Month: July 2023

07/06/2023 Back to the Routes We Go! Plus, Story Updates!

It was nice, having an actual “weekend” for once. That it happened on Tuesday-Wednesday is besides the point. Got caught up on a lot of housework and a lot of writing.

But the mail is calling, so it’s time to take up the satchel and put some miles under my feet. I shudder to think how much clean-up I’ll have waiting for me.

(My route is the best training route for new carriers. If they can survive the 12 miles of this walking route, they can handle any of the others in my town. That also means they’ll leave a mess for me to take care of.)

Writing-wise, it’s been very productive. Over 20,000 words in the novel!…and we’re only a prologue and three chapters in…

I wasn’t kidding when I said I wanted an old-school science fiction brick-of-a-book story. That I’ve planned for six more to make it a series is…somewhat daunting but exciting.

Now that I’ve found my notes in the various folders for my old stories, I’ll also (very occasionally) give them some attention. The Sidewinder Stories are the primary for those, however, so players: expect the rest of Chapter 3 to be up soon! (Ish)

Speaking of Sidewinder, I’ve also found an artist willing to take commissions on making cover art! He’s sent me the first draft of the concept and…well, I’ll admit I teared up a little to see my name on a book cover. Since it’s in Star Wars, it’s not publishable, but when it’s ready I’ll be printing out copies and sending them to those players who were there during Arc I. They’ll be able to see their characters on pages.

The goal of every Forever-DM.

It’s time to sling letters. Here’s hoping to get a tiny bit more written down during lunch and the evening.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

07/05/2023 Forgotten Day Off! Plus, a cat!

I woke up this morning in a mild panic. It was twenty minutes before my clock-in time and my son was asking me Mariokart questions while I blearily opened my eyes.

I was halfway through getting my uniform on before I remembered: it’s my day off!

This is what happens when you work back-to-back 11 or 12 hour shifts for weeks at a time. So, I’m back in civilian clothes and lining up my morning chores before I can sit down for writing. Apparently, I also need to do some site maintenance. One of my players messaged me about not being able to open the most recent Sidewinder chapter.

Of course, if there’s one problem, there’s bound to be another, hidden and waiting for me to move on to the next project before rearing up to mock me. With the Dungeon Crawl about to pick up steam (eyeing the players who haven’t checked in with their schedules), I’ll be wanting to change up the RPG tab at the top of the site.

In case I get lost in house-spousing and forget to update here: Penelope stole the dog bed and you should ‘awww’ at her.

She has her own pillow, though…

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

07/04/2023 “Let Freedom Ring” (Short Essay)

            I’ve always called myself a patriot, but very few folks who’ve asked me about that understood the weight of the statement.

            I love my country. I will never forget the sins it had committed in its time, nor will I forgive those who perpetuate the continuance of those sins.

            When I’ve said I was a patriot, I was holding myself to an ideal for my nation that it has never reached and, if my fellow countrymen don’t accept certain notions, it never will. That is the difference between being a patriot and being a nationalist.

            A nationalist believes wholeheartedly in their country, be it their place of birth or their adopted home. They accept only the window dressing of a nation’s achievements, and the United States has some of the most gorgeous window dressings. After all, we rebelled against our patron country, an Empire that spanned the globe and won. We managed to expand our territories against hostiles and won. We saw two World Wars, got involved, and ensured the victory of the first and outright won the second. We’ve claimed to be the leading nation in self-determination and freedom. It’s what we’re all taught.

            Except then we look at our history, and see the redness splattered across the pages.

            A patriot looks at their home and knows that there is work to do before it can meet the standards it should be held to. We perpetuated and enriched a slave trade that treated entire peoples as animals, and because of that, black folks are still seen as animals by many in this country when they are, in fact, just people. We massacred whole tribes of Indigenous Americans and, almost as an aside, allowed them to keep their cultures in painfully small and unmanageable stretches of land. We told people that they would be welcome within our borders until we realized the people were Chinese, Irish, Jews, or Mexicans. We decided that a country originally founded to be a haven of the religiously persecuted should persecute others because of our religion.

            I am a patriot. While I celebrate today’s history, I remember our failings.

            To make things ever more poignant for me personally: on this day, the day the nation is supposed to be celebrating its independence, I am told that ‘I’m what’s wrong with this country’ by people with Confederate flags flying over their homes or on decals fixed to their vehicles. People who believe a symbol of traitors is a sign of personal moral high-ground will look down on me for saying that we, as a country, have a lot to make up for.

            But I do believe we have a lot to make up for, and that list keeps growing as we look down upon our fellows of the LGBTQ+ community. The Land of the Free will never be so until all of our people, from Indigenous to Trans, are Free. The Home of the Brave will always have an unsound foundation until the unsung heroes of civil rights are acknowledged and remembered.

            We can make it happen, though. We can be the country I believe in. Yes, it will take work and humility. Yes, it would mean those prideful zealots will have to remove their stars-and-stripes blindfolds and look upon the devastation wrought over the centuries. We have to move away from being a country of nationalists to a nation of patriots.

