January 31, 2026

Years ago, when my oldest took a class in game design, I helped him with his final project. Specifically, the project was a board game that needed to demonstrate the essentials of theme, mechanics, and playability. We decided early on that we wanted a cyberpunk-themed game, complete with mohawks, cybernetic implants, and ninjas (of course).

Our style of game would be a combination of action/adventure and exploration. The way you would win would be in the vein of victory rush games that rely on completing challenges and meeting objectives in this dark, futuristic, and often sarcastic world.

(One note, I’ve put some cyberpunk artwork throughout this post. This art is part of my general mood board, but they are not official concept art for my game. They are just a way to show you something of what I’m going for visually. I’ve noted the artist where possible.)

We were able to put together the very basics of just such a game, though it wasn’t enough to fully play. We had a lot of fun with the development, though. In the process of putting it together, it occurred to us that we had hit onto something with it. I started developing it further (even after he got an A+ on the project), seeking to create a fully playable game.

Then the pandemic hit. While I did do some development and limited playtesting of it in fits and starts during that time, getting people together to play it became problematic for obvious reasons. Little by little, I was getting the game to a state where others might enjoy it. I’m happy to say that in the last two weeks, we’ve moved a few dozen parsecs toward that goal.

Last week, I traveled up to Waterloo in Iowa to visit a group of friends who are some of the biggest board game fans I’ve ever encountered. Among them is my friend R.J. The two of us used to work together many years ago at Score Entertainment. If you ever ripped open a booster pack of the Dragon Ball Z, Dragon Ball GT, Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, Yu-Yu Hakusho, or InuYasha collectible card games back in the day, that’s the company I’m talking about.

R.J. and I sat for several hours during this trip going over the instruction manual I’d put together line by line, tweaking and refining the language for clarity and playability. Then we put the game to the test, seeing how it would hold up. The two of us played multiple two-player games in which R.J. won every single one. In fact, of all the games I played during that week, I didn’t win a single one of them! One was close, however, so close that it came down to a single die roll, and the deciding roll was failed by only a single pip. (I needed a three or better on a D6, and rolled a two.) So close!

While this track record might normally be cause for concern — in that the folks in Iowa were better at the game I created than I was — it just reinforced that I had come to the right place to put this game through its paces. It also meant that the gamers in residence were picking it up fast enough they could immediately get up to speed and start knocking it out of the park.

There were some really tense and cinematic moments. One in particular involved a hacker, a cyborg, a ton of security turrets, the game equivalent of a nasty UNO Reverse card, and the timeliest of timely sixes showing up on a D6 roll. This is what I had been hoping to see — people enjoying the game I created, and let me tell you there’s almost nothing like it.

This was the eponymous Battle of Waterloo, and it was glorious. This battle was not one of cannon and soldiers but mechanics and user experience. Far from a historic defeat, I came away with pages of notes and tweaks for the next iteration of the game. While I still need to address a few things and give some playable characters a much-needed shot in the arm to balance things out, this trip told me that I was actually closer to a releasable game than I could have hoped. I’d say we are approximately 80% of the way there at present.

With all that in mind, I plan to start putting things in order to run a crowdfunding campaign, likely on Kickstarter, for this game next year. It will be the first board game under the Sector M Games banner. There are many things that might affect this timeline, but I will start seeking estimates on what it would take to get this game off the ground and into the hands of players who might want it.

I also plan on doing a periodic developer’s diary on my Patreon in the lead-up to the crowdfunding effort, as well as some reveals (including the name and other good stuff), so if you would like to check that out, give it a look. My Patreon can be found at:

Patreon.com/c/TheSectorM

In the meantime, I have a ton of notes to go through and calibrations to make. I would like to give a personal and heartfelt thank you to those who were a part of the Battle of Waterloo. They are: R.J., Caroline, Justin, Mophat, Andrew, Holly, Britt, and Ace. Additionally, I’d like to thank the Dallas-based playtesters that helped get me this far. They include: Travis, Dave, James and Rob. All of you are getting special shoutouts in the acknowledgements section when this game comes out. 

Definitely watch this space as more information becomes available. In the meantime, I’ve put together a 1-hour playlist on YouTube for your cyberpunk listening pleasure. Give it a listen! And if you have suggestions for what else should go on it, send recommendations my way.

As I said before, the Battle of Waterloo, or at least my version of it, was a success in my book. And unlike Napoleon, my Waterloo is not an end but a beginning. I can’t wait to show you all what I’ve been working on!

Thanks for reading!

Here’s a fact about yours truly you may not know: My writing career began at a metropolitan newspaper … as an obituary writer. I was 18, just starting out in college, and was recruited by the instructor of my Mass Communications class.

I stayed at this job for more than three years while I went to school. Once I graduated, I went into the world of marketing and advertising, where I have largely remained. Well, at my day job recently, I wrote an obituary for a prior employee who had passed away. For a moment, I dusted off that skillset of where I started out as a writer. It was a sad duty, but one I accepted, for reasons that I will get into later in this post.

While this was all on my mind, I wanted to put down in words some of the things I learned in this early role, why I ultimately left it, and why I think that obituaries and funeral services, in general, are important.

Life and Death in the Obit Department

For the most part, I was just a writer at a desk, working on a computer like everyone else, but there were additional elements that made the job emotionally challenging. We had a random number of obituaries that would come in each day, and this job taught me about deadlines. Do whatever you need to do, just make sure your copy is in by 3:00.

