I've been writing stories as far back as I can remember. Quite literally since I learned to read, write, and somewhat spell (still working on that). I remember clearly one day when I was about 8 years old, I was sitting in a big comfy chair wrapped up in a blanket because I was sick. I had some paper and pens out and was designing a character. Backstory, goals, look and design, the works. A little robot by the name of "Cable-Chip". I couldn't tell you what happened, because I had done this kind of thing before, but for some reason at that particular moment something really clicked. Something said "this is where I belong." Maybe it was God, maybe it was the mucus. All I know is, when I don’t write, I feel as though a part of me is missing. When I write, I feel complete and whole.

Absolutely. Difficult times are how we grow, and oftentimes a sign we’re on the right path. “You can’t have light without dark,” as Bob Ross said. As for motivation, I’m a religious sort, even if I keep it to myself. I strongly believe that God gave me a gift that I need to grow, nurture, and care for. And that gift is storytelling. While I do love writing and creating all these new worlds, the motivation comes from wanting to do the job I believe I was given. Whether that’s writing one specific story, several stories, helping someone else write theirs, or even this TTRPG thing I’ve gotten pulled into of late, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I get the job done. The more the world tries to pull me away and beat me down, the more I know I’m on the right track of doing what’s really important. I’m only here for a limited time and I’ve got a job to do, so I can’t afford NOT to work on it.

Whether you’re religious or not, you were given a gift of creativity. It was planted inside of you, and it’s your job to care for it, feed it with knowledge and practice so it can grow and blossom into something wonderful. You also have to protect that gift, because the world will try to smother it. A creative mind is scary to most, because man fears what it does not understand. They will try to take it away from you, tell you not to explore it, tell you you’re not good enough, you won’t make it, it won’t get you anywhere, and all kinds of terrible things. If you listen to them and don’t feed your gift, it will in turn feed off you. You’ll wither and weaken, mentally and physically. And what do you really gain in the end if you ignore your gift? A slightly better salary at a job you may or may not have in a year’s time? My advice would be to feed that creative gremlin inside of you. Let it grow big and strong. Sharpen those skills. Practice. Learn. Make lousy things. Make good things. Make ugly things. Make beautiful things. But most importantly, create.

Bashkim and Kesshonite Legends were two different things. Bashkim started off as a challenge I gave myself a long time ago. The challenge was to write and post one scene a day of no specific length. The hard part was not being able to go back and change anything. I had no plan for this story, and had to work with whatever I had written previously. The world that eventually became Kesshonite Legends was something I was working on for a whole other story. Funnily enough, I still haven’t written the story that this world was supposed to take place in. Normally when I write a story, my focus is on characters and dialogue, with the world around them being just detailed enough to give you an idea of when and where you are. With this project, I wanted to try really fleshing out an entire world. One thing led to another, and months quickly turned into years. Eventually I realized that this world could house several, if not all, of my stories. That’s when I blew the dust off Bashkim’s story and made him a Kesshonite Legend.

NUTS is a system that prioritizes storytelling and creativity, not complex dice mechanics and lengthy spell lists. It lets the GM tell the story they want to tell and allows the players to be who they want to be, while giving each just enough mechanical structure to keep things grounded. Mechanically, it’s essentially a small bag of Legos that you can put together the way you want. I don’t tell you how your game should be run. I give you the tools and mechanics to build and run an adventure the way you and your group want. Being “setting agnostic” wasn’t my goal, but instead a byproduct of making tools that gave GMs and players freedom. I’m currently working on some setting-specific modules that take those basic mechanics and refine the skills to work specifically for a certain setting and narrative, but with the basic “NUTS”, you’re free to do whatever you want. I never meant for NUTS to get this far, but here we are.

I’ll probably be writing novels till the day I die, as I’ve got a long list to work through. As for TTRPGs, NUTS was never supposed to go beyond playing with a few friends, but here I am considering publishing and working on additional modules for it, and I’ve been happy with the results so far. As for other systems, yes, I have a couple I’m experimenting with that will probably be more mechanically involved, but not complicated. The rules will be designed for a specific setting, such as a world where humans have mysteriously vanished and left behind a weird, unstable but magical substance that has changed the animals you play as. I’ve been asked multiple times if I’ll ever make a Kesshonite Legends TTRPG, and while I readily admit it makes a great world for one, I’d like to get some more TTRPG experience under my belt before taking that ginormous plunge, as well as another book or two written. It’d be a large-scale project, and I want to be properly equipped for such an undertaking.