Life is Short, Choose Wisely - and Use Spellcheck
A Fantasy Campaign Setting
Way back in the 1980s when I was a Commodore gaming nerd (I still sorta am today), I started creating a fictional fantasy world that I wrote some short stories within. I think I was motivated by not only C64 games such as The Bard’s Tale, but also by the Thieves World novel, “Tales From the Vulgar Unicorn,” in particular, as a sandbox setting for authors to use to write stories. I wanted to create my own world for the stories I chose to tell. In addition to this, I had also come across Gary Gygax’s “Word of Greyhawk” D&D campaign setting and fell in love with it. It was just more icing on the cake to make me want to create my own setting.
A Good Artist Is Hard To Find
After bugging a few friends and family members for the past several months, I found an artist for my outdoor-related nonfiction books.
Mr. W. Anderson.
The past few months, he has been working to provide both cover art and interior art imagery for my nonfiction books that will be published at Folklore Field Press. I wanted to take a moment to share a single image, so people can see what to expect. Here is a sample: Read More
Setting Up Calvert Press
Clavert Press LLC has added two new imprints:
- Folklore Field Press (nonfiction outdoor-related material)
- Asgard Gamewerks (word search and sudoku puzzle books)
Asgard Gamewerks already has over 60 published game books available for purchase on Amazon.
Folklore Field Press has three titles currently in editing and layout, and are expected to be available late 2026 or early 20207.
Taking Down URS RETRO Website
For many years, I have maintained several websites. All of them focused on my various hobbies. I had a few outdoor websites; one focused on overlanding, another on solo bushcraft and canoe tripping. There have been websites dedicated to discussing retro gaming and retro computer systems. There was a website that promoted the tabletop games I made. And others that were angled towards other hobbies and side hustles (coffee distributor, aerial mapping with drones, etc…).
Well, I am taking them all down! Read More
Starting My Own Press
Darn it. I went and did it. I said I didn’t care. I told myself it’s just a hobby… you know, for fun. Amuse family and friends, that sort of thing.
Yeah, right. Read More
The Future of Writing and Using AI
I have been reading many negative remarks about writers using AI, and most seem to stem from people using AI to create full-on stories and then selling them. Out of curiosity, I searched for a handful of such novels and gave them a personal once-over. Easily, I would say that most of them sucked. One of the five was actually pretty good.
AI authorship is not going away. It will become more common with every passing year. While right now it is mostly frowned upon, I believe that in a generation the tides will turn, and it will be the norm. Personally, I am not fighting it. As a dude from the Midwest that writes for fun, I have started to embrace using AI. And here is how I am using it: Read More
Figuring Out What I Like To Write
Anyone who has checked out my Stories page lately will see that I am writing across several genres.
While I like fantasy and have written mostly fantasy stories over the years, I don’t think I write it particularly well. Over the past several months, I have started Read More
From Pantser to Outlining
For as long as I can remember, I have always approached story writing from ‘the seat of my pants’. This is a common term for a writer who just writes as the story comes to them; it unfolds as they write. They may have a general story in mind, maybe even a few plot points and scenes, but for the most part, they just write whatever comes to mind without too much forward planning.
Last year, in the summer of 2025, I had a very bad day. Read More
A Whisper In The Dark: Getting Some Rework
My first novella, which I self-published back in 2013 (and later unpublished in 2023), is getting a pass through Grammarly. And wow… did it need it. When I self-published that story, it was a vanity project. It should never have been put out there for people to read, let alone buy and read.
Grammarly Can Be Useful
A few weeks ago, I finished writing a 50k novella, a murder mystery set in 1894 Baltimore. For the first time in the past twenty years, I have been thinking about finding a small or indie publisher that isn’t afraid to back novella-length works. With that thought in mind, I wanted to give my finished novella some polish and have it checked for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and readability. Read More