We would verify all the elements of an obituary with the funeral home, often just the spelling of a name that looked off, or a birthday if the one listed on the intake form didn’t match up, things like that. Most of the time, we would just call up the funeral home and speak to one of their representatives, but sometimes we would need to contact the family.

Understand that these were people who had lost a loved one a day or two prior to this call, or even that same day. They were often confused, angry and still trying to wrap their head around their loss, so we had to be very gentle with them. While we had to remain professional, everyone understood that a dose of empathy and understanding could go a long way.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part was when they would show up to the office to deliver a photo of their loved one. They might even look fine and composed when they walked through the door. It was the moment that they handed the photo over that they almost always started crying. That act was what brought the realization of their grief to the forefront for them. It made the loss real. We had a special side room with a box of tissues and two chairs to give them space to compose themselves. I must’ve seen this scene play out dozens of times during my tenure there.

It wasn’t all bad, however. Because we dealt with dozens of names per day, there were times we started to see emerging trends in when a person was born and the theme of their name. For instance, from about 1908 to the early 1920s, it became popular to name girls after precious stones. Pearl, Emerald, Opal, and so forth. My great-grandmother, who was born in 1911, was named Ruby.

We also determined that the average age of the incoming obituaries was around 77, which was skewed every once in a while by a younger person, usually a teenager, who tragically died in a car wreck or a similar accident.

Of course there were exceptions.  

Why I Stopped

Much of what I learned about journalism in those early days drove home the idea of professional detachment, of learning and reporting the facts without getting too close as that might harm your objectivity. That wasn’t always easy when you were dealing with grieving families on a daily basis. Even when they would sometimes call up the office and yell and scream at us for getting something wrong (whether it was actually wrong or not), I knew that was just their grief talking. I still had a job to do, and I couldn’t get too wrapped up in any one case or else I simply wouldn’t be able to function in that space.

As the saying goes, it was bound to happen, and one day it did. I received an obituary for an eight-year-old boy. Any time I received an obit in my queue that was in the single digits, it warranted a second look, just to make sure that neither the family nor the funeral home had left out a digit.

This one came with the photo, an Olan Mills portrait of the kid. And let me tell you, this photo was so good that it looked like one that might come with a wallet or a blank picture frame. He had a big smile on his face like he was about to burst out laughing, a smile that was reflected in his eyes. He just looked so full of life. I was immediately saddened just by seeing this boy who should’ve still been alive, but wasn’t. My professional detachment took a major hit. All through the day, I was haunted by the thought of this boy. Often, the cause of death wasn’t reported to us, so I never found out what had taken him.

As I worked through this obituary, I found that there was some inconsistency in the information that was provided. For the life of me, I don’t remember what it was, perhaps a family member’s name that looked misspelled or a mismatch between the day of the week for services and the day of the month. I called the funeral home, but no one picked up. Standard procedure was to then call the family. This boy had lived with his family in Alaska, so I dialed the number.

This was long enough ago that folks still had answering machines. Well, guess whose voice greeted me, inviting me to leave my name and number after the beep? I sat there at my desk, looking down at his photo while that boy’s voice spoke to me on the phone, and his voice exactly matched his photo. My detachment shattered at that point. I can’t remember now if I even left a message. I likely did, but it was suddenly my turn to use the side room to try to compose myself.

I never looked at the job the same way again. Sometimes in the hustle to meet deadlines, the names and dates and associations all blurred together. Sometimes you stopped seeing them as people and viewed them as just line items on a list, as tasks that needed to be completed. This little boy stopped me in my tracks, giving me a sharp reminder that each name was attached to a family that was morning their loss. But how could something as simple as an obituary encapsulate the fullness and nuance of someone’s life? The truth was it couldn’t.

It wouldn’t.

It shouldn’t. 

I limped along in this job for another few months, but I knew I was done. I went to work for a local phone company, and while there were a few opportunities for me to come back to the obit department along the way, I never did.   

Why They Are Important

Obituaries may be a flawed and limited way to mark someone’s passing, but time and reflection have changed my attitudes toward them. The same goes with funerals and memorial services. They are sad affairs, of course, but they help us frame the loss in our minds when everything seems in chaos. They are a necessary step to help us mourn and begin to heal.

When I said earlier that I hadn’t written an obituary in a while, that wasn’t precisely true. What I meant was a formal obituary, one where I didn’t know the individual personally. The fact is that I have been writing obituaries of a kind right here on this blog, though they are a far cry from what I did at the newspaper. In these, my detachment had completely gone out the airlock, and rightfully so. These were people that I loved, that I still love, whose loss devastated me, and I still wrestle with their loss. (You can find them here, here, and here.)

Obituaries, like funerals, are for the living. While they can help us get back on the proverbial horse, they have another function, one that I think is the most important: It’s how we remember them. When someone is gone, that’s one of the greatest honors that one human can do for another — simply to remember them fondly.

A Note On Empathy

Of course, I couldn’t let a heavy topic like this go by without some sort of geeky reference, so here it is. In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf was an angelic being known as a maiar.Other powerful figures in the story, such as Saruman and Sauron, were part of this same group. Each of the maiar were at some point apprenticed to one of the valar, much more powerful beings that were effectively gods. In Gandalf’s case, he had served Nienna, the vala whose portfolio was grief and sadness. She continually wept for all the pain in Arda, even for things that had not yet come to pass. It’s thought that the reason Gandalf understood empathy and pity so well was because of this affiliation.

