Gen Con 2025 Recap – Part Two

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When we last left our intrepid heroes, their Gen Con had taken a turn for the not so great. Whether it was the games, the scenarios, or the GMs, the last three games were never going to make a best of list and it made the one game which had been cancelled preconvention the second-best game thus far.

To say they needed their luck to turn around is an understatement.

Day 2 Continued

Curseborne

The last game of the day was Curseborne from Onyx Path. This is a World of Darkness style game, using the same d10 system you’re familiar with if you’ve ever played any of those games.

The only bad thing about this game was when we originally looked at the schedule, we thought we’d have to hustle from the JW Marriot to the Stadium with no time between the games. However, ending the previous game early did have the side effect of allotting us ample time to make this game (and disaster was averted). That said, our fourth player (Holly) was about ten minutes late for the same reason. Lucky that she made it, as Holly immediately made an impact on things by speaking in a sort of Eastern European accent.

I must admit that at first, I thought it might be her real accent (not crazy since in the 70,000 attendees, it is likely to get people from all over the world). Not to be outdone, I was playing a Ghost possessing the body of a bartender. This was a guy who lived it up in his original life and so…

A quick aside… during the weekend Egg, Lee, and I pretty much are trying to make each other laugh constantly. For this year the crazy/silly talk settled on the Marvel Comics character Dr. Druid. It’s ok if you’ve never heard of him. He was an Avenger for a hot minute (and betrayed the team) before mostly only appearing in those huge scenes where the artist has to draw 50 characters who have something to do with the plot.

Anyway, during our discussions about this sad sack of a character, I decided that Toad was his buddy and spoke with what can only be described as David Lee Roth’s voice.

End aside…

So that’s the voice I went with during this two-hour session.

Every time I get to play an Onyx Path game (or a White Wolf one), it just seems to deliver. We had a great table of PCs, and our GM was a breath of fresh air as he was very knowledgeable in the system, but also gave us plenty of room to interact with each other and the NPCs within the game.

It took until the last game of the night, but we finally got another good one!

Day 3

This was going to be another full day with only a random hour here or there to fit anything in really. If we were going to make the Dealers’ Room, it would be in short bursts on our way to another game.

Blade Runner

Egg had really wanted to play Blade Runner for a while, so I was happy I could grab us a slot. It leaned very heavily on the investigation aspect of things as our four Blade Runners were investigating the shooting of an anti-replicant journalist. Our task was complicated by a time deadline we needed to hit… find an answer to who was responsible by 5PM or potentially the city would erupt from the news.

One of the interesting ideas was that you could “zoom in” on a crime scene. Trying to evoke a cinematic element to things is a good thing. The problem is that the GM mentioned it once in the rules, and then it wasn’t until one of us (Egg) remembered that we could do it that we managed to get the final piece of the puzzle to lead us to our next potential assassin.

The other “problem” was picking up on cues from the GM. In a lot of games, you can often determine if you should continue down a path by judging the GM’s reaction to your questions. Sometimes they are very direct (“yeah, that’s a dead end”) and other times they can just lead you to believe that something isn’t a true path. We ended up hitting the second of those and without meaning to, the GM basically told us the guy we were going to interrogate wasn’t the bad guy.

This wasn’t a fake out on his part, it was more that we interpreted something one way and then when it turned out this was the Big Bad, it meant the deaths of our characters. Which is fine in a convention game, but later we asked if anyone else had ever figured it out and in the 8-10 sessions he’d run the game only 1 group had managed to not get slaughtered…

Maybe it wasn’t entirely our fault then?

I would have also liked to have seen how the combat actually worked, but we were cut down in a narrative fashion to end the game… so even though that might have been a great opportunity to do so. We still had about 40 minutes left in the session, so it wasn’t a timing issue.

Our Brilliant Ruin

I’m going to go ahead and spoil this… this was by far and away the best session we played this year and likely would go in the top 5 sessions of any of our Gen Con/Origins/Dragon Con gaming.

That said, I’m not sure how much of that was from the game system itself and how much it was due to our GM (I think it probably was 95% the GM), so weirdly I wouldn’t mind playing the system again with someone else just to see how it might hold up.

I wish I could remember the exact description of the game (Downton Abbey meets something with a dash of steampunk thrown in). Regardless, the game really wants the players to embrace their roles (ranging from the Butler to the Aristocrat to the Scholars). The ability to roleplay is by far the most important aspect of the game, with everyone being able to shine.

The GM not only loved the idea of “cool things” but he embraced those moments and tried to make them even bigger. By the end of the adventure, we were leading a procession of villagers against the local aristocrat with a band and doves and an old cannon to prove a point. And while no shots were fired, we made our point to oust the current “ruler” and replace him with one of our own… executing him just as the story faded to black.

Just amazing fun all around.

Planet of the Apes

Another game Egg had requested, though we weren’t exactly sure how it would go. Obviously if you follow the original movies, the idea of either being a human in an ape world didn’t sound very appetizing. Luckily, we not only were playing the apes, but we were on a Human Hunt (the most dangerous game indeed). Using a version of the old West End Games Star Wars system, it was like a old pair of shoes (though the last time I played the system was in the mid-90s).

Again, we were blessed with a good GM, a good mix of players, and one player who must have been waiting for this specific game because he just leaned into his “Lawbringer” character. With such lines as “You know what they say – human see, human do”, he found every great moment to really hit it all home.

