Intersectional Social Justice

In collaboration with the folks at the Mythcreants blog, once a month I will be answering a reader question about disability representation. Each answer will be posted on the Mythcreants blog on the third Monday of each month.

I’m really excited about this series, because it is an opportunity for me to talk more about disability representation in short, focused articles. Currently, I have a lot of thoughts on disability representation that I haven’t yet shared because of the time involved in writing full length articles. This series is a great opportunity to get some of my thoughts out there and have these important conversations. I hope that you enjoy it!

So far, three of my answers have been published:

How Should I Approach Disability in a Pirate Story?

Is It Okay for My Disabled Character to Use Futuristic Assistive Devices?

How Can I Make My World Accommodating to Disabled People?

You can find all of the Mythcreants articles I’ve worked on in my Writing Advice page. And, if you have a short storytelling question of your own, you can submit it here.

For those of you who don’t know, Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services is one of my all time favorite audio dramas and I am so excited to be doing a crossover episode with them! This has been a lot of fun to put together and I’m extremely happy with how it came out. I hope you enjoy it too! 

This is a special scripted crossover episode between Writing Alchemy and Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services where we return to Sylvan Community College as Kalilia gives Janus her first tarot reading, foreshadowing the events which will take place in the next Unfamiliar Heroes game.

“How Should I Approach Disability in a Pirate Story?” is a Q & A on the Mythcreants blog where I answer a reader question about representing disability without falling into stereotypes.

Here is the Question:

“This question may actually be more for Fay Onyx, but let me know what you think.

I’m working on a humorous not-at-all-realistic story where the main characters are pirates. If I have pirates with peg-legs, hooks, and eye-patches, then I support a stereotype about certain disabilities. But if I don’t, then I fail to have disabled characters in the ONE genre where we expect them to be an active part of the story.

So what do you suggest?

Thank you.

New Podcast Episode! I choose a really atmospheric one for this special Halloween treat. :)

Crossroads Story Time is a new series that explores the myths and lore of the Crossroads Setting. The four short stories in this episode delve into the cosmology and magic of Crossroads through the story of its creation.

I’ve been working really hard behind the scenes making cool stuff. This new series is a chance to share some of the world building I’m doing with you. I really hope you like it! 

We are searching for an artist to do a set of eighteen short character sketches as a paid commission. The characters are from a vibrant and playful fantasy world with diverse species and cultures.

These are expected to be simple sketches that don’t take a lot of time and there will be no revisions without additional payment. Because many of these characters are people of color, we are especially interested in hiring a POC artist. Experience drawing nonbinary, trans, queer, and disabled characters with diverse body types would be a real plus.

Please spread the word!

New Podcast Episode on Accessibility in RPGs!

In this episode, Fay, Mimsy, and Rhi dive deep into how the RPG community can become a more accessible and welcoming space for disabled players, GMs, and designers. Learn about some of the excellent work that Fay and Mimsy are already doing in this space, and leave with plenty of ideas on how to play, run, and make games that are better for all players.

Rhi did all the hard work of organizing this discussion, cutting the audio, transcribing it, and pulling everything together. I am deeply grateful to her for making this happen. You can find the transcript here.

This is a special collaboration episode that was created for the 2019 International Podcast Month event. This diverse and inclusive event is all about celebration, building community, and sharing our love of podcasting. I highly recommend checking it out.

New Bonus Cast on Creating Accessible Settings!

In this bonus cast I talk about something I think about a lot—creating accessible settings. This topic was started by the question, “How Can I Make My  World Accommodating to Disabled People?” which I answered on the Mythcreants blog.

And it has a transcript, which you can find here.

I have been working on this Bonus Cast throughout my move and I am excited to be able to finally share it with you.  I hope you enjoy it!

A collaboration podcast with the Mythcreants about creating magical schools! (There is a transcript in the show notes.)

“Let’s face it: most of us really want to attend a special school where they teach you magic spells. The only problem is that these schools all seem to be incredibly dangerous. Sometimes they’re filled with monsters, other times there’s an evil teacher out to get you, or maybe the teachers just don’t do anything in the face of magical bullying. But is there a better way? Can you craft a magic school that is both a positive learning environment and a good place for adventures? Listen and find out!”

I’m excited to be part of this Mythcreants episode on avoiding fridging characters!

“Fiction has a long history of sacrificing marginalized characters to further the arcs of privileged characters, but these days we have a name for that: fridging. Most of us understand that fridging is bad, but why is it bad? And once we understand that, what are we supposed to do instead? Glad you asked, because that’s what today’s episode is all about! We discuss better ways to introduce tragedy, how to make the audience care, and of course, how to define a sandwich. How is that last one related? Listen and find out!“

Excited that this article I did consulting for has come out!

This is about what melodramatic writing is, why it doesn’t work, what to do instead, and how to handle emotional conditions like depression or anxiety.

That creepy feeling is back, Willa is impressed, and a character from a beloved childhood story makes an appearance. That's right, I have a new podcast up! Join us for the long-awaited conclusion to the Owlbear Reintroduction Program Game.

This was such a fun game to play and I’m so happy to be producing the conclusion to this wonderful story! I hope you enjoy it. :)

Trying to think about every type of oppression at once can be overwhelming. What I do instead is write out a list of the cast of characters and go through and assess each type of representation individually. This article is the list of questions I ask myself when I’m doing this assessment process. 

Critical Core is a TTRPG designed to be accessible to people on the autism spectrum and to people who are new to role-playing games. Their kickstarter is going right now (28 days left) and already well past funded. 

“The tabletop game that helps kids on the autism spectrum build confidence and social skills, one dragon at a time.” The ruleset for this game is adapted from D&D 5th Edition and “experienced gamers will be able to integrate Critical Core into their favorite platform.”

New podcasting resource!

I’ve written about tools that make the process of transcribing podcast episodes easier (Otter.ai and YouTube), but it is also important to know what to transcribe and how the finished transcript should look. That’s what this style guide is for. Because style guides can be a bit abstract, all of the information in this style guide is presented three different ways. 

New transcript!

Meet D’Zân the weredragon druid in this character introduction episode of Unfamiliar Heroes. D’Zân is a student at the celebrated Adventurers Academy, and right now xe is studying creative problem-solving. Join xem for a surreal training exercise where xe swims through a sky full of sharks. 

I'm excited to get transcript for Bonus Cast 5 up! This Bonus Cast is about the new podcast transcripts and ways I’m trying to make them accessible, so I'm extra happy to have this one done.

In this Bonus Cast I share the stories behind three of the sound effects I used in the most recent episode of Owlbear Reintroduction Program Game. Following these stories are updates on what is going on for me, what I’ve been doing for the past two months, and what projects and podcast episodes are coming next.

It really means a lot to me to get this bonus cast up for all of you. As you may have noticed I am not yet back to regular podcast updates. I wanted to give you something fun to listen to and let you know what is going on. I hope you enjoy it!

The transcript of this bonus cast can be found here.