With that in mind, I’m a big proponent of the adage that we should always be kind to people because we never know what war they’re secretly fighting that we know nothing about. Our friends, our family, our co-workers may be going through some seriously emotional stuff, and we may never be aware of it. Perhaps a small kindness from you is what helps someone who is struggling to get through their day. Having been in various states of mourning for more than a year now, I know this to be true.

Yes, it’s easy to be cynical about this, especially with all that is going on around us, and it seems like it’s everyone for themselves. I’ve noticed a quote from Elon Musk that’s been floating around on Twitter these days. There are a few variations, but they all more or less come down to this:

“The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy.”

I’m not sure that I could disagree with this statement more. I think that it’s a lack of empathy that is the root cause of much of our suffering, and the overwhelming majority of our problems. Our worst vices, our inhumanity to each other, all stem from a lack of empathy. So, in a world where we could choose to have more or less of it, I would choose more every time.

I think that’s what makes us fundamentally human.

Thanks for reading.

My Fellow Sectorians,

If you read my last post of 2024, you’ll know that my creative victories for last year were fairly sparse, particularly on the literary side. Overall, it was a pretty mixed bag, though there were some real bright spots along the way. Let’s go ahead and discuss it all, the proverbial good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Bad News

I thought I would change it up and deliver the bad news first. So, let’s go ahead and get this out of the way.

A Swing and a Miss: Early in 2024, an interesting opportunity presented itself. One of the Big Four publishers was interested in one of my fantasy manuscripts. It was sent on submission and we waited…and waited. Months passed with no news, but publishing is not a game for the impatient. Finally, the editor in question simply stopped communicating with us. It’s frustrating, as it has taken years to get to this position only for the editor to essentially ghost us. But, there is actually a mark of distinction for an author in having a project ‘die on submission.’ It means that you almost got there, as the next step would have been a book deal. Next time, if I can just achieve one step higher, I should be on better ground. As is the case with publishing, it’s nothing until its something. Back to square one.

A Shifting Situation: In addition to the copious amounts of personal strife this year, I also changed jobs around mid-year, and it has both been one of the most difficult professional transitions of my career and quite unlike anything I’ve ever done. Between that and some other potential employment issues with my family, the stress and lack of mental bandwidth pulled me out of my regular writing schedule. I couldn’t find my way back to one until the middle of November (more on that below). So, as a result, I have very little to show on the fiction side of things. Almost every goal I made last year failed, and I’m not sure when I will be able to circle back around to them again. I made marginal progress on the sci-fi novella I mentioned in the last State of the Sector address, but even that eventually hit a brick wall. If there is good news, it’s that the holiday break has seen a renewed fire in my veins when it comes to my fictional stories. We will see how that fares now that my holiday break is over.

Sector M Store is Closing: I will be closing the Sector M store in February. I won’t delete it entirely in case there is ever a renewed need for it. Unfortunately, it requires a decent amount of maintenance and costs to keep it running, and sales of any Sector M merch have effectively flat-lined. So, I will renew all the designs that are currently available for the time being, but I plan on shutting it down on Saturday, February 1. So, if there are any designs that appeal to you, now would be a good time to seize upon them. You can find the Sector M store here.

Sector M Games’ Future Uncertain: This year, we published two titles on the DMs Guild, The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items and The Knights of Solamnia Revisited. Both have been well received by the community, and both were featured in the DMs Guild’s weekly newsletter. I did have a manuscript for a third installment for the DMs Guild, but it’s looking like that will need to be shelved for the foreseeable future. With so much uncertainty in my family’s situation, my disposable income (which I use to finance my game projects) just may not be available for some time to come. My philosophy for these supplements has always been to make them as good as possible, and I want to stick to that. So, I would much rather hold off on projects until they can be approached with high standards than try to rush something out. If anything changes on this front, I will make a special update post here on the blog to let everyone know.

Wavering Blog Deadlines: As a writer, I like to meet my deadlines consistently. My track record with 2024’s blog posts were…troubled, particularly as the year wore on. I still delivered all twelve as intended, but I found myself having to adjust publication dates, sometimes by a few weeks to fully deliver them. I will attempt to be more consistent in 2025, though many of the same factors that caused those delays are still in play. For this next year, here are my target dates for new blogs each month. Of course, there could be some wiggle room, but here’s the schedule I’m going with right now:

• January 17
• February 21
• March 21
• April 18
• May 16
• June 20
• July 18
• August 15
• September 19
• October 17
• November 21
• December 19

The Good News

Okay, I know that was a lot in the way of bad news. Trust me, if it was difficult for you to get through, it was equally hard for me to write. It’s not every year that the wheels just come right off of almost everything. In light of all the things that went wrong or just didn’t materialize this year, it makes the bright spots shine all the brighter.