My character was the reporter coming along for the hunt, hoping to find corruption among the elites. And that’s how I started playing it, but as I made notes of what pictures she had taken, I started to see something else. Even when we encountered the humans, we never really had to deal much with the idea they could talk (keeping them gagged helped with that). When we reached the end of the session, I had a chance to give my findings (what kind of article did I write) and I went with one that celebrated the hunt and those who participated. It celebrated our leadership along with those poor NPCs who lost their lives to the obvious “radiation sick” humans (RAD Human).

I’m curious how a campaign would work in the world, though I suspect you could really lean into the exploration of the Forbidden Zones or reclaiming some of the irradiated areas.

Day 4

With Sunday arriving, we made one last quick trip to the Dealers’ Room and then it was time to make our way back to Atlanta. I did end up buying a couple of Button Shy games as well as finally taking a chance on the Final Girl series of solo games (though at the time of this blog, I haven’t had a chance to take it for a spin).

Next year I’ll be skipping Gen Con as the family is going on a cruise that week, but it is very possible that Origins might be the replacement for the guys’ trip. We’ll see as the date gets closer.

Gen Con 2025 Recap – Part One

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Day 0

We did our normal trek from Atlanta to Indianapolis. Through a weird trick of fate, my wife was actually in Indy at the same time for about a day (for work). While we didn’t get to see each other, it was interesting to be in the same general area in such a random way.

As normal, we use Gen Con (or any gaming con) to play those games we’ve either never played before OR haven’t played in a long time. Since our current game is 5E D&D, that leaves pretty much anything and everything else as fair game.

Day 1

Our original first game was cancelled, which probably was a blessing in disguise. It allowed us to not rush through breakfast before heading over to the Dealer’s Room (but after the initial rush of 10AM. We made our way through the various aisles and locked in a couple of potential buys “at some point this weekend”. The theme for most of our Dealer’s Room time was fitting in a hour or two whenever we could between games as our schedule didn’t have a ton of gaps.

Tales from Elsewhere: Clockwork

The Kickstarter Prelaunch Page is located here:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/talesfromelsewhere/tales-from-elsewhere-clockworld?ref=profile_saved_projects_prelaunch&category_id=Q2F0ZWdvcnktMzQ=

We lucked out and had the creator of the game GM for us (Peter Lange), which immediately solves any problem of whether or not the person running the game is going to know the rules.

This hadn’t been on anyone’s list since the game isn’t out yet, but I am a sucker for anything Steampunk/Weird West related, so I snagged it on that alone.

As Peter talked about the game a bit, the set up was a weird west/steampunk world but 100 years after the wild west originally ended (due to a calamity). A very clever idea which let him create an area of the world to start your campaigns, but a ton of the map was not occupied for those 100 years. All this sets up some cool discovery-style sessions with wagon trains, outpost/forts trying to help humanity fight back against the monsters.

The character sheet was really well set up with pretty much all the information you needed for your character and some cheat sheet rules related stuff on there as well, which made it incredibly easy to follow along with what your character could or couldn’t do, and what those consequences might mean for the session and potentially for the long haul in ongoing campaigns.

It was a 2-hour game with a very straightforward setup of a wagon train going out to settle on the frontier. Each person had a roleplaying opportunity from interactions with some of the NPCs travelling with you and by helping them, you potentially got a gift or an offer of help later that you would be able to potentially use. The main piece was the battle at the river crossing where one of the players at the table was the same person who had built the terrain pieces for the encounter. Of course, there was an ambush by Bandits and then in the midst of that we also had the misfortune to deal with undead robotic monstrosities.

The battle flowed smoothly, and overall, I thought the system was both simple enough to get started quickly but had enough depth that I could see how building a character and doing a proper campaign could work well.

Great session and really fun game. I’m already planning on backing the Kickstarter when it launches on September 2.

Peter has a Youtube where he talks about this game and the mechanics of other roleplaying games. You can find him here:

https://www.youtube.com/@TalesFromElsewhereGames

Root the RPG

I have the digital version of the game which I’ve played a handful of times, so I am familiar enough with the world. I’m also a fan (if from a distance) of the various settings which feature anamorphic critters running around as the PCs.

As it was a 4-hour session, we spent the first 45 minutes creating characters. I’m not sure that it actually needed to go that long, as I think you could probably get through it in about half the time, but some of that time was spent on showing how some of the weapons were designed, since for the session they only had a very basic set of options.

I do always

During the game, our Vagabonds arrived in a clearing (village) who were dealing with the aftermath of a wolf attack where they had blown a dam to wash them away. Now, I was playing a Beaver, so while that form of attack might be effective, it is probably not the best long-term solution.

As we investigated the problems of the town, we came to realize that it is mostly a Rabbit town with a few Crows, but the ones seemingly in charge were the Foxes. My mind immediately wonders if this is really the problem and the Foxes are up to no good.

No.

OK, well we are all affiliated with the Woodland Alliance, maybe we could get them to come in?

Maybe, but here are the people you need to talk to.

That goes mostly nowhere.

There is a lot of this where we pretty much try everything we can think of AND even want to check out some random side events, but are shut down by the GM. At which point, I basically express my frustration saying, “I’m not sure what we’re supposed to do at this point.”

The GM does give us a little bit of a lifeline (emphasis on little) which gets us to a point where we try and change the big Story of the Clearing with their storyteller. I make what I thought was a decent argument through roleplaying, but then the dice say otherwise.

