I’m back with a new video game poem at Sidequest.  This one is based on a somewhat obscure RPG for the SEGA Saturn called Shining the Holy Ark.  Really, it’s intended to capture the feeling of completing RPGs in general.  And I’m not going to lie, as I was writing “Restoring Order to a World Hooked on Strangeness,” I was thinking a lot about what life will be—is?—would be?—like emerging from the COVID pandemic. 

By the way, I also have an essay due out soon at Sidequest about writing video game poetry, as I really enjoy the topic and find it an underutilized source of inspiration for poets.  The essay will come out in two parts.

Sweet!  My 100-word story “When You Wake, You’ll Have Cake” just won Rune Bear’s Summer 2021 Quarterly Contest!  The theme was Inner Worlds.  This little drabble was inspired by lyrics in a lullaby book I read to one of my sons when he was younger.  We’d gotten the book from the library, and I remember wishing I knew the melodies to more of the lullabies so I could sing them to him.  Instead, I tried to make the most of enthusiastic recitations, and he was a patient, willing audience. 

By the way, if you’re craving more strangeness in a sugary setting, my friend Maggie Slater’s new story, “Candyland,” just came out today in Apex Magazine!