The Blog’s Best Months: Traffic on this blog has definitely picked up in the last couple of years. I’m now getting traffic in a week that might have taken a month or two before that. I think part of it is regular updates, in my case at least once a month. I’ve had this blog since May of 2013, and as far as I can tell, October, November, and December of this year were the three top months it has ever had. I know that many blogs tend to specialize and be mainly about one thing. This blog is a sort of potpourri of museums and history, nerdy/geeky stuff, writing topics, and just the odd things running through my mind. Thank you for coming back and checking it out. If you are a regular here, I strongly encourage you to follow this blog so you don’t miss a post. (There should be a pop-up when you visit that you can click on to do this.)

DMs Guild Releases: As I stated above, we released two titles on the DMs Guild in 2024, one in January and the other in November. The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items is the more expansive of the two, and it is available as either a downloadable PDF or as a hardcopy format (if you get the hardcopy, you also get the PDF version for free). The other title, The Knights of Solamnia Revisited, is for fans of Dragonlance, and it’s only available as a PDF. I do intend to follow up on both of them with some FAQ and example PDFs that will be available as a free download. That is in the works, though I’m not sure at the time of this writing when they will be ready for release. In any case, if you haven’t picked up a copy of either/both titles, check them out. I’m proud of how they turned out.

An Unexpected Wizard Story: As is often the case, when I’m deep into writing another story, I invariably have intrusive ideas for other stories. As I struggled (and ultimately failed) to maintain the thread of that sci-fi novella, I had an idea for a fantasy novella that followed up on the aftermath of one of my fantasy manuscripts. I finally resolved to start drafting it about the middle of November, and the story just came pouring out at the keyboard. My average number of words per hour more than doubled for each writing session, which tells me that I was truly dialed into it. Even with the holidays, which can be murder on a writing schedule, I’m happy to say that I finished the initial draft at 11:30 p.m. on December 31. So, if I accomplished nothing else on the fiction side in 2024, I was able to begin and end this novella, which clocked in at just under 27,000 words. Of course, it’s a hot mess right now, but one of my projects for January will be getting it into a readable state for my beta readers.

The Road Ahead

Normally, this would be the section where I would outline my goals and projects for the new year, but I am at something of a loss for the moment. I’ve finished the wizard novella, and I’m now at loose ends, at least at the time of this writing. Until I know more about how this year will unfold, and the possible ramifications it will have on my family, it’s difficult to make any long-term plans at this moment in time.

I have that partially completed sci-fi novella I could try to finish, or I could revisit the cyberpunk novel I have about two-thirds complete (both have a special place in my heart, even if I had to put them down). Or, I could try something completely new. I haven’t decided yet, though short-to-medium fiction has its appeal since there’s less time involved per project, usually between a couple of weeks and a couple of months. I wish I had a definitive answer, but the road ahead right now is too foggy for me to see.

Rest assured I will land on something. I scarcely want to have another year creatively like 2024 if I can help it. If 2024 has taught me one thing, it’s that we’re here for a shorter time than we think. I feel that I have barely scratched the surface of the stories I want to tell. If I’m going to make an honest go of it before my time is up, I need to stay focused.

So, it is my hope that if I can turn my situation around, I’ll be able to open the State of the Sector 2026 Address with the words: What a difference a year makes.

Until then, I wish you all a new year filled with the realization of dreams and solid metaphorical (as well as literal) ground beneath your feet.

See you around the Sector!

Si vales, valeo.

-MC

I mentally began the process of writing this blog in my living room when it was lit by just a fire in the fireplace and the lights of our Christmas tree. The combination of those two things turns what is an ordinary space that I see every day into a magical place, full of warmth and love and memory.

You see, there’s a poem in The Lord of the Rings that really resonates with me at this time of the year, especially as I get older. It’s the song that Bilbo sings to Frodo on the eve of the Fellowship leaving Rivendell: I Sit Beside the Fire and Think. Clamavi de Profundis (who I can’t say enough good things about) sang a version of this song as a farewell to Christopher Tolkien when he passed away a few years back. It’s well worth a listen, especially if you’d like to take the musical pulse of where I am I’m currently.

I’ve always thought of the holiday season as a time for self-reflection in addition to making merry. The world is dark and cold (or cold-er when it comes to Texas), the regular rules of work and life are temporarily suspended as we celebrate in defiance of winter. The New Year has not yet come. We don’t know what it has in store for us yet. We hope, we plan, and some make resolutions, but we don’t know how it will turn out. We sometimes wonder what our world will look like this time next year, though life is far too unpredictable for us to know for sure.

So, for my last blog post of 2024, I wanted to express some thoughts that have been rattling around in my head for a while now. I must warn you, however, if you were looking for a feel-good holiday post, this isn’t it. But, if you would like a glimpse into where I am right now emotionally and my state of mind, this is absolutely the post for you.

Still with me? Excellent — let’s get started.

The Year of Mourning

See, I warned you. This first one is a corker. While there were many bright spots to this year, including reconnecting in person with some old friends, making new connections, and getting to higher ground in numerous senses of the word, 2024 will be known to me as a year of loss. In 2024, I leave behind two pets, a cousin, my mentor, many of my illusions, and much of my faith in humanity.

Grief and pain have shadowed my steps for much of the year. I felt as though I had scarcely begun to deal with one crushing emotional blow when another would land. As I’ve said before, I obviously don’t have a monopoly on grief or pain. I know that this has been an incredibly difficult year for many people I know, and when you look at the wider world, it’s been one tragedy after another. So, I’m not trying to claim some special status for what I’m going through; I’m only trying to tell my little slice of the story.