Which brings me to one of those things… if your players are roleplaying a decision out in an encounter with the NPCs, it’s ok just to go with whether it swayed you or not. It doesn’t mean you have to go with a dice roll. Sometimes, just go with your gut.

Eventually, we convince them, there is another wolf attack which we fend off, and that’s it.

Sadly, this session really left a bit of a bad taste in all our mouths to the point that it ended early… the character creation took too long, and the reputation portion of the adventure really felt underused. I feel like the adventure might have gone better if there was already a Faction in the Clearing and we were working against them to eventually pull the clearing toward someone else. As it was, the reputation mechanic never really came into play.

Day 2

Gangbusters B/X Edition

Egg had really wanted to play Gangbusters B/X Edition. For anyone familiar with any early D&D system with a couple of small twists mostly in terms of naming (Moxie, Wooden Nickles, etc). It’s been a long time since I played 2nd Edition AD&D, so seeing THACO after all these years was strange.

The adventure itself was initially set up pretty well. Every character (we had pregenerated characters) had a small backstory and the GM gave us an idea of why we were either in the Speakeasy or in the parking lot nearby. However, the problem was a gunfight broke out in the parking lot and two of the PCs were out there while the other 4 had absolutely no reason for going out and getting shot at. Which led to PVP with the two on the outside while the rest of us wandered through some overly complicated bag exchange.

The GM did a decent job of making sure the camera turned on each character quickly, so most of the time you weren’t sitting idle for too long. It is a little bit odd to do that with combat happening on one side and talking happening on another.

I think this could have worked a little better if the characters had some additional connections with one another. Maybe even if it was just a quick – you know X guy from your days back in prison. You and Y have run jobs together.

As it was, we all struggled with how to connect to one another and how really propel the story forward. When we finally got to the point where about 3 of us could move a portion of the “plot” forward, I wasn’t sure how or if the other PCs would be included. It didn’t matter as we ended about an hour early with the GM telling us that the second half of the adventure would have taken 2 hours.

So far, one for three in our enjoyment of the sessions.

Broken Tales

This was one of those I’d been very interested in (and still am in light of what transpired). I really like the story behind this game, which is the good fairy tales have all become corrupt and it is up to the very flawed villains to save the day (maybe).

Our group of four was comprised of Baba Yaga, The Big Bad Wolf, The Pied Piper, and the Queen of Hearts. Our adversaries, as we’d come to discover, were the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and Dorothy. Pretty cool, right?

This game started off on the wrong foot and kind of spiraled from there. Only the three of us were on time, but sometimes when you have players book back-to-back games you never quite know how long it is going to take you to get there. And sometimes you must walk like half a mile between the stadium and one of the hotels. Which really means, a 10-minute grace period is no big deal. Many GMs will use that to start talking about the game or the world or just interact with the players.

We waited for 15 minutes before our 4th player arrived and then waited another 15 minutes for a fourth player who never appeared. The GM even mentioned waiting for a little while longer because this was supposed to be a full session.

We convinced him to begin.

Then he really didn’t go into how the system worked (I ended up having to explain it from one of the rules cards on the table). Then when one of the players was trying to explain that this is how they saw their character, he challenged them on that (eventually letting the issue go). He apparently had never heard of the rule of cool, because he shut down any flourishes to a player’s description of how an action went (when it would have no mechanical advantage anyway).

The best part is when Lee had to step away from the table to go to the restroom. The GM was ready to swing the camera back on him and realized he was gone… which clearly upset him. He then turned to me and said:

“Does your friend often walk away from the table?”

“Well he had to run to the bathroom.”

“Does he do that often?”

Not knowing what answer would appease him, I opted for a stun instead. “No, I don’t think he urinates more than normal.”

That response seemed to do a number on him.

About an hour and forty minutes into the session (four hour scheduled), we had defeated a couple of our adversaries, had figured out Dorothy was on her way to kill the last witch, and now we needed to spring into action to save them. Instead, he declared that was the end of things and to find out more we’d need to read the adventure.

So we basically got a little over an hour of play time, were finished 2+ hours early, and that was that.

You know how the rule of GMing is mostly to say “Yes, And?” to situations? A character wants to climb a wall, yes and. I want to go punch the King. Yes and…

This GM introduced us to the new flavor:

No, And.

Can I do-

No… And?

Well, then could I maybe?

No…And…

Here we were, at the midpoint of our Gen Con experience and somehow the cancelled session was the 2nd best one. Not a good average at all. Next week I wrap up the weekend and see if things could possibly turn around…

Free Comic Book Day 2025 Appearance in Lawrenceville, Georgia!

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This coming May 3, 2025 is Free Comic Book Day, and I will be exhibiting my wares with the Galactic Quest Comic Book Store located in Lawrenceville, Ga.

From the website:

“Get ready for an action-packed day at Lawrenceville’s FREE Comic Book Day, presented in partnership with Galactic Quest!

Join us on May 3, 2025, from 10 am to 5 pm, for a celebration of creativity and community. This year’s theme, “Together, We Create,” highlights the collaborative spirit of fandom and the magic of shared imagination. We welcome everyone—whether you’re a seasoned fan or just curious—to join the fun! 

Wear your favorite costume or cosplay and embark on the #DTLcomicquest for FREE comic books scattered throughout The DTL. Whether you’re a cosplayer, sci-fi enthusiast, or fantasy lover, this event offers something for everyone to enjoy! 

