Beginnings

Where to start? That's the big question.

Sharing something you've created, are creating, is terrifying. In writing, it's impossible not to bear your heart - every character you conjour comes from an undeniably twisted world, the world which exists chewed up and processed through your own perception. The beauty I find in science fiction and fantasy is the creation and imagining of new worlds from the pulpy remains of this one. With these new worlds, new ways of being are born, and from the new ways of being, we learn more, in turn, about the world-which-encompasses-us. Writing has been particularly difficult for me, I've found fragments of thousands of worlds which never saw much light, and across the years I've stopped and started the process of exploring them. What prompted this project is a labour of love by Freehold Games that has repeatedly brought me back to the space of imagination and play when I needed it most - Caves of Qud.

Caves of Qud is a world of epic proportion and depth, a science-fantasy roguelike "steeped in retrofuturism, deep simulation, and swathes of sentient plants" (this description borrowed unapologetically from the storepage). The language it employs is so beautifully evocative of the sheer complexity of existence that it has bled through into a subtle awareness which I cannot - don't want to - shake.

I'm beginning this blog with one story set in the world of Qud - a chapter uploaded every Saturday at midnight - but it will unfold and expand in every dimension, through myriad worlds, until I've said everything I want to say. Peppered between stories will be blog posts like this one, ranging from writing about writing to sharing works by other people and the impressions that they've left on me.

Thank you for joining me for this journey.

Live and drink.

 

Location: London, UK

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