At times like this, I had always looked forward to the New Year in the hope that it would be better. Unfortunately, that is not the case this time. While 2024 has been the Year of Mourning, 2025 is already the Year of Uncertainty.

But again, we make merry in defiance of the cold and dark. This year, I’m making merry in defiance of that uncertainty. It might turn out to be more in the style of an Irish wake, but if that’s the case, so be it.

Fellow-Passengers to the Grave

I recently had a discussion with some co-workers on our favorite Christmas movies. I may be in the minority, but I generally don’t have a single favorite anything. I have favorites, plural, but my tastes might change from day to day on my favorite song, TV show, movie, etc. Still, if I had to pick a lone favorite, it would almost certainly be A Muppet Christmas Carol.

While Dickens’ timeless tale has been retold countless times in various ways, we have an actor of the caliber of Michael Caine playing Ebeneezer Scrooge, and he plays the role absolutely straight. He speaks and reacts to all the Muppets around him as though they were fellow actors in the Royal Shakespearean Company, and it absolutely works. Watching it this year, as I do with pretty much all the classics, I was particularly moved by it.

Part of it is that A Christmas Carol did more in creating the holiday we know as Christmas than any other. Dickens practically redefined the holiday into what it is today through his prose. It’s one of the reasons why the Victorian era looms large when it comes to Christmas traditions, from Christmas trees (first introduced to England by Prince Albert) to carolers and even versions of what would become Santa Claus.

The other part of it is Gonzo’s delivery, in the guise of Dickens himself, of the famous line about “seeing other people as fellow-passengers to the grave.” Grief has a way of making you think of your own mortality. Sickness does as well, and how did yours truly start off his holiday break? By coming down with a particularly nasty case of strep throat, of course, which is only finally starting to subside. Strep can be fatal if left untreated, but thankfully it rarely is now with modern medicine. Plus, I got on it pretty early when it became clear that it wasn’t just seasonal allergies messing with me. I’ve been pretty lucky in that I don’t get seriously ill all that often.

If anything, this bout of illness has forced me to slow down and focus on my health more than I usually do. Thankfully, I have a decent break from work ahead of me to complete my recovery, but I missed a number of things in the meantime that I regret. Even still, I just crossed paths with a bacterial strain that might have ended my journey had I been born in another time, or even if the right medications were not readily available. That has a way of putting a lot of things into perspective.

What’s my takeaway from it? I’m grateful. Grateful for the fact that help and aid were available when I needed them, that I have the time and space to convalesce, but most importantly, I’m grateful for the people I have in my life. My family, my friends, my co-workers, my extended network — all of them. And if you’re reading this blog, dear reader, that now includes you. I’m grateful to be a passenger with you on this journey, even if we know that it will inevitably end.

The Pale Blue Dot     

This month marks 28 years since America lost one of its greatest minds: Carl Sagan. I’m firmly convinced that if more of us could see the world in the way that he did, we would all be better off. Yet, a mind and a perspective like his are sadly rare. Though the man himself is gone, he left behind an incredible body of work, including his famous “Pale Blue Dot” speech.

If you’ve never heard it, I’ll link it here. It is, in my opinion, one of the most poignant speeches ever given. It puts things in perspective in a way that I’ve never encountered before or since. One of the lines that really speaks to me is this one: “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.”

As I said earlier, I’ve lost much of my faith in humanity this year, and I’m not sure when, or even if, I will get that back. I hope I do, as I feel that I am a humanist at my core. The pronouncement that we, as a species, are in charge of saving ourselves, however, doesn’t sound all that comforting to me at the moment.

Deep in my geeky heart of hearts, I want humanity to achieve the kind of high-minded ideals that the Federation stands for in Star Trek. But I also realize that even in that continuity, humanity had to go through some pretty dark days before it finally got its act together and made the world a better place. Maybe that’s where we are now.

Maybe.

As he closes the speech, Sagan says, “To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”

Strangely, this sentiment also echoes the long-held and oft-quoted Christmas sentiment of “peace on Earth and good will towards men.” Lately, it seems we’ve had a lack of both of those things. To my fellow Earthlings, let’s do something about that, okay?

Gandalf’s Wisdom

This year, I introduced my young son to the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films. While he struggled with sitting through 3+ hour movies, he did enjoy them. He felt the emotional highs and lows just as I did. While the entire cast is famously, almost absurdly, talented, I really have to hand it to Sir Ian McKellan in his role as Gandalf the Grey/White. He really delivers on one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

Gandalf is one of the great mentor characters, up there with the best of the best, the likes of Merlin, Alpha Trion, Morpheus, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. As an immortal maiar, an angelic being, Gandalf has been around since before Middle-Earth existed. So, Gandalf is extremely old and wise. He’s also quick to give the protagonists under his care an inspiring quote just when they need it most.

Trust me when I say, that we all could use such a quote right about now to lift our spirits or show us the folly of our ways. But as Gandalf stubbornly stays in the realm of fiction, and most definitely not in the real world, we have to content ourselves with the various portrayals of him in the books and in adaptations of those books. I’m drawn to three quotes in particular. For LOTR fans, these may seem like low-hanging fruit, but they are three that live rent-free in my brain right now:

• Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened. Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

This one is pretty self-explanatory, and one of the most famous. The moment in the movie when Frodo stands on the banks of the Anduin, contemplating his plight, and he hears this quote again gets me every time.