Immerse yourself in the world of comics with expert-led panels and workshops covering comic creation, game development, cosplay, and storytelling. Explore a variety of themed vendors offering unique, character-inspired treasures to enhance your collection.

This isn’t just about free comics—it’s a celebration of creativity, fandom, and connection. Everyone is welcome, and we can’t wait to see the community come together for this unforgettable day. 

Mark your calendars and come be part of this incredible adventure. Together, We Create! For a sneak peek at which books will be available visit the Free Comic Book Day catalog.”

So come out for a day full of fun and comics!

In Our Dreams Awake #2 Now Live On Kickstarter!

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The In Our Dreams Awake Issue #2 Kickstarter is LIVE!

Go here and check out our latest issue of the Dreampunk/Cyberpunk comic book from:

John McGuire – Writer/Creator

Egg Embry – Writer/Creator

Edgar Salazar – Artist

Rolands Kalninš – Artist, Colorist, Letterer

Genaro Olavarrieta – Inker

Javier Laparra – Inker

Alexander Lugo – Letterer

Moonee Art – Cover Artist

The Kickstarter campaign ends on Friday, May 10, 2024.

***

Jason Byron dreams of two lives. In one fantasy, magi reactionaries won, technology is banned, and Jason is a portrait painter hiding a contraband telescope. In the other world, he leads a cyberpunk gang amid a future of flooded cities and gilled aliens. When he closes his eyes in one world, he awakes in the next.

In Our Dreams Awake is the story of what happens when both dream worlds spin out of control. What happens when Jason no longer knows which world is the dream and which one is reality?

IN THE FANTASY DREAM, a mage arrives at Jason Byron’s cottage with orders: Paint and document a downed flying machine before the Magi destroy the heretical technology. But, will the authorities let Jason live with this forbidden knowledge?

IN THE CYBERPUNK FUTURE DREAM, there’s a turf war in Drowned London, and Jason Byron must parley with the rival gang leaders. Can Jason make peace with the ‘A People, those mouthy cat aliens, and other gangs? Will this escalate and go to guns?

Who can say what dreams may come? Each Jason Byron works for an unseen love. Their guiding light is making their worlds better for those who hold their hearts. But can these dreampunks make their dreams come true?

With In Our Dreams Awake, Egg and I are giving this concept a bit of a twist. Instead of trying to figure out how Jason Byron’s life might have gone wrong, he instead sees a world nearly the opposite of the current life he lives. And that would be fine, we could all use a little bit of fantasy in our lives (or cyberpunk as the case may be), but what happens when those two realities begin to bleed into one another. How would you determine which was the real world and which was the dream world?

And how would you know which one was worth fighting for… or dying for?

Announcement – In Our Dreams Awake #1 Kickstarter is Live

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The In Our Dreams Awake Kickstarter is LIVE

Go here and check out the Kickstarter for In Our Dreams Awake (Co-created by Egg Embry).

I’m a pack rat. I don’t throw away anything I don’t have to. Whether it is strictly because I believe I may need the item again at a future time or because I’ve attached memory to the item and worry that if I get rid of it then the memory will be lost forever… I’m not sure.

Behind all of that is this need not to throw out “useful” things. To not turn my back on an idea simply because it didn’t work at that time. Sometimes it is a matter of just finding the “right” time to put the thing out into the world.

In Our Dreams Awake is that idea for me. It’s a story that has fought and fought to try to get out into the world only to hear that it just wasn’t the right time for it to exist. Whether that was because of my own paralysis or not, I’m not entirely sure. What I do know is that I fully believe that not only is now the time for this story to come out, I have great hope that this release will begin a new chapter for me and comic books. I have a handful of ideas I’d love to bring to life, and I really think that this could help launch things.

So what the heck is In Our Dreams Awake?

Jason Byron dreams of two lives. In one fantasy, magi reactionaries won, technology is banned, and Jason is a portrait painter hiding a contraband telescope. In the other world, he leads a cyberpunk gang amid a future of flooded cities and gilled aliens. When he closes his eyes in one world, he awakes in the next. Jason’s only desire is to wake up in the arms of his true love, Laura… Uh, or is it Fem’a Lin?… If only he knew which one was real?!

I’m obsessed with the idea of What If when it comes to how people live their lives. Those little moments then spiral out to set the course of our lives. How easy it is to focus on the things we don’t have rather than embrace all the gifts we do have. It’s very easy to lose sight of what is important when you always are lamenting the things you don’t possess.

It’s human nature to evaluate and then reevaluate and then wonder about the path not taken.

With In Our Dreams Awake, Egg and I are giving this concept a bit of a twist. Instead of trying to figure out how Jason Byron’s life might have gone wrong, he instead sees a world nearly the opposite of the current life he lives. And that would be fine, we could all use a little bit of fantasy in our lives (or cyberpunk as the case may be), but what happens when those two realities begin to bleed into one another. How would you determine which was the real world and which was the dream world?

And how would you know which one was worth fighting for… or dying for?

***

John McGuire is the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. The Trade paperback collecting the first 4 issues is finally back from the printers! If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Want to read the first issue for free? Click here! Already read it and eager for more?

Click here to join John’s mailing list.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

In Our Dreams Awake – Kickstarter Prelaunch

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Jason Byron dreams of two lives. In one fantasy, magi reactionaries won, technology is banned, and Jason is a portrait painter hiding a contraband telescope. In the other world, he leads a cyberpunk gang amid a future of flooded cities and gilled aliens. When he closes his eyes in one world, he awakes in the next. Jason’s only desire is to wake up in the arms of his true love, Laura… Uh, or is it Fem’a Lin?… If only he knew which one was real?!

