Month: August 2023

Yesterday was a sleepy post. I didn’t have it in me to rundown all the players of any specific position. Today I am fresh and loaded on caffeine, so let’s get straight into it. The Receiver position is one of particular note in fantasy format. In truth, most leagues are either Points Per Reception or no. The PPR leagues heavily favor certain kinds of WRs, whereas in a non-PPR league you can focus on low volume/big play or Red Zone kind of options. I mostly play PPR, so I will start the rundown there. In this case there is little doubt who lives at the top of the charts. The big 5 are going to be gone in the first round. They are as follows (no real order in these… it remains a matter of choice IMHO).

Top 5 PPR Wideouts

1. Cooper Kupp
2. Justin Jefferson
3. Davante Adams
4. Nuk Hopkins
5. Stefon Diggs

After these five, the world absolutely opens up to a number of options. In fact, the 5 slot is highly debatable given who lives right below that controversial pick. Here are the next 5 must grab (again in no real order).

Next Tier WR Options

1. Ja’Marr Chase
2. Tyreek Hill
3. Aj Brown
4. Ceedee Lamb
5. Calvin Ridley

Again, 5 hits different. I could’ve gone with Amon’Ra St. Brown or Jerry Juedy or any number of #1 options. Here is the real skinny. Top WR production is not about the WR themselves. It is about the QB and the supporting players around them. ‘Reek gonna get his, but those numbers are going to be siphoned by Jaylen Waddle (when and if healthy). What about Garett Wilson? Yeah, he is going to be a dog. We all remember what happened in Green Bay late last season, and we can see already that there is a huge connection between Rodgers and ‘New Devante’. So, my thought is honestly this: Skip the Tier One WR. Go to someone in the next five and the five after that–especially if you’re a late picker in a snake draft. Odds are you will need 3 WR. Take two 2nd tier guys and a 3rd vs. wasting your pick on a higher guy who is going to get as much production as the 2nd tier folks. My Moonshot WR this year is Calvin Ridley. I think he makes the Jags a much more dangerous organization. Meanwhile, Drake London (from his old team) is perfect as your #3.

Football. Ahh. Feels good to be ready to get back to the game. The injury bug is already circulating through the league. Case and point: The AZ Cards signed Marlon Mack on Friday. He tore his ACL today. Done for the season. Here we are trying to run a draft next week (and the other one a week later. I’m going to spend a few days breaking down the positions and getting closer to being ready for the drafts. I’m excited to see it go down and for the season to get going.

Some Thoughts:

1. I’m going back in the lab with the boys. The youngest is struggling with a case of the yips and I am going to be working with him to push his receiver skills to the next level. I’m going to spend some time putting together a program that is bound to get him right for the upcoming season. This is going to be a work in progress, because the season starts on the 22nd. I’m going Rocky level old school on this one. He’s getting right.

I get depressed the same day I come home. I know what it is about now. Everything is exactly as we left it–except dirtier. Nothing happens when we leave. Nothing changes here. Ever. The days are a sad cycle of video games, anime, video games, videos, video games, anime. Occasionally they’ll trot out a new game, but mostly it is the same stuff on repeat and nothing ever evolves. It is a very hard way to live for me, and a very easy way to live for them, because there is no desire for forward progress. This is what teens and people in their 20s do. Its Seinfeld but in real time.

So why does it make me sad? I want so much more for them and to see them settle into nothingness makes me sad. Beyond that, being a person that sees that they have potential to be more, it is sad to see them be so much less. Be creators! Don’t just be consumers and especially ones who are driven to consume anything that flits past their eyes. The Instagram era is toxic.

It is also so easy to do as the crowd does, so when I am here I am fighting against that noise and nonsense. I don’t want to become that. I want to be more. It is hard to do so when you are surrounded by so many who don’t want to be more and fill the air with the noise and anger of less.

Some people believe a week starts on Sunday. Others day Monday. I don’t have any real preference on the official start of the week for others, but for me Sunday is largely about football (fall/winter), writing, and getting a plan together for the week. That is to say that Monday is when I get the grinding going in full. I’ve developed a schedule where I don’t have to teach on Monday, which allows me to post all the online work needed and get deep into the grading as well as writing. I write this now as I am developing my personal schedule for the year. As yesterday indicated, writing is going to be a large chunk of my daily work existence. I am working to develop a ‘normal’ time for writing up to six days a week. Tuesday is a particularly busy school day, so I won’t be doing too much on the words there–consider it a reset. However, the rest of the week I am working to have a specific time and place to put my butt in a chair so I can be prolific.

Meanwhile, I am home without internet. I’m tethering to my phone at present, because the service I use informed my it would be shutting down today in order to upgrade services. Scheduled outage is no way to start your working week.