• Gandalf: Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo’s hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death and judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends.

I think what calls to me about this quote stems from some of the deep-lore surrounding Gandalf himself. He was once a servant of Nienna, the Valar (one of the gods of Middle-Earth for those not familiar with the term) who understood sadness and grief in the most profound way. She mourned the destruction and sorrow that existed in the world, often before it had even happened. Because of this connection to grief, she was also a being who appreciated compassion and pity beyond all others. Gandalf is often cited as the wisest of the maiar. I suppose that is why I have always associated wisdom with compassion and empathy.

• Gandalf: Saruman believes that only great power can hold evil in check, but that is not what I have found. I’ve found it is the small things — the everyday deeds of ordinary folk — that keeps the darkness at bay, simple acts of kindness and love. Why Bilbo Baggins? Perhaps it’s because I’m afraid, and he gives me courage.

To some degree, I feel this speaks to my relationship with my son. He’s a deep thinker, and feels all the doubts and apprehensions that this implies. But, ultimately, he is an optimist, and sometimes surprises me with his insight that seems far beyond his short years. Even though I can at times feel hopeless, he gives me the courage to keep going.

Final Thoughts

It’s been a rough year for me all right, personally, professionally, and creatively. I am not looking forward to writing the State of the Sector Address for this year, simply because I had so many misses and so little to show for the past twelve months.

Despite the somber tone of this blog post, I don’t want to end it on a down note, truly. So, how do I strike a delicate balance between a meaningful Christmas message and the not-so-holly-jolly state of mind that I’m in now? Simple, I’ll refer you to Loreena McKennitt’s A Midwinter Night’s Dream album. Her versions of some well-known Christmas classics are introspective, even a little melancholic, without being depressing or nihilistic. And that’s pretty much me right now.

In particular, I would recommend The Holly and the Ivy, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Emmanuel, and Snow, though there is not a bad track on the whole album. Even if Christmas is not your thing, or even part of your belief system, they are beautiful expressions of music that I highly recommend.

And that’s where I will leave things for 2024. It’s a year that I’m glad to leave behind, but one you can be damned sure I won’t ever forget. It has left its mark on me. But as my father is so fond of saying, “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you really wanted.”

Despite my reticence to approach the State of the Sector Address this year, I will be moving forward with it, regardless. I know my delivery dates for blog posts have gotten a bit unpredictable of late, but my plan is to post it on the Friday of the first full week of January, so January 10. Watch for it then.

In the meantime, I wish all of you out there, along with your families and friends, a holiday season filled with light, joy, and hope.

Thanks for reading, and take care out there.

Since the pandemic ended, I’ve travelled quite a bit with my family. I’ve visited museums, historical sites, tourist attractions, landmarks, and a whole host of other things. I’ve found quaint little restaurants in out-of-the-way places, and connected with the places I’ve visited, sometimes on a very personal level. (See my previous blog on the specifics.)

As I’ve left many of these places, especially the ones that have had a profound effect on me, I always have to ask myself, “Will I ever return here?” The truth is that I don’t know. Travel is so dependent on having the money and the time all at once, and life is often filled with uncertainties.

But there’s something about the potential that you might, one day, be able to return to these places in the future. Some of them I can predict with a high degree of certainty, like the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas, the hometown of Fleet Admiral Chester Nimitz. That one is only a few hours away from where I live. The farther out the place is, however, the less certain I can be that I’ll get to go back.

Yet hope springs eternal, right? So, for this last blog post of the year, I thought I would share a few locations with you that I’ve visited in recent memory, places that I hope to return to at some point in my lifetime. With that in mind, let’s take a look.

National Museum of the Pacific War – Fredericksburg, Texas

This is the museum is the one I’ve visited the most, though the Perot Museum in downtown Dallas comes close. I’ve mentioned this museum a few times in previous blogs (here and here). It is a place that really hints at the enormous scope of the Pacific War and the lives that were affected on both sides. The museum itself, along with the Admiral Nimitz Museum and Japanese Peace Garden, make visiting this place sublime. As with all the entries on this list, I highly recommend visiting it if you have the chance.

Mystic Seaport/U.S.S. Nautilus – Mystic/Groton, Connecticut

I’m grouping these into one listing since they are relatively close to each other. A dear friend recommended a visit to Mystic Seaport if I was ever in the area. Back in October, I had a chance to visit it, and I wish I’d had much more time to explore it. I had no idea the scope of it all when I went there. There are so many buildings and mini-exhibits scattered across the grounds. The masthead gallery in particular was a wonderful surprise, along with the presentation in the small lighthouse. There’s so much to see, and I barely scratched the surface of it. I want to go back when I have more time to give it a more thorough exploration.

The U.S.S. Nautilus Museum in nearby Groton was, unfortunately, closed when I got there. I was at least able to snap this photo of it from a nearby parking lot. It will have to wait until the next time I’m up that way to see them both — one in more detail and the other for the first time.

Graceland – Memphis, Tennessee

I wrote a whole blog about my trip there and mentioned how I connected with in this blog here. While I was there, I didn’t get to see the King’s famous collection of gold records and concert jumpsuits. I feel like that’s part of the whole Elvis experience that you want when you go to Graceland.