In a society ruled by mages, Jason Byron is a master artist trying to provide for his family. He has a secret heirloom, a telescope. With it he can see the stars, but can he see the trouble his illegal piece of technology will bring to his family?

In drowning London, Jason Byron deals in chum, the hottest drug among aliens. He and his true love are trying to escape their world. Can they keep the peace long enough to get away before the world is pulled beneath the waves?

In Our Dreams Awake is the story of what happens when both of those worlds begin to spin out of control. What happens when Jason no longer knows which world is the dream and which one is reality?

***

In Our Dreams Awake comes from co-creators John McGuire and Egg Embry. The first issue of this mini-series features two dreams, the first illustrated by Edgar Salazar and the second by Rolands Kalniņš. Both artists provide covers in addition to Sean Hill’s variant cover. Written for fans of love stories, dreampunk, steampunk, and cyberpunk, this comic offers an engaging mystery with amazing artwork. This story is about love and loss and asking the big questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? Who do I love?

***

We are launching the Kickstarter on March 30, 2022; however, you can make sure that you get notified when it launches by signing up at the Pre-launch Page!

***

Over the next month and a half, I’ll have preview pages, origin stories, interviews with the creative team, and probably some stuff I’m not remembering right now all over at Tesseraguild.com. I hope you’re ready to join me on another comic book adventure!

The Echo Effect is OUT!!!

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The Echo Effect is released today! And for this release week, it is only $0.99!

In the world before, Aaron Anders had a different life with a different family…

Until the White Light washed them away.

A select few know the truth about our world: every time the calendar approached the year 2025, the world resets and creates a new Earth, with a new history for each of us. The Awakened remember their previous lives, and throughout history, many of them have done their best to ensure that the world proceeds on a particular path.

The lucky few.

Aaron didn’t feel lucky. Trapped in this loop, forced to live again and again in half-remembered lives, his current reality was spiraling out of control. His wife and his best friend thought he was losing his mind, and the worst part was they might be right. Another existence filled his head, mixing false memories with his real ones until he wasn’t sure of the truth.

And the only one who seemed to know anything was a stranger convinced “They” were after both of them.

Want to read a little more? Here’s a preview.

***

John McGuire is writer of the sci-fi novel: The Echo Effect.

He is also the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

Click here to join John’s mailing list and receive preview chapters of upcoming novels, behind the scenes looks at new comics, and free short stories.

His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at tesseraguild.com

The Dark That Follows on Sale for $0.99

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In celebration of my upcoming novel release, I thought it was probably past time for a sale on my very first novel: The Dark That Follows. So for a limited time (roughly a week), the price will be only $0.99 over at Amazon. If you’ve never read it before, now’s your chance. And if you have read it and liked it, maybe mention it to a friend so that they can get a copy while it is on sale.

***

A disgraced former cop who possesses the ability to see the future…
A college student whose life has become entangled in black magic…
A girlfriend who is no longer sure who to trust…
And a vision of the future, which shows only the darkness of the void…

With a touch, Jason Mills’ mind is flooded with images of what may come. Am I going to fall in love… am I going to be rich… am I going to get that promotion…

Until the reading that shows him absolute nothingness.

Drawn into a web of secret societies, Black Masses, and beings of immense power, Jason races to determine the truth behind his visions in order to save the future from being wiped out completely.

***

To purchase the ebook for $0.99 beginning at noon today (Sept. 16, 2020), just go to this link.

And thank you for checking out the book.

Announcement – The Crossing #1 Kickstarter is Live

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The Crossing Kickstarter is LIVE

Go here and check out the Kickstarter for the Crossing (Co-created by Robert Jeffrey II and Sean Hill and in conjunction with 133art).

Robert came to me a couple of years ago and we talked about working on a comic book series with one another. The plan was for each of us to bring an idea to the table and then we’d work on both concepts, alternating who wrote each issue.

Funny enough, both were science fiction stories, with mine focused on a post-apocalyptic section of the galaxy and the few people who manage to survive in it. Robert’s was this story inspired by Sliders and Quantum Leap and the DC Comics Elseworlds stories and the Marvel What If stories.

All of which pressed all my buttons. Because if there is one thing I love as much as a good time travel story, it is a good multiverse story!

From there it was all about brainstorming ideas. There was a fugitive, Dr. James Kincaid, who has kidnapped his kid and jumped to alternate worlds. There was an FBI agent who saw this as a second chance. There was the inexperienced scientist who was trying to prove herself to everyone, and who was clearly in over her head.

It was one of those conversations where things just fell into place. Robert would mention an idea and then I would see how that could connect to another moment and before long we had the four-issue story laid out.

Flashforward a couple of years as we’ve pitched the concept to a few comic companies. 133art saw the concept, saw the artwork from Sean Hill (always amazing), and said: “Let’s do this thing!”

So here we are on February 29, 2020, and we are doing this thing. Come over and check out the Kickstarter page to see more of the artwork and get a little more of the characters.

I think this is going to be one of those comics where it is going to be crazy worlds and amazing artwork, but also the characters are going to be the type you can get invested in.

***

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John McGuire is the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. The Trade paperback collecting the first 4 issues is finally back from the printers! If you would like to purchase a copy, go here!

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His other prose appears in The Dark That Follows, Hollow Empire, Beyond the Gate, and Machina Obscurum – A Collection of Small Shadows.

