this is not how this week was supposed to go down

Posted on By Wil

Me: I’m going to get some words down on this story I’ve been developing for months!

My brain: Okay. Let’s do this.

My body: Not so fast. I have to cough so much all of our muscles are going to hurt.

Me: Okay. You done?

My body: Not just yet. I also have to sort of ache a little bit and also produce a whole bunch of snot and crap for you. Also, I need to cough some more.

Me: Got it. Now, let’s get to work!

My body: Can we just put a pin in that for a moment? Our throat needs some attention. It’s not nearly scratchy enough. Oh, and this cough isn’t really doing anything, but it’s a whole thing now, and I’m not really ready to give it up.

My brain: Um. Fellas?

Me: Yeah?

My body: What’s up, brain?

My brain: This is bullshit. When you’re ready to get your shit together, you let me know, and we’ll do some awesome creative work. Until then, I’m going to check out and focus on amusing cat pictures.

Me: NO! YOU CAN’T DO THIS! I NEED YOU!

My brain: I know he isn’t going to actually buy a boat, but my god this is still as funny as it was the first time.

Me: YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

My brain: Let’s play pinball arcade, buddy.

My body: Yeah, about that … I’ve slowed down your reactions and increased the coughing. I am really into this whole coughing thing.

Me: I think I’ll just go take a nap.

My body and my brain: Finally, something we can all agree on!

My body: … I’m just going to keep coughing. Sorry not sorry.

summer colds are the worst

Posted on By Wil

Just in time for me to commit to spending my August working on my own projects and recovering from months and months of endless work, I seem to have come down with some sort of summer cold.

Because of course I did.

Anyway, I’ll complain about it for a day or two, and then I’ll just power through and stay focused on my writing projects, and maybe I’ll finally edit together some videos I’ve been meaning to edit forever.

I’m still making occasional episodes of Not Radio Free Burrito, if you’re into that sort of thing. Maybe I’ll make one where I just cough and sneeze and grumble about it. That’s what the people want, and I know how to give the people what they want.

Speaking of that, here’s the season finale of Titansgrave:

I can’t believe we’re done with this season. It feels like we just started.

Can I hibernate? I want to hibernate for a couple of months.

you must remember this

Posted on By Wil

Earlier this year, I became completely hooked on the podcast Serial. I wasn’t alone, as it rocketed to the top of the charts in every podcast directory, and became A Thing for about three months.

Ever since it ended, I’ve been looking for something to pick up where it left off, in terms of pacing, compelling subject matter, production quality, and intellectual stimulation. I expected that podcast directories like Stitcher and iTunes would be the place to find what I was looking for, but other than recommending This American Life, they weren’t very helpful.

Enter my friend Ed. Ed is a writer who is currently doing a magnificent comic about the early years of Hollywood called The Fadeout. Ed turned me on to a podcast called ​You Must Remember This, which is about Hollywood’s first century.

For the last couple of months, You Must Remember This has been looking back at ​the Manson Murders, unpacking where Charles Manson came from (both physically and spiritually), and how the changing scene within Hollywood (as a geographic location and an industry) in the 1960s created an environment where he and his followers could find each other.

This season, You Must Remember This will explore the murders committed in the summer of 1969 by followers of Charles Manson, and the Hollywood music and movie scene surrounding the killings. Throughout the series, we’ll learn how a single sociopath’s thwarted dreams of fame and fortune led to the gruesome events which became the symbolic “end of the sixties.” Future episodes will explore the various celebrities, musicians, movie stars and filmmakers (including Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, The Beach Boys, Dennis Hopper, Doris Day and more) whose paths crossed with Manson’s in meaningful ways, both leading up to the murders and in their aftermath.

I love this podcast, and once I get caught up on the Manson episodes, I’m going to go back to the beginning and binge the whole series. I think some of you will like it, too.

this needs a title but i can’t think of a title so it’s just an aside without a title

Posted on By Wil

I feel like years and years of hard work has allowed me the privilege to take this time for my own work, say no to projects or things I don’t really want to do, and focus on getting excited and making things.

So the plan has been to take August off (except for @Midnight on the 19th and two installments of Critical Role, both things I want to do because they’re fun) to just write and be creative.

I thought I’d have some progress toward finishing one of these writing projects by now (since it’s Thursday, after all), but  I’ve spent this week recovering emotionally and physically from GenCon (more on that later when I can properly organize all those thoughts).

For the longest time, I’ve felt guilty if I take time to do things like watch movies or read a stack of comics, and even though I remind myself that part of my job is to be familiar with and inspired by the things I want to create, the loudest and most insistent part of my brain does a lot of “umactually…” at me a lot of the time.

But here I am, watching almost two movies a night, reading on average a book a week, playing and learning lots of games, and generally just doing my best to feed my creative side, so it’s ready to go when I ask it to work with me to turn ideas into stories.

This feels strange, but also good.

Titansgrave Chapter 9: Nightmares

Posted on By Wil

It’s Titansgrave Tuesday!

Chapter Nine isn’t in the book, it wasn’t in the schedule, and it wasn’t something any of us thought about until the day before.  If you want to know more details, keep reading. I recommend that you don’t continue this post until you’ve seen the episode, though I avoid any specific or direct spoilers.

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