Words

I can be peculiar when it comes to using words. Some might even consider my predilection for using certain words properly as snobbish. Take the word “awesome” for instance. The way that word is used in our current culture makes me cringe. It’s too great a word to be bandied about the way it is. “Awesome” should be reserved for events that truly inspire awe in their witnesses. The birth of a child is awesome. The rising of Atlantis from the seas would be awesome. First contact with extraterrestrial life is awesome. Scoring tickets for a sold-out show or finding a parking spot are not events worthy of the use of ” awesome.”

With this in mind, let me say that your people are awesome.

The entire time I was writing Stonehell Dungeon: Down Night-Haunted Halls, I had a number in mind. It was not a gigantic number, nor was it an easy-to-hit mark. It was a number based on a reasonable prediction of what the book might do over time given that it’s basically an overblown vanity project aimed at a specific niche of a niche customer base. If I hit that number at all, I’d consider the book to be a modest personal success and worth the time and effort it took to create it.

Forty-eight hours after the book debuted, I reached that number. Two days is all that it took.

I’m absolutely blown away by the fact that so many of you decided to open your wallets and take a risk on an unproven book by an unproven author. I’m doubly gobsmacked by the positive reception the book has received from those who’ve had a chance to read it. To everyone who has bought a copy of the book (electronic or perfect-bound), I offer my deepest and sincerest thanks. You are all awesome in my book, and that’s not me using the term casually.

Now that the book is out, I’m reveling in the sudden quiet time I find myself with. I thought that I might find myself not knowing what to do with this newly rediscovered free time, but that’s not proving to be a problem. I took the weekend to start catching up on various loose threads and promises I’ve accrued over the last few months, and I’m likely to continue this trend throughout the rest of the month.

With both my birthday and Thanksgiving occurring in the week ahead, I’m taking the rest of the month off from the Society to enjoy this temporary oasis of tranquility before the next crunch hits. The first tendrils are already starting to twine their way into my creative attic space, so I’m taking five while I can. Posting will resume after December 1st. Right now I’m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that the space next to my computer does not contain a copy of the Labyrinth Lord rulebook, a sheaf of charts, a handful of dice, and a spiral-bound notebook. It’s a good absence, but one I know will be short-lived.

Let me wish an early “Happy Thanksgiving” to those who will be celebrating it, another “Thank You, Thank You, Thank You” to everyone who has bought a copy of the book, and a final “Thank You” to everyone who makes the Society of Torch, Pole and Rope a regular stop on their journeys through the ether. I have a lot to be thankful this year because of all of you.