Newsletter

Hi everyone,

When we're very young, every step is an adventure. Every horizon a mysterious frontier. We all set off on that adventure, one way or another. But it’s always stranger and more dangerous than we expect. The Italian poet Dante knew this, lost at age thirty five in his selva oscura, his dark wood, that opened up into Inferno. Likewise the makers of the video game Elden Ring, a punishing but sublimely rewarding dark fantasy, whose most apt quote is the one players hurl at the screen with endless variations: STOP BLOODY PUNISHING ME.

I'm so happy to kick off the Project Tempest Podcast's second season with two people finding their own paths through the dark wood. Nick Jones & Bonnie Harris-Lowe each bring compelling, different perspectives to the question of what it means to be a creator in the world. And they feel quite differently about Elden Ring...

Also this update: we're nominated for the Sir Julius Vogel awards, and the Two Strange Girls novella is 50% off on Smashwords now. If you choose to leave a review of any Project Tempest release, or like and subscribe to the podcast on your favourite service, this really helps us out. Thank you!

PODCAST CONVERSATIONS

The Project Tempest podcast is where we talk with creators about their journeys, struggles, and inspirations.

Nick Jones is a narrative designer and transmedia storyteller, author of the new book The Player and the Pentacle: Folkloric Motifs for Narrative Design, which explores how the folklore of our ancestors can strengthen modern storymaking. This fascinating conversation takes us from Nick's evangelical/pentecostal upbringing through struggles with identity and professional pathways, to chasing the transcendence and creative responsibility of becoming the hero of your own story.

>>> Listen to the conversation with Nick Jones
>>> Subscribe to the Project Tempest podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or directly on Captivate. If you enjoy it please consider rating it 5 stars.

Bonnie Harris-Lowe is a game designer and writer for Wildseed games, who are working on a genre bending video game set in a sci-fi-fantasy world, inspired by Eastern martial arts and culture, hip hop, and Afrofuturism. This conversation is about breaking the mold: taking influences ranging from Janelle Monae's Dirty Computer to The Legend of Zelda to N.K. Jemisin's How Long 'til Black Future Month? and forging a distinctive place in creative industries still struggling to include all humans.

>>> Listen to the conversation with Bonnie Harris-Lowe
>>> Subscribe to the Project Tempest podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or directly on Captivate. If you enjoy it please consider rating it 5 stars.

TWO STRANGE GIRLS SPECIAL

A turbulent friendship falls apart amid secrets, betrayal, and horror.

Tempest Bay, 1910. A south seas smuggling town where misfits of all kinds live with vivid intensity. Marjorie Morton and Constance Pream are smart and strange and gloriously difficult. But when a storm brings a distress call from the ocean deep, terrors emerge to threaten everything they love.

Get 50% off your copy at Smashwords now.

FINALLY...

The Project Tempest Podcast is up for a Sir Julius Vogel award, for Best Professional Production/Publication. We'll see how that goes!

It is a great signal of how much the podcast has grown, how generous our guests have been with their time, and how hard Prea and Kearin have worked to bring it all together. I'm really proud of what we're building here.

Let me know what you'd like to see more of in these newsletters, and thank you for being part of Project Tempest with us.

Cheers

C J Halbard