But beyond just the glitz and gold, the Graceland mansion itself has a peaceful vibe to it that I can’t wait to experience again. I was glad to find that the official lyric music videos on Elvis’ official YouTube channel have some pretty high-fidelity shots of the interior of Graceland and the aforementioned jumpsuits, such as in “Burning Love” and “A Little Less Conversation” and many others.

In short, Hail to the King, baby.

The Field Museum – Chicago, Illinois

Another place I got to visit this year, this classically styled museum is definitely one that needs a more comprehensive visit. I was able to visit Sue, perhaps the most famous (and complete) T-Rex skeleton in the world. Bones are not enough to give us an idea of the full scope of the animal any more than a medical skeleton gives us the full picture of a living, breathing human. Still, even with just her bones, Sue is magnificent.

The gems and minerals on display here are some of the best examples on display anywhere. There were so many little nooks and crannies to find, including a multi-level Egyptian exhibit, a display of traditional Tibetan clothing and accoutrements, and even an exhibit on the first monarchs of Europe, starting all the way back in the Bronze Age. As much as I love museums (as evidenced by this list), the Field Museum felt like coming home. I have no idea when I’ll be able to return to Chicago, but the Field Museum will be at the top of my list when I do.  

U.S.S. Constitution Museum – Boston, Massachusetts

I have a special weakness for sailing ships. The Age of Sail is one that lives rent-free in my mind. So, it should come as no surprise that the U.S.S. Constitution has a special place in my heart. She was on the original ships that formed the United States Navy, and the only one of those six to have survived to the modern day. She never lost a battle, always at the center of every major conflict of her day. I have no doubts that Gene Roddenberry was influenced by her when he created the Enterprise for Star Trek, which was a Constitution-class starship.

As is often the case, my latest visit to her was all too brief. I was about a week shy of her 225th birthday. It looked as though her sails and part of her mast had been dismounted, but she was still a sight to behold, and a paradigm of excellence even for modern navies. I miss her already.

Final Thoughts

Understand, I spent a considerable amount of money in the gift shops of each of these locations. I like having souvenirs, but I also like knowing that I’m helping to support the places and causes that I believe in. I’m particularly fond of lapel pins and challenge coins, but magnets, T-shirts, and other swag are on my list as well.

To me, these things aren’t trivial merch; they’re a part of the memory, a piece of the place that I take with me to tide me over until the next time I can visit, if such a return visit is indeed in the cards.

Still, to quote Captain Kirk (who was quoting Spock), “There are always possibilities.” In each case, I’ve felt drawn to these places for a variety of reasons, ranging from historical curiosity to personal intrigue. Visiting them has only heightened my interest.

Travel has a way of changing you, of teaching you something about yourself. By going back to those places that really speak to us, there’s always the possibility that there’s more to learn and discover, and that, my friends, is the promise of return.

Thanks for reading! The annual State of the Sector Address will land here on January 5, so be sure to tune in then.

In the meantime, have a happy and safe holiday season!

My Fellow Sectorians,

It’s time to look back at the year of 2023 as well as look ahead to 2024. Right up front, I have to admit that 2023 was a creatively challenging year for me. There’s really no two ways about it — my day job started to infringe on my creative space in a big way for most of the early year.

I’m normally pretty good at keeping the two separate, but this time my work/life balance collapsed in its entirety. This continually compounded on itself,  putting me further and further behind on my goals.

I look back at the State of the Sector Address for 2023 and just sorta sigh. When you’re a creative, not every year is going to go your way, and 2023 went way off the rails. (And definitely not in a cool, Ozzy, Crazy Trains kind of way.)

So, while certain parts of this address will be a bit of a downer, I’ve tried to look at 2023 as an off-season, a year of preparation to put me into a better place for 2024. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how 2023 went for Sector M.

The Good News

The Artificer’s Guide to Magic Items: In a year with so many misses for me, this one landed, and is so much better than I could have hoped. I wrote about it in more detail here. While it took a bit to find a team that was capable and willing to take on a project like this, when it came together, boy howdy. I give full props to Gabby (the editor), Natalia (the designer), and Miguel (the artist). Each one of them brought their A-game and elevated the project above and beyond what I thought it could be. At the time of this writing, I am waiting for the final proof from the printer. If all is well when I get it, we’ll be ready to launch. UPDATE: The book is now available here. Enjoy!

Sector M Games: There is a new section to the Sector M website aptly titled “Sector M Games.” It has a listing for the Artificer’s Guide there now. As I add more game projects and titles, this will be the place to find them. I also created a dedicated Twitter/X handle: @TheSectorMGames. If you’re still on Twitter/X, please go give it a follow.

Baldur’s Gate 3: So, by June/July of 2023, I was starting to recover from months of stress and burnout, making slow progress back towards the light. Then I found Baldur’s Gate III, starting in early August, which I detailed here. While it’s true that I suddenly wanted to spend all hours saving the world next to Karlach, Shadowheart, and Minthara, it did actually help reignite some much-needed creative energies. For me, playing a game like that is almost meditative, acting like a freestyle association exercise for the mind in contemplating the genre it occupies.

Besides that, being able to immerse yourself in a world with so many well-developed characters, each with incredible dialogue, is a good way to jump-start your muse. Even though I’ve had multiple playthroughs at this point, my second one (an evil one), still lives rent-free in my head with its implications and repercussions. While BG3 didn’t necessarily help me reach my word-count goals, it did put me on a better trajectory once I was able to return to writing. And you know, I’ll take that as a win.

