May 2026 can fuck right off.
When I was collating my deductions for my taxes back in April, I noticed a charge for about $400 bucks on one of my credit cards for a hotel in Indianapolis. Not the one I stayed in for GenCon. It was the Quality Inn I had booked in February and, in July, the one I suddenly had a bad feeling about. I cancelled the reservation within the penalty-free period (which lasted right up to check-in) and booked elsewhere. Noah, my editor at MIT Press, did not, and he had a room with a Jacuzzi right next to the bed. He described the place as “janky AF” and when he pulled in into the parking lot, he said he thought the place was abandoned.
I have since learned that the place closed at the end of the summer and the property was sold to another hotel chain. I don’t think I need to go into further detail about how difficult and time consuming it has been trying to get that dough refunded. Whatever frustration you are imagining, increase it until your vision swims, and then you’re in the ballpark.
This is emblematic of the last month or so, and really, 2026 in general. Everything is at least twice as difficult and yields half the result. New, increasingly stupid problems emerge, demanding my time and mental energy. Writing? Ha, who has time for that? And even if I had the time, I’m perilously low on the sort of clear-mindedness I need to string sensible words together.
That proposal for [redacted]? The committee loved it! But not enough to pay the advance the commissioning editor had promised. Instead, they offered a fifth of that, which put the needle of the gauge of my patience firmly in the red “go fuck yourselves” triangle. Negotiations continue, but I am not hopeful. I expect I’ll have to sell the book to a different publisher. I’m optimistic about doing so, but in the meantime, that’s a whole lot of money I expected to have on hand that I now do not.
That was Friday. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday quietly raging about that. On Monday, I went to the movies with the kid to see The Mandalorian and Grogu. Normally, I probably would probably have hated it, but surrounding it on both sides by days of infuriating bullshit has left me remembering it warmly. I dunno if that is viable plan for the franchise, broadly, however.
I don’t feel like it’s good form to explain what went down on Tuesday. But walking back from dropping the kid at school on Wednesday, I realized this was the first time I was in a situation where, had it happened a couple centuries earlier, I believe I would be justified in challenging someone to a duel. If I had to find a positive spin on that, I suppose it is testament to how far we’ve come as a civilization that it took 47 years before I ran into an issue where I’d be willing to wake up before dawn in order to potentially stab someone in order to resolve it.
It’s Thursday now? I’m mostly back to not growling and cursing to myself. Mostly.
Everything Else
With the entirety of consensus reality seemingly arranged to harass me, I’ve been forced to make some shifts. The biggest one is that for the next while, the Vintage RPG Podcast is on hiatus. That’s not really down to aggravating stuff, honestly. For the Goodman anniversary book, I am doing hours and hours of interviews and by the time I’m supposed to be recording with Hambone, I’m just all talked out. And, with previous projects, I’ve been attacking broad subjects, so there have always been lots of little things in the moment that I can talk about on a podcast. The Goodman book is going to be super interesting and fun, but it is, by its nature, all about Goodman Games, and I think folks’d rightly riot if that was all we talked about on the podcast for the next three months.
So, we’re gonna take a break. We talked about it today on the podcast in fact, so you’ll get more detail on Monday. When the West Marches game comes back, we’re gonna record an episode with Clay and Justin recapping year three, hopefully in a month or so. After that, we’ll be back when I finish the Goodman draft, ideally in October.
And not all is teeth-grindingly bad. I had a lovely chat the other day with Jamie Sutcliffe over at Strange Attractor. I’m pestering him regularly (at his request) to get the cover reveal of Down, Down, Down out, and it has to happen before he goes to Japan on June 10, so genuinely any day now. Editing for that should commence upon his return. A contract for the Manly Wade Wellman collection is forthcoming, as is, perhaps, some other fun stuff, but that’s a secret for another day.
See? Not all bad news.
But that is all the news, I think.
I’m gonna post this, then tomorrow I am gonna get the next Exploits issue together, then I am gonna watch TV shows (yo, how good is Widow’s Bay?!) and paint miniatures. Hopefully by Monday I will unclench my jaw.
An Hour Later
Had dinner at the diner and got an Oreo milkshake to go. Things are looking better already.
