Scrambling to catch up after a very busy week! The upside is I have more things to talk about!

I met with a couple of friends over the course of last week to talk about art, video games, writing, etc. First was Mx. Dietrich Squinkifer, who came over for tea and conversation. We chatted a lot about indie games, which I would like to explore in further detail. Many of these games contain a great deal of text, and I’ve been curious about either creating a text-based game, or writing the text for a different sort of experience.

They showed me Inky, and after following a brief tutorial, I’ve started writing an erotic dating game. I’ve already got the appearance of two of the potential partners, and I’m making it less of a Choose Your Own Stud and more of an interactive experience that begins in a bar, and as you go along you meet people that fate has set along your path.

(I’ve also tinkered with music in BoscaCeoil, and it sure feels fun to play with sounds again! Thanks, Squinky!)

Then I had coffee with Christina la Catastrophe, who I first met at February’s Confabulation. Her story of love included a face dildo, which earned a surprised bark of laughter from me. I’d followed her on instagram (@unbeknownst.to.u) and saw posts about her zines, so I messaged her after months of waiting and asked about them.

She brought several examples and told me a bit about her creative process, and how it has differed from zine to zine. I admired the photography and construction; one of them is made entirely of sexy images taken with a Game Boy Camera. Play, indeed.

This conversation linked with the interactive erotic encounters, and my desire to put together a bedroom book, and spat out a titillating idea…

Erotic zines. A couple pieces of hot fiction, a poem or two, maybe an essay… I can flex my creative muscles on something other than a main project (which honestly becomes a bit of a slog at various points throughout; I could use the distraction!) while expressing some of my thoughts about sex and masculinity and the queer world I live in. I’ll carry them around with me to events, sell them for whatever someone is willing to give, and make the world a sexier place. I’ve already put together a rough draft of a few things, this idea is so much fun to run with!