Blog Delivery: In spite of everything that happened, I was able to keep my blog schedule, give or take a day or two here and there. Twelve blogs promised, and twelve blogs delivered. It’s my intent to keep going with the one-a-month schedule. See below.

A New Fiction Project: Last year I said that I was pivoting away from science fiction for the foreseeable future to focus on fantasy. While that’s certainly true for the books I’m shopping around to agents, just when one story stopped talking to me (see the next section), another started forming at the edges of my mind. Considering I spent much of spring and summer rewatching all seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation, it’s no wonder that the science fiction part of my brain couldn’t help but be reactivated.

So, I’m back to the universe I’ve been developing for years now, this time with a new approach, new characters, new environs, and a seemingly impossible challenge that the protagonist will need to overcome. I’m about 9,000 words into it at the moment. It (probably) won’t be a full novel length, but right now I’m shooting for around 50,000–60,000 words, putting more in line with a novella. I am tentatively hoping to finish it around April/May of this year.

The Not-So-Great News

Cyberpunk Novel on Pause: When things became unbearable at work, I had to put down Book #7, and it broke my heart. Previously, things had been thrumming with it. The story was really speaking to me. I was doubling or tripling my average word count per writing session on a regular basis. I was at about 135,000 words when I just lost the thread, and it was tantamount to crashing into a brick wall. It wasn’t writer’s block, per se, since I was working on other projects without issue. But as far as the novel’s narrative was concerned, it simply went radio silent. It hasn’t come back. I have a few projects I need to finish and deliver, but I’m hoping to try to rekindle this thread later this year. It won’t be easy, but then again, nothing worth doing ever is.

Board Game Still In Development: The board game that I’ve been developing for a while likewise had to go on hiatus. I was able to get some traction on it, especially in acquiring some initial artwork and completing the demo. I now have a fully playable demo set that I’ve playtested a few times. These playtest sessions were able to shine a light on some of the weaker elements of the play structure. I was in the middle of introducing a new mechanic when it also had to be put down as my mental bandwidth ground down to nearly zero. It’s still on my radar, and I hope to get back to the next iteration at some point this year. 

Strange Reports Re-Release: To complete the anti-trifecta of projects, I had planned to release and revamp my anthology of short stories, Strange Reports from Sector M in or around May. That obviously didn’t happen, but is still something that’s on my list for this year. I’m clearing space on my schedule around June to get back to this and give it the attention it deserves.

The Road Ahead

The Knights of Solamnia Revisted: The next project I have in the works for the DM’s Guild is (as the name implies), a second look at the Knights of Solamnia as they appeared in Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen. This supplement give players the option of playing a Solamnic Knight as a full fighter subclass with career paths that represent all three Orders of Knighthood: the Crown, the Sword, and the Rose.

I am over the moon to be able to write something for the Dragonlance setting, which has been a favorite of mine for a very long time. More on that here. This will be a much shorter entry than the Artificer’s Guide, short enough that it won’t have a print-on-demand version. That will greatly simplify the publishing process since as soon as we have a PDF ready to go, we can move forward. I have the manuscript ready for editing, so watch for that around the end of March/early April timeframe.

Blog Rollout: My blog topics are fairly eclectic, and that’s definitely going to be the case with 2024’s slate. Some of them I’ve been wanting to write for a long time now, so if you’ve enjoyed what I’ve done the last year or two, 2024 will build upon that. The dates the blog will drop will by and large be the third Friday of each month.

Of course, if last year taught me anything, it’s the futility of trying to plan too far ahead. So, the following are my intended blog dates, but there could be some slight variance to them. My current dates are:

I’ll link each of the blogs to the date above once it has posted. So, if you miss a blog along the way, you can just refer back to this post to get the links.

Recap from Above: To summarize from the points above, my additional goals for 2024 include:

• Finish up on my new sci-fi novella — April/May
• Relaunch of Strange Reports from Sector M — June/July
• Circle back to Book #7 — August/September

Support Sector M

In closing, if you would like to support what I do, here are some of the ways you can help. If you have previously bought one of my books, one of the best things you can do is leave a review. It doesn’t cost money, it can be as short or as detailed as you like, and it will help with the algorithm that decides who gets to see what’s what.

• Buy one of my books:
• Support Sector M on Patreon
• Check out the Sector M Store (T-shirts, drinkware, stickers, etc.)
• Follow me on:
  • Twitter (Sector M)
  • Twitter (Sector M Games)
  • Goodreads
  • This blog (There should be a pop-up when you visit the main page to help you do that.)
• Leave a book review for The Backwards Mask:
• Leave a book review for Strange Reports from Sector M:

Final Thoughts

2023 may not have gone the way I thought it would, but it has set up this year to be something of a clearing house for projects that have been waiting in the wings. I like to think of the phases of my creative journey as stepping stones. So, I believe that 2024 will, in turn, become a way to set up 2025 for something entirely new. I am certainly looking forward to that.

So, that does it for the State of the Sector Address for this year. If you’ve been here a while, thank you so much for sticking with me. If you’re just now joining us, welcome aboard! In any case, I appreciate you all — each and every one. 

See you around the Sector!

Si vales, valeo.

-MC