He can also be found at www.johnrmcguire.com

And I Feel Fine (Short Story)

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And I Feel Fine

 John McGuire

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 11, 2019.

Huh… I guess the Mayans were right after all.

That was my first thought when the end times came. You might have expected screams or crying or begging… basically any of the five stages of grief. But no, that’s not how I work. I’m too worried about ancient prophecies coming true rather than the immediate need to extract myself from the situation.

Typical.

Oh, sorry. I should probably be a little more official in how I do this. I mean, I activated this recorder for a reason right? My grandmother always said that when you cut corners you only hurt yourself. Or was it when you skip steps you bounce… no, that’s not it either. Damn, can’t remember. I guess it doesn’t much matter.

Still, always better to be official.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 12, 2019.

Seven years after the big one. Though, you might say that’s a bit of a misnomer. Really, I should say seven years after the first one. That would be much more accurate.

So why am I so calm?

It’s a question I ask myself all the time, honestly. I should be a screaming mess, running around, panicking… or whatever it is a person is supposed to be doing. This, if you think about it, is the strangest thing you could possibly even think. I’m saying I should act normal… when the world hasn’t acted normal in quite some time.

Either way, once you lived through a dozen or so cataclysmic events in your lifetime, what’s the difference? Wait, what am I saying? You probably know exactly what I’m talking about.

I guess.

I mean, I’m not yawning about it, but if it is my time… well, what the hell am I supposed to do about it?

I remember that first morning after it happened. Heaps of clothes on the ground, cell phones lying on top of the piles, drinks and food once being enjoyed now serving only the scavengers and ants. News spread fast, and all over the world it was the same scenario. People had just up and disappeared.

Nothing brings out some religious nuts like a good mystery so we heard lots of claims about how God had finally had enough with us screwing up the Earth. That he had taken his faithful up to Heaven and abandoned the sinners.

Maybe that was what happened. The rest of us poor schmucks biding our time until the absolute end.

I always thought it strange that things got back to normal so quickly after that. Don’t get me wrong, there were still tons of things we had to deal with. Family members lost and gone and all of that. But it was a shared grief. Everyone knew at least one person who disappeared…

It bound us together.

And when you think about it, percentage wise, there weren’t a lot of people taken. Then you had that scientist make the claim that it was spontaneous combustion. Had all sorts of charts and graphs to back up his theories. Like anything else, you can get scientists to say anything if you pay them enough. And I gotta believe the governments of the world didn’t need some kind of religious fervor let loose… hence the combustion theory. I didn’t buy it, but it seemed to calm a lot of people down.

People just want to believe.

I was never a big one on the Bible, but I have wondered, how many people survived the flood? I remember that he brought two of every animal, but he also brought his family.

Is that right?

Well, it couldn’t have been all that many. We may be getting down to that number here shortly. Assuming we haven’t already reached it.

To be honest, I’m not even sure who this message is for. For all I know the amount of humans left in the world could be down to a few dozen. And I think that I read somewhere that you’d need a minimum number of potential breeders to be able to restart the human race. Something about genetics and inbreeding.

What really sucks… ok, what really sucks more is that you know it is coming, but there is nothing you can possibly do to stop it.

And folks thought Global Warming was bad. Oh no, we’ll be dead in hundreds of years.

I’d kill for Global Warming. I could do it in my sleep.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 13, 2019.

It was a zombie uprising last year, and I have to say, putting down Johnny in front of his mother may have been one of the least happy days I’ve ever had. Man, did that woman have a set of pipes on her. My ears still ring sometimes when I’m getting ready to go to sleep. For most people they get the ear ringing from loud music, me, I get it from the unholy screams of a woman whose son you just killed.

For a second time.

Whoever is out there listening to me blather on about all sorts of horrible things… I just want to say that I don’t mean to be so callous. I really don’t. Mostly I blame others and that seems to get me through the days.

Dreams of alcohol get me through the nights.

The thing they don’t teach you in school is how to be all right with it all. We study history, but what is history? Just a series of horrible events, and then we answer questions about dates. But, we never learn what it really means. Those people who died in the Black Plague, we know the numbers, but what about the survivors? When they thought the world was ending, did a bunch just take a knife to their throats and end it all? Those that didn’t, how did they find the internal stamina to keep going on?

This is the stuff that keeps me awake at night.

I need a drink.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 14, 2019.

The worst part is the waiting.

Or maybe the worst part is the loneliness?

I mean you really can’t trust anyone these days. I get a knock on the door, hoping it is the pizza delivery order I put in a decade ago. Maybe the guy just got lost? But no, it’s some random scavengers.

Oh, they tell you they’re nice, but sure enough, it is just more of the same crap. They’re trying to take your stuff, or they want to infect you, or whatever.

Hey! It’s not as if it’s my fault Dad was a nutbag who not only stocked his shelter, but had a shelter to begin with. What did you expect? They had to have bomb drills when he was in elementary school. Duck and cover or some such shit. Like any of that would save you from the mushroom cloud shape filling up the horizon. But it was something for them to do, and I have to think doing something is better than doing nothing. My grandfather raised him with plenty of stories about the Soviets, which would be enough to make any kid a little nuts.

So he went out of his way to ensure that this place, this bunker, was full of everything you would need to survive whatever came. Food stores, a way to replenish the water supply through extra deep wells, exercise equipment, all sorts of entertainment, and just about anything else you could think of. He didn’t know if he would need to be down there for a year or ten, so he prepared.

