secret is the fact that it should be classified as being in a state of theoretical ultra-boring.
10/26/2015 - Eliza Carthy, Angels and Cigarettes
I normally use the Oxford comma, but in this case the missing mark actually lends itself to a better reading of the title. Oh, yeah, we're going to be talking about my taste in music.
10/19/2015 - There's a Spider in My Car
Wherein a long drive becomes wrought with tension when an unlikely friendship develops between a man and an eight-legged companion.
10/12/2015 - On Moral Consequence and Undertale
A sort of review on the great game Undertale regarding specifically what it does best: offer itself as a morally complex system.
9/28/2015 - Improbables Sneak Peek
I was busy doing something not very Silent Hill-ish this weekend, so you can take a look at my next book! That's fun, right?
9/21/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Eleven, or Crucible
We encounter some old acquaintances, some of whom don't even attempt to kill us! There is also a puzzle involving corpses. So par for the course, really.
9/14/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Ten, or Punishment
Our surroundings get slightly... well... kind of... sort of... brighter maybe? Eh. We run into an old friend who should be dead, but luck really isn't on our side. Also, Labyrinth.
9/07/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Nine, or A Man Escaped
Oh, now the game wants to take this whole storytelling thing seriously? Fine, let's do this! We head into Toluca Prison for today's updates. No, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
8/31/2015 - Improbables Prologue
Woooo! The first run through of my next book is done and you can read the prologue right here! DO IT!
8/24/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Eight, or A Padding Darkly
Wherein I talk a lot about how crappy Brookhaven is because this next segment is pretty much all filler.
8/17/2015 - Traipsing Through SH 2: Episode Seven, or Gunning Through a Two-Ring Circus
What's worse than a garbage hospital filled with shrieking horrors and gibberish masquerading as puzzles? Well, the same thing, only in green.
8/10/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Six, or Radio Free Brookhaven
We descend once more into the abyssal depths to... um... find a girl who may or may not know about our dead wife. Also features a brief sing-along.
8/03/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Five, or Nihilist Pixie Dream Girl
Wherein we encounter a new character and learn that such things are not always a boon to the plot. Also, we chase after the brat who took our skull stepped on our hand.
7/27/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Four, or Silent Hill Sith Lord
And now we're onto Blue Creek Apartments, which is like Wood Side only 30% more terrible. What a value!
7/20/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Three, or Security What Now?
Wood Side Apartments are about what you'd expect from any given apartment complex in the world's worst resort town.
7/13/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode Two, or Saltwater Blues
Wherein we reunite with an old friend made entirely out of chewed up sugar-tar and run about looking at weapons and stuff.
7/6/2015 - Traipsing Through Silent Hill 2: Episode One, or Captain Sad's Grand Day Out
Wherein a sad blond fellow is sad, his wife continues to be dead, and a creepy girl exists. It's like nothing changed!
6/29/2015 - Improbables: A Work in Progress
It's about time I let you all in on what I've been working on recently. You know, apart from the thousand other things I'm also working on.
6/22/2015 - More Interview Shenanigans!
Come give a listen to a conversation about mental health, writing, and why destiny is a cheap narrative trick. I'm pretty sure I don't even talk about Buffy in this one.
6/15/2015 - On Context
Context can be a beautiful thing that fleshes out what we know and provides avenues for new interpretations. It can also be abused by idiots.
6/08/2015 - Life After Beth and the Problem of Tonal Dissonance
So, this whole "throwing everything against the wall" thing really doesn't work. Kindly stop doing it.
6/01/2015 - Graduation Songs (Kind Of)
Of the many things that try my patience, the tacky veneration of the past is one of them. Allow me to free you from your world of tackiness.
5/25/2015 - Not a Hero Review and Reflection
So there's this game and it is awesome and you should buy it so that we can save the world from a most average end.
5/20/2015 - On Mad Max: Fury Road
I would like to contribute to the every-growing heap of praise at the feet of an action movie that breaks the mold ever so thoroughly.
