Hey, blog. It’s been awhile, huh?  How’ve you been?

I’m good, I’m good.  I’ve been spending a decent amount of time trying to muddle through NaNoWriMo this month (which I might share some excerpts from), as well as working on this:

“Peasant Problem” is a short story that I’m releasing serially over at Alert Nerd. It’s a political thriller that takes place at a LARP (live-action role-playing) event.

I have a fair number of friends who play at these things; I simultaneously don’t see the appeal and find myself sucked into the fractious and Machiavellian nature of the drama perpetuated by the players (not their characters).  The title refers to the kind of inherent sociological issue with the hobby – that nobody wants to be ‘just a peasant’ in a collaborative storytelling environment and instead all want to be the main protagonist in their own narratives.

If you are unfamiliar with the hobby, I urge you to take a few minutes and watch this:

You can read the story by clicking on the image above. I think it isn’t awful.

Earlier this month, I posted a tease of a comic story that I did with Joe Mulvey.  Today, the entirety of that four page story is unleashed on the world in the newest issue of Alert Nerd’s semiregular magazine, Grok. You can read it here.

I have it on good authority that there is a giant zombie bear on page two.

Over at Alert Nerd, we’re celebrating another annual theme day.  Last week year, we celebrated the wedding of Scott Summers and Jean Grey because that is exactly the type of nerd that we are, but this year we’re exposing our True Geek Confessions. Click over and read along as I confess something so horrible and I shocking, I can hardly believe I hit ‘Publish’.

Over at Alert Nerd, I’ll be running a weekly advice column starting next Tuesday.  If you have a nerdy question (or a good friend of yours does) on any subject, mail it to nerdlyadvice@gmail.com.

One of the other places that I blog, Alert Nerd, has just released another issue of its quasi-trimesterly print-on-demand magazine, Grok.  Instead of my usual incisive essays on the dangers of living with a non-geek, the perils of ghost hunting, or the soul-shucking depression caused by outliving one’s hobbies, I’ve been talked into writing fiction.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve written fiction, but it is the first time that I’ve actually let people read it.  So yeah.  I’m a bit nervous.  I do not believe that it is very good, but the rest of the gang assures me that it is passable at least.

Some notes:

1. This is not autobiographical in any way except the most basic, “There is a bit of you in each of your characters,” kind of way.

2. I have used some of my friends’ names for the names of ancillary characters and they should not read into my arbitrary decision to do so nor should they be upset if they discover that they have been omitted.

3. There is no secret code or symbology.

4. The concluding incident of this first portion of the larger work was ‘in the can’ at least one week prior to the Ruby Tuesday’s incident I blogged last week.  It has been suggested that I try to make other, similar things happen in the way that Adam Sandler might if he were babysitting his sister’s children and discovered that their bedtime stories came to fruition in real life.  Do not be shocked when the next portion of this tale involves the characters finding eighty million dollars and driving sweet cars around while fighting zombies and wooing celebrities.

5. I just wanted to have a five.

This is essentially a post about my lack of posting.

I’ve been hard at work on the first part of Must Love Dice, a novella that will be serialized in the pages of this year’s issues of Grok (Alert Nerd Press’s quasiannual magazine), and the final push toward the first milestone has left me a bit exhausted.  I’m not a fiction writer usually, so I’m excited and nervous about this, and I think the next three parts will be even better.  We’re putting our final touches on the issue, and it will (finally) be out soon, the first of many ANP releases throughout the back half of 2009.

Despite that, I meant to post something more substantive today, but was distracted by Real Work and by a screening of a movie that I have been very excitedly looking forward to.  Look for a review of that on Thursday.

Now I’m going to watch Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist and then go to bed.

Alert Nerd Press, the bootstrappy digital publishing consortium of awesomeness that I am lucky enough to be ‘the new guy’ in, has a new offering available for free download.

It’s called Poodoo, and it’s by Matt Springer who also has his first novel, Unconventional, available for d/l as well.

As a fan with his own complicated relationship with Star Wars, I loved reading through this chronology, a chart of one fan’s journey from unbridled hope to casual disdain.  You should read it.  Tell your friends to read it.  Tell your enemies to read it.  And keep your eyes peeled for the long-delayed next issue of our not-so-quarterly magazine Grok later this week/early next week.