It all begins with me, of course. Just me. I feel that, more often than not, I have something to say - something others need to hear. It may be news about my photo biz (website is coming soon!), my band In Circles (in venues Spring 2010), my Ebay store (Rebel Alliance Canada), a statement reacting to the world around me, a photo I've taken, a link to or discussion of something I find interesting, or just a general "what's up" sort of thing. I intend to get all that stuff out there, in the public eye for all to see, and have a single place where it can all be referenced and collected instead of being scattered amongst different networking sites or forums or photo hosting sites or whatever.
I`m male, late thirties, married, 2 daughters and a mortgage. I am a Photographer, Musician (I play bass in my band and guitar and vocals on my own), Writer, Artist, Comic Dealer, Husband and Dad. I hate yard work and love beer. I am non-religious, but I read my horoscope every day (I`m a Pisces). My political leanings are to the left, but I fret the guitar with my right. I`m a smoker, but not a coker. I have about a dozen 6 inch Bandai Godzilla figures in my living room, roughly 2,000 Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures in my basement, every album by Pearl Jam, The Doors and Metallica, and an impressive collection of The Mighty THOR comics. With a resume like that, who wouldn`t want to hear more....
Point is, there is no point. It`s gonna jump around a lot. If you stick around, I might have something for you.
Here's a thing - I opened a box I had stored in my basement, not knowing what was inside, and it turned out to be full of notebooks and notebooks and binders and folders and stacks of lined looseleaf paper - overall, a rich treasure horde of the written word. Judging by the yellowing of the paper, and the appearance of dot-matrix printed pages, I estimated (carbon dating pending) that most of it was written somewhere between 1985 - 1994 a.d., often considered the Fantastical Period of the writings of Andrew Bailer. Who is, of course, me.
Jackpot! I immediately assumed the traditional cross-legged position on the floor next to the sacred box and began to delve into this blessed time capsule of my imagination - a glimpse into my own mind of some 15 - 20 years ago. From an age when I aspired to become a fantasy writer, or maybe a professional Dungeons & Dragons player. At other times in life, I would aspire to be a working musician, pro photographer, web merchant, liscensed chef etc. - these have their own boxes, which may be documented later. Let`s focus on what we`ll call the Fantasy Box.
Within the pages was a complete 42-page short story that I wrote for Grade 10 English class, called Brogan Silvershield and the Book of the Dead. (Yeah, I know that's cheesy, but I was like, 15 - so give me a break.) Also in there was my 3 page epic poem, Ragnarok - The Gods of War , a paraphrased (plagarized?) retelling of the ancient Norse saga of the end & rebirth of the world. Got a 94% grade on that paper.
Also in the box was a surprisingly (near-exhaustingly) detailed campaign world for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) game, incorporating elements of the Oriental Adventures, Spelljammer and Lankhmar (Leiber Rulz!) `licensed` settings as well as a great deal of my own creative writing, including material from the Brogan Silvershield stories.
While I had acted as Dungeon Master for many games of AD&D before, this was one of my favorites. There were Samurai, talking penguins, flying ships, were-dragons and alien sorcerors. It was clearly apparent that I had spent hours upon hours of free time neatly writing out all the details of what was intended to happen to the player characters in my fantasy world. Although the campaign only lasted about eight gaming sessions (our D&D group broke up due to people moving away or family or working schedules or whatever), what was important was that I had created something that had held the attention of others for a good number of hours. Although I didn`t create everything on my own, like the amazing city of Lankhmar or the concepts of interplanetary travel from Spelljammer, or the Lost Island of Castanimir, I have to take credit for the things that I came up with, like most of the supporting characters and the general story arc. I was very proud of this when I wrote it, and reading it again reminds me of that feeling of sharing an entire world with just a small group of people in a room.
Years later I would end up abandoning the game of D&D (probably not forever) and selling my rulebooks to buy music equipment or beer or pay the rent or something, but I will always look fondly upon these writings. I have continued (sporadically) to write fantasy since these days, and some of it may be forthcoming right here in this blog, but this snapshot from 9 - 10 years ago really spoke to me, and told me that it is possible for me to flesh out an entire story in my head and have others hear and approve of it. In short, I opened a box of my old writings and it made me want to get writing again.
