I wish I could be as, ahem, Pollyanna about my gaming group, but sadly, I can’t. I’m actually beginning to lose interest in gaming altogether because of the drama, the procrastination, the lack of commitment to game campaigns, etc. This saddens me beyond all apparent reason, because I love roleplaying almost as much as I love writing. I’m very happy to hear that you’re enjoying gaming again – if anyone deserves it, it’s you. And if anyone deserves you as a (evil) GM, it’s your players. >=)

I love the sci-fi story you mentioned about the debt-ridden world. A lot of post-apocalyptic stories are set after some kind of external disaster – nature gone berserk, asteroid hitting the planet, nuclear war, whatever. What you’re describing is more of an internal disaster. It’s a slow damnation that we’ve brought upon ourselves by being stupid and irresponsible. The good thing is that it’ll strike a chord with so many people, because the groundwork for such a world is already in existence. The sad thing is that those people will know that they can – and should – avert it from becoming reality, but most likely will not bother doing so. Humans have become extremely lazy, especially with the advance of technology, and physical laziness contributes to psychological and spiritual laziness. Perhaps that might be a defining factor leading to the degradation of humanity in your tale?

I can’t wait to read The Bargain! I love a good mystery, and I’ve noticed that most mystery writers will take one of two tactics in writing the story. The first will craft the story and drop clues throughout the prose which an attentive reader will notice and then have an immense amount of fun figuring out the solution that is eventually revealed. Perhaps they’re right, perhaps not, but it draws the reader into the mystery and gets them involved. The second strategy is to minimize the information given to the reader, then have the big reveal at the end. Doyle does this, so do a few others. Peters is one of the few that will give readers what they need to try to figure things out, and her books are always worth additional read-throughs, because you notice all the tidbits that she left for you to find.

I think the second method, while undoubtedly easier, is unfair to the reader. It’s effectively cheating, since it relies on the absence of information to craft the mystery. It reminds me of a time when I was playing a D&D game, where the GM deliberately withheld information, then laughed at me and the other players for not figuring out the twists in his game. Fine. Whatever. I refused to play in his games after that, since I have better things to do with my Friday night than to be told I’m an idiot for not knowing something that was never given to me to know to begin with.

Sorry… /rantoff. It’s a special frustration of mine, and a lot of mystery writers unwittingly needle it. What you’ve described so far sounds very intriguing, and I think you’re entirely good enough to sidestep that “easy” strategy to telling the story.

Strange how reconnecting with old friends kind of add more depth to the “here and now,” almost like without those connections, we’re moving through a world of two dimensions instead of three. We have the now, and we look ahead, but it’s those connections to people and places that’ve been constants in our lives for years that keep us in touch with then. =) I’ve missed you.