Some Thoughts:

1. Speaking of scheduling, both of my fantasy drafts are now scheduled. With only two teams this year I have less to think about in regards to the strangeness of ‘stat gambling’. I will post some Wednesday stuff about that leading up to the draft.
2. Reading modiphus’ Five Parsecs from Home game. Interesting. Solo gaming is new to me, and this system is very rules heavy. I want rules lite!
3. Still researching various story forms. Finding a lot out there that I never considered before. Perhaps I am old enough to not be stuck in my ways…

Do you ever feel like you’re just killing it? Locked in? On a roll? I often wonder what moves people in and out of that zone. After returning from GenCon I find myself super excited to get back to work and get all of these projects done so I can get more. It is an incredible sensation to want to work in order to get more work. The closest parallel I can find is that feeling of busting your butt in practice in order to earn more reps—I.e. more practice and the opportunity to play more.

in the sense of writing, the ‘play more’ translates to more books and better chances to create solid fiction that sells. It is a wonderful feeling to see someone pick up a book you wrote (or wrote in) and enjoy it. You can only get there by writing your ass off though.

The parallels between sport and writing are not lost on me. This is largely because I seek out this framework to organize ideas in my head. My playing days are long over but I still think that way and still recognize the urgency that Play creates. When you write with urgency you are more likely to be successful.

I feel that now. I feel like I need to get this done and get ‘more reps’ in order to improve and be able to put out a product that people enjoy. I cannot speak to why all writers write, but I write to be read. The more I put out increases the chances that my worlds and my words reach someone.

Some Thoughts:

1. Working on multiple and very different kinds of projects at once has me thinking a lot about structure.
2. I know shit about structure. I thought I did. I don’t. That is a great first step.
   

Well, the best 4 days in gaming is over for me. Indeed I did have 4 as we started on Wednesday, and are unfortunately missing the splendor of Saturday night. Next time. Definitely next time. GenCon is a community. It is a friendly place that wants everyone to be included and everyone to have a genuinely good time. In fact, when I was waiting in a lobby for a meeting last night a family called me over and asked me to join a game. They wanted a fifth and I was nearby. This morning a couple offered to drive my partner and I to the convention, because we were standing there waiting for an uber. These are the kind of people that populate the GenCon community. These are the people who are there to play games, have fun, and make connections.

I was fortunate enough to make a ton of connections this time around. I managed to meet several of the writers I’ve worked with or admired over the years and they are all super chill and cool. I felt like one of them. Heck, we even did signings together. I’m not ready to say I am in their class (I am not prolific enough by far) but I am ready to say that I need to take the next step and put real focus on my words and be the writer I’ve been saying I want to be for decades now.

The truth is time is sand slipping through your fingers. It took me half my life to get back to GenCon. The things that happened in between constitute an entire existence. The journey to get back here was incredibly hard and full of moments that define me. However, I’m here now. I am at the table and I want to eat. I want to write more and more. I believe I have stories to tell. The connection to that storyverse is real and it will ascend again.

Some Thoughts:

1. In the process of enjoying the con, I have rediscovered my joy of RPGs. Next year I’m going to get some game time in alongside the wonderful time I will spend with the writers and the happiness of inviting my partner deeper into this world.
2. Meanwhile, it felt good to be a part of a world that was not entirely focused on anime and football. That daily reality does not nourish me in the least. It is in fact harder to be creative in such a dead space.
3. On the other hand, I do have an office where I can occasionally hide…

There may be major changes coming to this website. For starters, it is likely to become less ten-minute rule forward. In my efforts to expand my writing (I’ll tell you about the meet cute later), I am considering reforming this site into a proper writer’s site. In this I mean the front page should be a landing page focused on work and releases and resume. There ought to be a reasonable headshot somewhere. The ‘main’ blog should be focused on the writer and writing and not the personal stuff, though being honest with the audience is core to what I do. So, I am thinking about reforming the blog in light of being closer to releasing this second novel and having to have somewhere that people can see what I do as a freelancer.

What I do clearly is not enough to support the team and I can do more. Today I watched the lead editor of the novel line and a NYT best selling author both pull door duty at the convention booth. It blew me away to see these guys just helping out. I can do that–heck it is who I am, and I told them that I would be chipping in quite a bit more next year. Then they asked me to do a signing this Saturday, and I was blown away again, because I’ve never done a signing and that is just really cool.

