Wow, it’s been a while. It’s a bit surprising to see how often I still get feedback asking if I’m going to keep working on this story. Makes me glad to have built something that’s brought some happiness to people.

Here’s what’s been going on. Basically, life got busy for me. I changed jobs, I got married, and I found myself with a lot less free time to just sit around and write. Also, I originally started writing Paul Twister for a good friend of mine, the person who originally created the character of Aylwyn. And sadly, as sometimes happens, we’ve grown apart as the years went by. Thing is, she was kind of my muse for this story, and without her feedback it’s a lot harder to be any good at writing it now.

(Also, on a completely unrelated note, I was a bit embarrassed to notice during a several-hours-long session wandering Wikipedia articles — as one does — that one of the principal players in the infamous Operation Snow White was a guy by the name of Gerald Wolfe. I promise that was purely coincidental.)

I’m getting to a point where I’m ready to start writing stuff again, but I think it’s time for a new start. So for the time being, The Tales of Paul Twister is going on indefinite hiatus. (Not like that isn’t already the case, but now it’s official.) Meanwhile, I’m starting up a new story over on Royal Road, called I Do Not Want To Do This.

It’s a new story in an entirely new world, so don’t expect to see Paul, Aylwyn, Sarah, or the rest showing up in it. Also, there are no portal fantasy/isekai elements here. But the basic themes should be fairly familiar: a setting that mixes epic fantasy and modernity, snarky characters, and a geeky protagonist trying to find his place in a magical world that doesn’t fit him particularly well.

It’s the Sixth Age.  Heroes and quests are a thing of the past.  The world has been civilized and tamed, and that’s exactly how Brad likes it.  He’s just graduated and landed a job at a prestigious magical R&D firm.  Life is good, except for a heavy load of student debt to dig himself out from under, a still-fresh breakup, and moving across the Empire to a town where he doesn’t know anyone in order to take the new job.

All he wants to do is impress his coworkers and the new boss, get his career going, and establish a life for himself.  He certainly wants nothing to do with adventuring or heroics.  But when fragments of a past Age intrude on his orderly life, he may well find that what he wants matters less to the world than he’d like it to…

Paul Twister was largely inspired by an odd mixture of The Stainless Steel Rat and A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur’s Court. This setting is more inspired by fantasy games and the “GameLIt” and “Dungeon Core” genres, which didn’t really exist when I started writing Paul Twister. The setting is a mix of D&D and Final Fantasy (the good ones) and bits and pieces of various other things, pulled forward into a modern age that has largely lost touch with its epic roots. Familiarity with fan works such as Critical Role and The Order of the Stick is recommended, but not required, to fully enjoy the story and grasp some of the shout-outs. (If there are any Critters in the audience, yes, the title is meant to sound familiar.)

You can find the first two chapters (as of this writing) here, and if all goes well there will be plenty more to come. Hope to see you over there!