I want you to know something; I did my best to save everyone I could. I invited the good ones in, and I invited the bad ones in.

No matter what, I learned that people end up as bad ones most of the time.

Except for Ian.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 15, 2019.

You know I am making up these dates, right? I have no way of knowing what the real date is. This camera says May 15, 2019 on the little display, but how do I know it hasn’t been reset or rebooted? There aren’t any new patches to update the damn thing, that’s for sure.

They say that in a nuclear Armageddon the only survivors would be cockroaches. I think that statement is wrong and sells us short. The real answer is always cockroaches and humans will find a way to survive. Though I suppose, at this point, humans are effectively cockroaches.

So maybe the original statement works.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 18, 2019.

I buried Ian six days ago.

One week. That’s how long it has been. One week. I don’t know how to go on.

My constant, my love. My…

I’m sorry, I can’t… not today.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 19, 2019.

This must be cabin fever kicking in. Heh. I’m actually surprised that it took this long.

Ok.

Let’s try this again.

Deep breath.

I buried Ian eight days ago.

I don’t know what I’m doing here anymore.

This was not how it was supposed to be. My family had the shelter since back during the Cold War when everyone either had a bomb shelter or hoped those old videos about crouching under a desk were going to be enough.

They should have called those old things ‘Better get ready to kiss your ass goodbye!’

It was a lark, a goof. We used it as a teenaged clubhouse.

Back when I was nine one of the houses in the neighborhood went on sale and somehow, one of the teenagers managed to get in the locked house. And then he told a friend, who told their brother, who told me, and soon enough we had a fully functioning house to hang out in. It was the perfect place to just get away from everyone else.

You know, just how every little kid needs their own house to really reflect on the rigors of elementary school.

Anyway.

It made us think we were older than we really were. And yeah, the older guys hated that us youngsters where always there, but they couldn’t kick us out because then we would have told on them and poof the whole thing would have been gone.

Mutually assured destruction.

Of course, no matter what there is always some dumbass in the neighborhood. Some kid or pair of kids who think they know better or think they are cooler than they really are. Yeah, we had those kids in our neighborhood. We had those two idiots. You want to know what they did?

They were playing in the house without anyone there. No supervision whatsoever. These two first graders who decided they were above it all.

Yeah, mistake number one. Not like they murdered someone. Very forgivable.

But then the dumbasses made sure that whatever it was they were doing in the house occurred in full view of the front kitchen window. Suddenly every person out for a walk in the neighborhood could look in as they passed the For Sale house and see one the neighborhood kids in the window.

You can guess how that turned out. Locks were changed, windows sealed up, and the clubhouse became a distant memory.

But it was a fun two months.

That’s what the bomb shelter was supposed to be. I mean, sure we were teenagers and no one knew we were going to be down there… uhm… mixing it up.

We’ll I don’t want to get graphic about it. A lady never talks.

So yeah, that’s why we’re down here when the shit went down the first time. When things went sideways…

All five of us.

Wait. Stop.

It just occurred to me, every one of those horror movies begin with the five teenagers and then one by one they end up dying or getting killed or…

Having to kill one of their own.

Yeah, life can be funny. But mostly it has a really sick sense of humor.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 20, 2019.

Jimmy and his mom arrived in those early days. This was after the people disappeared, of course. This was just the next thing.

We were too scared to venture out. Too scared about what the broadcasters were saying. Then one by one, they disappeared from our screens. But we had the internet to tell us about the chaos. And it told us more than we wanted to know. It told us about the fallout in Russia, that New York had sunk into the ocean, the fact that one of the missiles diverted to the North Pole… the heat from the bomb caused glaciers to melt. The ocean rose…

We’d sent out emails, to family, to friends, trying to let them know we were somewhere safe. I wanted to go get my dad, but he told me not to bother. Both he and Mom worked downtown, and the city had taken the worst of it. Still, he thought there were a couple of places where they’d be safe enough. Maybe even make it to us if things got any better.

So I stayed put.

But Jimmy and his mother came because of the emails. And it was good. Ian and him had lived across the street from each other since they were five, but I think his mom never liked Ian. And when you start to get that cabin fever after a couple of months. When the fear kicks in and every moment of every day is full of worry.

Well, that’s when those little whispers begin to get the best of you.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 21, 2019.

It was Jimmy’s mom who let the new guy in. He’d begun pounding on the door and would not stop. She screamed at him to go away, and when he didn’t move she opened the hatch and let the bastard in.

Yeah, it only takes one idiot to ruin it for everyone else.

He wasn’t right in the head. The radiation or the solar winds or whatever it was that week swept across the nation and gotten its hooks into him. He’d turned like most people do when they have nothing left to live for. He’d become a creature even if he wasn’t actually infected with anything. Whatever it was, it was enough.

Somehow, Jimmy stepped in the way, got bit. Infected. The disease transmitted itself to him.

If it is any conciliation, and I’m not one hundred percent sure there is, he did it to save his mom.

Ian put them both down. Because even if Jimmy tried to save his mom, she still got the sickness too.

We burned the bodies in the incinerator, and then hoped that we weren’t infected too.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 22, 2019.

Someone decided we needed to go out. I’m not naming names, but it was Rick.