One thing I did do that I never have before is have a solid meet cute with an editor. My partner and I were out in the city waiting for an Uber. Turns out you have to walk a bit away from the convention for the prices of Uber transit to go down. If you get picked up right there it is going to be $20 extra. So we walked a few blocks. When we were crossing the street to get to where we would meet the driver, we were struggling to find the button to trigger the walk sign. Finally we gave up and made a run for it. Moments later we noticed a lady having the same struggle. She saw us noticed and we explained we had just done the same thing. She was wearing a Con badge, which led to us striking up a conversation. She explained she was an editor who developed adventures for Dungeons and Dragons. I explained I was a freelancer who wanted to write for Dungeons and Dragons. We exchanged cards. All very cute. So, I will be sending samples next week.

I haven’t ventured far from the hotel room this morning. It is already nearing noon and I know I should be finding an Uber to take us to the convention center. I’m excited. I’m especially excited to see what the vibe is like here. I do not do many gaming conventions outside of Arizona, and to jump into one that brings 50,000+ is a huge leap. The sheer gravity of the thing is overwhelming. It also shows me where I am in the so-called pecking order and what I need to do in order to raise my profile.

I am ready to raise my profile. My partner and I discussed that yesterday. She wondered at first if I was really ready. We looked at the work of some of the other writers I’m connected to and how much more prolific they’ve been over the last few years. Those writers do this full time. They quit the day job and focused on writing as a means of primary income. That is not what my budget sheet looks like. However, writing is extremely important to me–moreso than the handful of projects or novel a year that I currently crank out. I experience as much lull as I do grind, which means that I’m still dealing with that long ramp up to get going writing. When I have a flow of projects, that ramp up period is behind me and I keep going and flowing steady until the work runs out. I do not want the work to run out. I do want to be the guy who is always getting published and writing bigger and better and more engaging projects. That means raising my profile to the point where people want me to write stuff for them and (or?) being able to write without an organization behind me.

How do I raise my profile? That is part of why I am here. I want the team to know that I am ready and I am hands on and I am willing to pitch in and show up and develop those relationships required to better my standing. It is a step forward. It is one of many I need to take to get to where I want to be as an author and contributor.

Football is back. I didn’t even know! I knew about the training camps, but to realize there is a game–a JETS game–tomorrow leaves me flabbergasted. FYI that may not be the correct use of that term, but it is what I got for the feeling. I’m at GenCon enjoying the opportunity to be a part of the roleplaying world for the first time in a long time. I’m going to take a minute tomorrow to walk the field at Lucas Oil stadium where they will be playing roleplaying games. That is nuts to see two of the biggest fascinations of my life collide in that way.

Football is a huge part of my life. The three original franchise boys all play or played, with the youngest starting his HS journey on the 22nd. So that too is 20 days out. Everything feels like it is happening all too fast at the moment. All of it feels like I’m trying to spin around really fast in order to see everything. I likely won’t be seeing the pre-season hall of fame game tomorrow, but I may have a chance to catch some of the action on the 10th when other teams take the field. It is time to start thinking about what these squads look like and how I feel about them in terms of fantasy capital, because that time has also come round… or is about to.

Next week I will begin the positional breakdowns for any fantasy drafters who are reading this outdated form of media. Gotta reward the fans.

Some Thoughts:

1. Cesar Chavez is struggling after a 15 yr old student drowned on their football retreat. There are a ton of unknowns here. One I keep going over in my head is how he got left behind. It stands to reason that other players on the team were involved in him being left behind. The idea that not one kid noticed he was missing seems false. More evidence will emerge over time. Why? because kids talk.

Call this the GenCon edition. I haven’t been to the con in over twenty years. I was really young both physically and emotionally. Had to be about 24 years old and still a college student and a fledging writer. My friends and I went in order to check it out and for me to go to the Shadowrun meet and greet and ultimately to figure out who people were. That was a great time, but I honestly was nervous about meeting anyone. I didn’t have my legs under me and I wasn’t sure I was even a real writer to them–call it imposter syndrome. The thought of rubbing elbows with Kenson and Stackpole was like.. what?! Here I am 20+ later and I can only say that I am really looking forward to seeing everyone and to being a part of the scene out here. It appears to have grown dramatically.

My partner is my, well, partner in this one. She and I are stoked about the chance to see all the people and experience the con. If it goes well at least tomorrow then we will come back. I may even offer an academic presentation in a year… definitely A lot I could present. It all starts with feeling out the vibe of the place. One thing I’ve learned is that it is far too expensive to stay far away from the con. Paying that much cash to move back and forth across the city via uber is not the answer.

Some Thoughts:

1. In addition to being excited about tomorrow, I am looking forward to meeting some new possible employers. I have come around to recognizing that I am pretty good at this RPG stuff. I ought to be doing it more. I’m ready to tackle some D&D.
2. Weird health note: The change in humidity is hitting me hard. I’ve felt worn down since landing. Maybe it is more than that. I might be off in general.