            Will this happen? I can only hope and work towards it. I don’t know if it’ll happen in my lifetime, but I have faith that will happen. I may never see it happen, but the country I love will one day be a reality. Within those answers are the driving forces behind every real, true patriot.

            Hope. Faith. Love.

One day, folks, we’ll make this place a country to be proud of. It’ll take some work, though. Let’s be about it.

Stay safe out there, readers.

-JB Swift

07/04/2023 Federal Holiday, Writing Plans, and Compensating Photo (cw: spider)

It’s the Fourth of July. If you live in the United States of America, this is going to be a very loud, very flashy, and (depending on your scale of nationalism vs patriotism) a day to think while everyone is celebrating.

I will, most likely, write up an essay to give my own thoughts on today. For now, it’s a Federal Holiday so I can actually relax (sort of)! I also get tomorrow off as it’s my non-scheduled day! A 2-day weekend! Those are exceedingly rare for me.

I’ll be whittling away at the writing and handling chores. To compensate for not diving into anything of substance in this posting, I present a photo of a tiny spider (warning for arachnophobes):

Lookatem! He’s adorable!

Saw this little guy while I was out delivering, and while he was tiny, he was fierce! Put up his two front legs in a full threat display, turning away to sulk as I smiled instead of running away in fear.

Don’t worry, little guy. You’re terrifying. I believe in you.

Stay safe out there, readers. Essays will be out soon!

-JB Swift

07/02/2023 Progress Tracking, Old Stories, and Night Work

Years ago, I learned the hard way that I was not the sort of writer that can work on multiple full-length stories at the same time. I’d get stubborn about trying to keep up with each project and eventually, I’d get overwhelmed.

Oddly enough, while this happens with writing, it doesn’t do the same with my RPG campaigns. Physical exhaustion is what kills my ability to run multiple campaign arcs. (Don’t worry, players; I’m not abandoning any of the work, just very tired)

Since learning this about myself, I’ve set myself with priorities. When I have a real evening to myself, I dedicate chunks of time to the campaign writing, as well as to my work-in-progress. That does not mean, however, that I’ve abandoned my other projects entirely; I just wait until I’ve satisfied my priorities well enough to go into those other worlds.

If you check to the right on the Home Page, you’ll see a new box: Progress Tracking. I’ll be adding on my other projects to that box, but the Peregrine story will get the most attention at the moment. It’s going to look like a lot, but keep in mind that you won’t see the numbers change all that often.

I do have a side-project that I’ll be looking into, though, that will involve other people. I’m going to be on the lookout for someone to make the artwork for this website (it needs a profile picture of its own, and I will not use other artists if I can’t compensate somehow), and if they could also draw up cover art for the Star Wars fan-fictions (to be given freely to the players when I can print them, which will happen), that’d be an awesome bonus.

So, if any of your are artists, please let me know and I’ll see about how much I need to save for a commission.

I’ve also restarted the Postal Living page and added an article to it. I’m lining up what else I want to write about for it, which will take its own time. That’ll have to be done carefully, as I navigate what I can write about and not violate the Hatch Act. Yes, I take that very seriously, even if some folks in politics do not.

I’m off to set things up and have a writing sprint for Peregrine before I get too exhausted. If there’s anything y’all have been wanting to see or read, let me know! If it slipped my notice, I’d rather you tell me than it stay on the backburner.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift

07/01/23 A personal irony of social media, and ‘coming home’

Welp, it was looking like I was getting the hang of social media and the networking aspect of the writing world. I was getting more involved with Twitter’s Writing Community, making connections and friends (and even adopting other Swifts into a writer family, who are fantastic people), and even getting to know a few bigger named writers. Most importantly, I was introducing myself to, and learning from, publishers and literary agents. I was getting confident.

Then Twitter decided that since I won’t pay $8/month, I should be restricted in how many posts I can interact with before it stopped working. If I want to see more, I need to pay.

Now, you might see that as not a big deal. After all, I pay this platform to run my website, and I’ve set up Premium Content for people who would pay me. Why should $8/month matter to me?

Well, firstly because I don’t like a lot of the people who did pay. They’ve come across as arrogant, belittling, and belligerent. I’m not inclined to pay for the privilege of being insulted. Trust me, I can get that for free.

Secondly, I’m an Elder Millennial. I’ve paid attention to what my subscriptions get me. I don’t see enough of a return investment to justify $96/year.

In comparison, I get all kinds of features on this platform and I pay $48/year.

So, I’ll be taking a step back from Twitter, much as it pains me to distance myself from groups of people I’ve come to enjoy. I’ll be focusing more on this place for the time being.

(If I’m going to be put in an echo chamber, at least this one was decorated to my liking)

I’ll have some essays going up today and over the few days. Tonight’s a writing night, and tomorrow will have some time dedicated to site maintenance. In essence, I’m back home to my little world.

Stay safe out there, readers!

-JB Swift