EPISODE 6 - STATE OF THE SAGA //AUTUMN 2022 (part 1)

Today we’re celebrating the release of Hate Not The Night, a mixed-media serialized novella from the world of Spell Saga! We’re also going to discuss my recent concussion, & how it’s changed my life (& our plans) for the better!

Hello! I’m Concussion Evangelist Todd Michael Rogers. I am writing to you just past the ragweed curtains of September. This means—In the world of Spell Saga—them secretive bastards of The Autumn Guard should be halfway finished with their dominion over the year. “May their season find them wanting” (as more than a few minstrels have whispered). A LOT has happened since the launch. Much of it being ill news, I’m afraid. 

Fuck this year. Fuck all of it. Except of course for the good bits (which, if I’m being honest, have somehow made it one of the happiest of my life). Harmony & Discord: the twin engines of our time upon this planet.

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But never mind that! We’re here to celebrate the long-awaited release of Hate Not The Night! Constant readers may remember that this is the first of our “Librettos”, a mixed-media serialized novella that takes the best part of a screenplay, comic book, RPG dialogue box & good-ole fashioned prose novella, & mixes them up into a new dreamlike reading experience. 

Honestly, the reason I chose to write the story in this manner was because I thought it would be faster than crafting traditional literature. WHAT A FOOL I WAS. This shit took MONTHS…thought I will say, it was mostly because I had to create something new, and that always takes time. I now have the understanding, .PSD templates  & knowhow to knock the next bits out MUCH quicker.

But what is the story about, you might ask? Well…I have this character. Honestly he’s been around a lot longer than Spell Saga. I started writing bits & pieces about him around 2006. Back then his name was Merrick DeMortuis, & he was a Monster Hunter. Eventually he made his way into the world of our game & became tangled up in the plots of many different stories…his name had changed by then, as more of his purpose & personality were shown to me. He became a Silencer named Lyric, a terribly powerful bounty hunter who tracks down rogue Minstrels for The Weather Guard. Every good story has a scary, lovable berserker with a hidden heart of gold, someone who just wants to know their past or is busy running from it. And we, the audience, love to delve into those mysteries and connect who someone is to who they might have once been. It’s a reverse redemption arc. …But, me being me, and Spell Saga being Spell Saga…I wanted to do it out of order.

So this is the beginning Lyric’s story. It’s 3 Libretto’s with 5 parts each, and by the time that 15th piece is released…you’ll have met Lyric in several other forms. He makes a wonderful appearance in the upcoming serialized novel ‘Title Redacted”...which takes place (I think) about 100 years down the road.

In thinking about writing this letter to you, I realized what I’m writing about with Hate Not The Night is childhood. Mine, specifically, just…warped through the lens of Spell Saga…which (believe it or not) I feel I often have little control over. For me, all this shit is real. It happened somewhere else, a long time ago. And it’s happening now, and I can see what happens in the future, too. I care a great deal about it. I hope you will too. 

This release (Libretto 1.1) is about 40 pages. Much grander than the 15-20 I had planned for. My editor on this project was my wife, Meagen Crawford. She’s been very supportive of Spell Saga for the last decade, but does not quite “get it” as a game or story. But when she finished reading the first draft, she kept hugging me. Which I think says more than I ever could about it.

Part 1.1 is linked BELOW for you to read & enjoy. Part 1.2  will follow soon enough, but for those of you wondering about my recent injury, and how it’s affected the game going forward I MORE than encourage you to read on…

READ HATE NOT THE NIGHT 1.1 !!!!!

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Where have I been? What happened? How has it affected Spell Saga? Am I really a model?

The concussion lasted for weeks. I felt alone and confused, just haunted by the edge of myself; as if my identity was only waiting in the wings of my consciousness. In that time, I found other versions of myself, waiting to be noticed. I became better at music. A miracle. I had to sit down and reteach myself how to draw. It took a month to get back to “good enough” once more. But it was the planning, the hopes and dreams…that was the biggest blow to my eroded thinking. 

