🔮 Your Friend in Witchcraft

Dear friends,

I’m back, a bit later than anticipated!

I caught covid for the first time in November, and it absolutely kicked my ass. 0/10, would not recommend. I’m just starting to get my energy back — just in time for the turning of the year, my true time of power as a Capricorn & triple earth sign.

I’ve been trying to break down my regular tasks into slightly smaller and more manageable ones, so today’s letter will be all announcements & enjoyments!

Special Announcements

• I’m hosting a game jam for Your Friend in Witchcraft, my epistolary game for two players about magic, power, and friendship. From now until February 9, you can can create and share your own community coven content for the game! This jam is super casual; no judging, no voting, just fun witchy times.
• The jam has gotten some amazing entries of new character playbooks already, including The Blacksmith by Sophia de Augustine; The Oathkeeper, The Addict, The Caretaker, & The Wild by Kurt Refling; and The Understudy, The Bowerbird, The Strategist, & the Mirror by Devan Wardrop-Saxton. I’d highly recommend checking them out!
• I released a new thing for the Tangled Blessings jam! Learnèd Creatures is a pet-themed mini-game to be played alongside Cassi Mothwin’s Tangled Blessings, with results that could help (or hinder) your student in their final exam.
• I also released an expansion for Logan Timmins’s game Preparing for Paris. Contact Sports includes two Playbooks for new students: Hurling and Roller Derby!

Things I Worked On This Month

• My own entries for the Your Friend in Witchcraft jam: an updated version of the game with Xan Farley’s amazing art, and a System Reference Document for the play system it uses
• Hand-binding 500 mini-chapbooks for Sword & Kettle Press’s New Cosmologies series. I have been watching a LOT of reality tv on Netflix and I only bound the pages in the wrong order once.
• I woke up recently with a fully-fleshed out idea for a fantasy short story! Haven’t written short fiction in ages, so can’t wait to see how this goes.

Things I Loved This Month

• Severance, which my partner and I binged in like a day when we were sick. It’s a real bummer of a watch, but it’s also amazing?
• the Trader Joe’s special holiday multipack of chocolate-covered oreos
• Baldur’s Gate 3. I’m playing a dragonborn druid and every time I meet another dragonborn they call me “scalefriend.” Isn’t that just the cutest? I love being a big lizard who can transform into a bigger lizard.
• Stardew Valley, which I’ve started playing as a procrastination method becasue I don’t want Baldur’s Gate to be over yet 😅
• Some very lovely practical Christmas gifts I received, including a cozy bathrobe, super warm mittens, and pretty kitchenware
• The Boy and the Heron — the first Miyazaki movie I’ve ever seen in a theater! I feel like I need to watch it at least two more times to really get it, but I loved being along for the ride.

Thanks for joining me today! Next time, I’m hoping to tell you a little more about how NaNoWriMo went. (Spoiler alert: I did not write 50,000 words in November, but maybe the real 50,000 words were the friends we made along the way.)

Happy 2024! I hope your year is off to a soft and relaxing start.