A similar thing happens when I open an old photo album or box of homemade jam tapes. Again, each of those boxes warrants another story. Those will be dealt with at some other time.
I guess that will be enough for now.
May the Force be with you...
I`m male, late thirties, married, 2 daughters and a mortgage. I am a Photographer, Musician (I play bass in my band and guitar and vocals on my own), Writer, Artist, Comic Dealer, Husband and Dad. I hate yard work and love beer. I am non-religious, but I read my horoscope every day (I`m a Pisces). My political leanings are to the left, but I fret the guitar with my right. I`m a smoker, but not a coker. I have about a dozen 6 inch Bandai Godzilla figures in my living room, roughly 2,000 Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures in my basement, every album by Pearl Jam, The Doors and Metallica, and an impressive collection of The Mighty THOR comics. With a resume like that, who wouldn`t want to hear more....
Point is, there is no point. It`s gonna jump around a lot. If you stick around, I might have something for you.
Here's a thing - I opened a box I had stored in my basement, not knowing what was inside, and it turned out to be full of notebooks and notebooks and binders and folders and stacks of lined looseleaf paper - overall, a rich treasure horde of the written word. Judging by the yellowing of the paper, and the appearance of dot-matrix printed pages, I estimated (carbon dating pending) that most of it was written somewhere between 1985 - 1994 a.d., often considered the Fantastical Period of the writings of Andrew Bailer. Who is, of course, me.
Jackpot! I immediately assumed the traditional cross-legged position on the floor next to the sacred box and began to delve into this blessed time capsule of my imagination - a glimpse into my own mind of some 15 - 20 years ago. From an age when I aspired to become a fantasy writer, or maybe a professional Dungeons & Dragons player. At other times in life, I would aspire to be a working musician, pro photographer, web merchant, liscensed chef etc. - these have their own boxes, which may be documented later. Let`s focus on what we`ll call the Fantasy Box.
Within the pages was a complete 42-page short story that I wrote for Grade 10 English class, called Brogan Silvershield and the Book of the Dead. (Yeah, I know that's cheesy, but I was like, 15 - so give me a break.) Also in there was my 3 page epic poem, Ragnarok - The Gods of War , a paraphrased (plagarized?) retelling of the ancient Norse saga of the end & rebirth of the world. Got a 94% grade on that paper.
Also in the box was a surprisingly (near-exhaustingly) detailed campaign world for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (2nd Edition) game, incorporating elements of the Oriental Adventures, Spelljammer and Lankhmar (Leiber Rulz!) `licensed` settings as well as a great deal of my own creative writing, including material from the Brogan Silvershield stories.
While I had acted as Dungeon Master for many games of AD&D before, this was one of my favorites. There were Samurai, talking penguins, flying ships, were-dragons and alien sorcerors. It was clearly apparent that I had spent hours upon hours of free time neatly writing out all the details of what was intended to happen to the player characters in my fantasy world. Although the campaign only lasted about eight gaming sessions (our D&D group broke up due to people moving away or family or working schedules or whatever), what was important was that I had created something that had held the attention of others for a good number of hours. Although I didn`t create everything on my own, like the amazing city of Lankhmar or the concepts of interplanetary travel from Spelljammer, or the Lost Island of Castanimir, I have to take credit for the things that I came up with, like most of the supporting characters and the general story arc. I was very proud of this when I wrote it, and reading it again reminds me of that feeling of sharing an entire world with just a small group of people in a room.
Years later I would end up abandoning the game of D&D (probably not forever) and selling my rulebooks to buy music equipment or beer or pay the rent or something, but I will always look fondly upon these writings. I have continued (sporadically) to write fantasy since these days, and some of it may be forthcoming right here in this blog, but this snapshot from 9 - 10 years ago really spoke to me, and told me that it is possible for me to flesh out an entire story in my head and have others hear and approve of it. In short, I opened a box of my old writings and it made me want to get writing again.
A similar thing happens when I open an old photo album or box of homemade jam tapes. Again, each of those boxes warrants another story. Those will be dealt with at some other time.
I guess that will be enough for now.
May the Force be with you...
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