5/18/2015 - The Cultural Genealogy of Die Hard
Wherein I go through the evolution of the series that would eventually give us Die Hard in aggressive detail. Why? Because I love you.
5/11/2015 - A Teaser Trailer
At first, only words on a page. Then, pictures in the darkness. And then... a sound.
Welcome to the evolution of traipsing.
5/04/2015 - Dear Content Creators
You probably knew this was coming, but we need to talk. It's... it's about the zombies... they're really, really stupid. Please stop.
4/27/2015 - Enrico Colantoni (Kinda) Helped Me Propose
You want to know how I proposed to my ladyfriend? Well, gather round, because there's only so many times I can verbally say it before losing my patience.
4/20/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: Frothy the Dragon
"On the plus side, they were made very aware very quickly that they were on fire. This awareness, however, did not last very long."
4/13/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Silence
"[S]tealthily wasn’t the word for it. He was... repeatedly booted out in increasingly cringe-inducing ways, one involving a banana hat and several old boxes of tissues."
4/06/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Desks and the Great Surface
"Edgewood does not discriminate against any of our students, despite what claptrap they choose to believe... Unless it happens to be that boring purgatory garbage. Those students are the worst."
3/30/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Obsolete Operators
"In comparison, other students usually passed barely knowing that rocking a vending machine may end up doubling the purchase about 30% of the time. The other 70% results in the vending machine enabling its “theft deterrents”, which results in a 84% chance of having to clean said student off the walls."
3/23/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Traditions
"The similarities between spiders and cats continually mounting clearly meant nothing to Karl, whose mind hadn’t even entertained the notion."
3/16/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: Some Harmless Markings
"The girl’s willingness to provide relatively painful first aid had come in handy in several classes, such as biology, gym, or “Make it Hurt: Coordinating Physical Effects with Bad Poetry”."
3/09/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Discretion
"It could also be said that “cowardice” is just an evolutionarily unsound meathead’s way of pronouncing “self-preservation”."
3/02/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Hallways
"[I]t should be noted that, while our raven-haired mistress occasionally did take a stand in the directional debate, her stance on hallways... was substantially less defined."
2/23/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On the Naming of Spiders
"A pile of shoes missing their laces? Clearly they’ve become sentient; don’t bother them, and they won’t bother you."
2/16/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On the Disappearance
"... she hoped that she still had her gardening gloves in her backpack from her semester taking “Horticulture For When the Plants are Actively Attempting to Kill You”."
2/09/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Cordy
"Of course, it also offered those involved the feeling of family, something so unfamiliar at Edgewood that many who actually experienced the warmth of acceptance wrote it off as stomach cramps."
2/02/2015 - Our Darker Purpose: On Edgewood
Well, some people seemed to like it, so here we go again. "Any attempt to wrest symbolism from this will end in failure and is actively discouraged by your humble narrator."
1/26/2015 - Our Darker Prologue
What does one call it when you write a prologue to a property that isn't your own but only includes elements of a narrative style that you like? It's still fanfiction, right?
1/19/2015 - Clickbait
YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! YOU'LL BE AMAZED AT THIS SHOCKING DISPLAY! I WANTED TO SEE PUPPIES BUT I WAS IN TEARS BY THE END!
1/12/2015 - So, You Need a Gift for a Writer
Peril! You need a gift for someone who enjoys writing, but you're too lazy to even casual research on the recipient! Let me help.
1/08/2015 - It's a Birthday Sale!
I decided to run a sale for my birthday instead of asking for presents this year. Yes, this was totally out of selflessness and nothing else, why do you ask?
1/05/2015 - My Top Picks of 2014
I'm going to do what everyone else has done by now and reveal my favorite stuffs from 2014. Don't act like you weren't waiting in breathless anticipation.
1/02/2015 - Interview with Upgrade Your Story
Join me and fellow author Ally Bishop as we talk all about pop culture and general silliness in today's update!