The concussion changed everything. I’d spent the last two years planning out what Spell Saga 2nd Edition could be--even more time researching & crafting a solid framework for accomplishing my goals (a document called Paper Engine, if you recall). But progress and direction was lost when my kid slammed into the side of my head with enough force to kill a small animal.

I apologize for the silence of my correspondence. I would like to say it was the same for me, that communication with myself was the barrier keeping me away for so long. But the truth is in fact the opposite. For the void created by the loss of myself was filled with a roaring torrent of clairvoyance. My thoughts have never been quicker; my vision never so clear.

The debris of wishful thinking must be burned to the ground. The success of anything must be rooted in fact. 

Everything I planned for 2nd Edition is still happening--I’ve just found better ways to go about it. Here are the actions I’ve taken to ensure that our shared dream of this fantasy world become a reality: 

-Everything that doesn't happen is my fault. I don’t finish things. I spend too much time planning, and I jump from project to project. I assume that I deserve money, fame & respect because I don’t want to deal with the truth--that everything that doesn't pan out is my fault. And with that painful knowledge comes another truth: Everything that happens is in my control. My perception is the only difference.

-I don’t bring it up a lot, but the truth is (and I’d like to be careful with the language here) I’ve been living most of my adult life somewhat disabled by my health. It was not uncommon for me to be too sick to work, or be stuck on the couch three-to-five hours every night, & then sleep in toward noon (Not a good look for someone’s Dad). Almost everything I did was based on a history of self-medicating my neurodiversity. But that’s not the life of a successful person. I don’t deserve any accolades or funding for just…surviving. So I changed.

My entire diet is now based on anti-inflammatory principles. I have more energy than ever before--and the pain in my body is gone. I got to sleep early, and I don’t allow myself more than 7 hours in bed. I also started working morning shifts so that I can get anywhere from 30 to 40 hours of art time in a week. (The peace of mind this brings has led to a clarity I have never before experienced. Which brings us to:

-I created several documents to help me reach my goals a lot quicker. The first was based on a dream I had a few months ago involving a system for writing fiction quicker. The biggest issue I have when it comes to writing stories is the same as anyone else: I get in the way. I second guess myself and double-back without moving forward. I re-edit everything until I’ve lost all sense of enjoyment or purpose with the work. I SAY TO YOU, NO LONGER! In the very midst of my concussed mind, the destruction of my thoughts led to my salvation: a system of writing I call The Four Elements. I’m going to break the actual system down in a future post (I think I did give some examples in the last podcast), but suffice it to say: this shit has saved my life. I used it extensively while knocking out Hate Not The Night--a project that I wrote (and rewrote!) in two weeks, after attempting to work my way through it for about half a year. The concussion nearly destroyed me, but without it, The Four Elements would not exist. And I would have gladly taken a second or third hit to ensure its procurement.

The second document is perhaps even more invaluable. I’m calling it Guidelines for Sailing. It has been a game-changer for me. Not only with Spell Saga, but for all my other projects too! You may recall that I spent the pandemic creating a massive document called Paper Engine--a linear guide to create a successful project. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this wasn’t enough. In fact, it was fairly useless without a simple piece of understanding: 

Every project has several goals. Each of these goals must be connected. Certain goals must be started or reached before the others, and their sequence  might (often must) change over time.

And I’ve really gotta thank the new diet and sleep schedule, or else my unbroken brain might never have seen this, or come up with the solution. And I will say, that without being hyperbolic or feigning any spark of drama, that Guidelines for Sailing has saved my life. That Spell Saga, and every other project cannot or would not ever have survived without it. If there’s enough interest, I’ll go over it in a future post.

But all that is to say: I am back. Things have changed. They have done so for the better. In terms of what things look like going forward…that’s another post. For now, please enjoy the first installment of HATE NOT THE NIGHT!

SERIOUSLY! READ HATE NOT THE NIGHT 1.1 !!!

-mE!