Have I mentioned Rick up to this point? Sorry. Rick was the fifth member of our little group. The odd man out. The one who secretly hoped he could use the friend zone as his way in with Kelly or me if we broke up with Daniel or Ian.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Rick. Just not in that way. He used to spend the night at my house. Heck, he spent more time at my house than he did at his own most days. Not that I blame him. His parents were real pieces of work. His dad was constantly on his case about college and his grades. Never mind he had the highest grades in the school twice over. I remember asking him how far ahead of the second place person he was, and he told me that he could have skipped his last semester of senior year, gotten zeroes in every class and still been our school’s valedictorian.

So, pretty smart.

But it can be a bit lonely in this place, as I am beginning to find out. And now I feel bad for Rick. At least we had someone to cuddle with at night. Someone who we loved was right there with us. That personal connection is a huge thing when you are not sure what tomorrow is going to end up bringing to you.

Cabin fever though, it’s a real thing. I was beginning to wonder if it was the last stage of the Earth trying to kill us.

Rick wanted to go out. To see if he could find any survivors. To see if anything of the old world still remained. Maybe it was the cabin fever. Maybe it was that he needed to know what happened outside our four walls. Mostly I think that he needed to either find someone for himself or die trying.

I begged him to stay put. We all told him that there was nothing left for any of us. That the world out there was the past and we just needed to deal. But he wasn’t listening anymore. He waited until we were asleep and left.

I…

God…

Sorry, I don’t mean to break down on you like this. I’m supposed to be giving an account, but I never realized how much I would miss him. It’s been three years since he walked out the door. I really do hope he found someone else out there. That he is with the love of his life doing all sorts of naughty things that you are supposed to do when the world ends.

That’s what I hope for him.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 23, 2019.

Kelly and Daniel. I wanted to say a little bit about them, but I’m not entirely sure how to frame it. They were Ian and my friends.

Well our couple friends.

You know the kind that you can do everything together and not get bored. But you never are on your own with one of them. Ian called it playing two on two defense. That’s the only way it could work. Otherwise, it becomes one of them bitching about the other, and you’re stuck in the middle.

I mean, how many times can you tell me about some horrible slight Daniel has done to you and me telling you to break up with him and you not doing it has to happen before I stop hanging out with you altogether?

We had reached that point before the world went to shit. And after two years’ worth of it, the whole time Kelly wanted out of the relationship. I mean, you’re stuck with this guy you now hate. You could see it with the two of them after about six months. They no longer cuddled at night. Soon he was sleeping on one side of the bunker and her on the other.

I thought that might be the opening for Rick to make his move out of the friend zone, but it wasn’t. Thought Daniel might have killed him if he had tried, so I didn’t push it.

But when it was just the four of us… it got to be too much.

I wish I knew when it really turned. What was the last step that pushed them over the edge? Was it this idea of their not being anyone else out there for them? Was it Ian and me, still happy, not sharing in their misery?

I wish I knew. I might have been able to stop what had happened.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 28, 2019.

I awoke to Kelly standing over Daniel with the knife in her hand. He was gurgling on his own blood, and she had the spray all over the front of her shirt. Her eyes were glazed over, like someone who couldn’t see anything anymore.

And that smile…

Her smile.

I sometimes see it when I dream.

Ian did his best to approach her. He talked to her in that calming voice he has. A voice that would say everything was going to be all right if only she would give him the knife.

For a second, maybe not even that long, I saw something in her eyes. The glaze melted away, and she saw the knife, and she saw Daniel, and the smile didn’t leave her face.

Madness.

I don’t blame Ian for what he did. She went at me with the knife, and he stopped her. He stopped her the only way he knew how.

When it was finished, we clutched each other, just the two of us in this place.

I don’t know what terrified me more… Kelly’s actions or Ian and I being there by ourselves.

End log.

Begin log. Sarah Knotts. May 29, 2019.

I’m at the end of things now.

The food has nearly run out. It was a good run. I can’t complain about that. Ian really did me right on that accord. Almost makes me…

No, I told myself that I would be strong about this. I’ve collected every spare bit of whatever I have around here. I don’t know if I’ll need it. Maybe the problem with being a pack rat is that even now, of all times, I can’t let the old shit go. My bags are packed. I’m ready to step outside, for whatever that is worth. I may not last five minutes out there. There’s actually no way to know what a person might encounter out there. It literally could be anything.

Anything.

That’s a difficult thing to prepare for. What was it last year? It all runs together these days. Plague I think. Some unknown horror left behind by the CDC or some terrorist organization?

It makes a girl wonder if maybe the Earth is trying to tell us something. Dad had an old stereo, which actually could play albums. Yes, even long after the days of cds and then mp3s he loved that thing. More than that, he’d go out and get these great comedy records.

Pryor, Murphy, and Carlin.

George Carlin had a whole routine about maybe the Earth invented AIDS in order to wipe the humans out. Now, I’m pretty sure he was joking with that one, being a comedian and all. Then again, when you have one extinction level event and you survive… maybe he was onto something. Maybe, just maybe, the world is tired of us and now wants to weed out the undeserving.

So what do you call it when you’ve survived five of them?

The air may be on fire out there. There could be an asteroid streaking towards us right now, and I wouldn’t know. I’d be stuck in this fucking box, staring at the empty shelves, dingy furniture mocking me from the corner, the entire world would incinerate, and you know what…

I’d probably survive that as well.

Only the strongest survive? I got news for you; I’m not all that strong.

Or maybe I don’t care about surviving anymore.

End log.

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I Feel Fine appears in the Machina Obscurum Anthology and can be found here.