Happy Holidays to all. A few things.
Black Friday Sale. If I’ve configured my publisher settings correctly, both editions and all formats of Babylon On Which Fame and Jubilation Are Bestowed should automatically go on sale at DriveThruRPG when their Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale starts on Thursday morning. If you’ve been waiting to pick up the book at a discount, this is the lowest the price ever dips — mostly because I endeavor to remain blissfully unaware of commerce the rest of the year.
Thank you Anniceris. Many thanks to Anniceris for the detailed write-up about BJFB on their blog. I have no idea how difficult the quasi-academic diction and syntax of BFJB are for nonnative English readers, but as regards their blog post, thank god for browser-integrated translation functions — it’s been a long time since high school French. Also, with respect to international interest in BJFB, I am perpetually disappointed at the cost of shipping the POD version to some regions. While I feel that BJFB is best experienced in print, I can understand that it is far cheaper as a PDF, and easier to translate to boot.
Book(s) Recommendation. I’ve spent the last three months devouring Victoria Goddard’s fantasy oeuvre. I read a lot of novels throughout the year (on track to pass 70 in 2023), but Goddard’s work is truly superlative. Moreover, Goddard self-publishes all of her books. I’ve often felt that the best novels make us better people — and there is so much wit, humanity, and social conscience on display in a book like Hands of the Emperor — this is one of the rare times when I will publicly recommend something, and do so without reservation. Alexandra Rowland (writing for Tor.com) wrote a far more detailed recommendation in 2021, and I would encourage you to check that out if you’re still on the fence:
I don’t cry at books, as a rule, but The Hands of the Emperor made me absolutely weep at more than a dozen different scenes — proper weeping, with tears and snot pouring down my face so profusely that I had trouble breathing. Not because anything shocking or tragic or hurtful happened; these were tears of pure gratitude, joy, catharsis, release, compassion.
My experience exactly.
Ex studio. I’m working on something — but then I’m generally always working on something. It’s probably not what you think. If it is what-you-think, then we should talk, because you are either psychic, from the future, or have a pretty sophisticated surveillance operation. In all of those cases, you are probably someone to whom I should talk.
Q&A. I deliberately have no social media presence, for many reasons, but primarily because I like my privacy and abhor advertisement and engagement farming. That said, I am never adverse to answering questions about BFJB, and would point those interested to the email form on this site. As in the past, I generally don’t publish those questions or my answers, and in the rare case that I do, I will always ask permission of the sender.
See you in 2024.
Šukāmu Press 