It's time for another Creative Chat, this time with one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I've ever met: writer and game developer Nychelle Schneider. Nychelle and I sat down for a wonderful conversation about her creative backstory (which includes Remote-Operated Vehicle builds!), and also:
This chat was one for the books; I'm sure you'll love Nychelle just as much as I do by the end. <3
Happy listening, and, as always, take care, keep creating, and stay divine!
Resources
IG: @littleoracles
It's time for another Creative Chat, this time with one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I've ever met: writer and game developer Nychelle Schneider. Nychelle and I sat down for a wonderful conversation about her creative backstory (which includes Remote-Operated Vehicle builds!), and also:
This chat was one for the books; I'm sure you'll love Nychelle just as much as I do by the end. <3
Happy listening, and, as always, take care, keep creating, and stay divine!
Resources
IG: @littleoracles
[Intro music]
Allison Arth: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Little Oracles podcast, an oracle for the everyday creative. I’m Allison Arth. We are here for another Creative Chat, and I am so looking forward to this conversation, because today I'm very lucky to sit down with someone I've known kind of from afar for a while, and had the wonderful chance to meet in person fairly recently. And she is just someone who is so warm and thoughtful and very astute, and I just absolutely adore this person; writer and game developer Nychelle Schneider; Nychelle, thank you so much for joining me today.
Nychelle Schneider: Thank you for having me. And, oh my goodness; I– I can't follow up that particular introduction. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] It's– everything I say is– it's the– it's the absolute truth. I was just so pleased to have you over to the house and to meet you in person. It was just so much fun.
NS: It was.
AA: We had a great time.
NS: It was so good.
AA: So you kind of have a big event; you're starting grad school?
NS: Yeah, well, I have residency for grad school. Uh, so I am essentially on my last week of freedom for the next, next several years.
AA: Yeah, that's a– that's a big deal. Creative writing MFA; it's very exciting for you, and it's something that you and I share.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: But, uh, before we talk about that; before we talk about all the other places that you share your time and your talents with the world, with games and with story generation and all of that, I would really love to hear your creative backstory. Like, have you always been a creator? How did you get to where you are as a creative right now? Can you just, just tell us a little bit about that?
NS: Oh yeah. So a little bit about me: I've always been a creative type. Growing up, I was part of a 4-H group where we did ROVs — you know, remote operated vehicles — and we would actually create them in congruence with the Search & Rescue for any, um, submerged wrecks–
AA: Wow.
NS: –and things like that. They would utilize some of our designs and stuff, and that's when I was — oh goodness; I did that for a few years. And then just, kind of, always enjoyed gaming as I got older; you know, lots of reading; lots of creative projects. And then started DMing.
AA: Uh-huh
NS: Purely by accident [laughs], and had a usual table, and stuck with this table. And then somebody was like: “You know, I got this new game; it's called Blades in the Dark. I just backed it on Kickstarter. What do you guys think?” And that just kind of snowballed everything into what it is today.
AA: Wow. And you– you DM — Dungeon Master, or Game Master, as some people say.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: You are in charge of applying mechanics, and kind of walking people through the game — or how do you see that, as a creative outlet?
NS: The best way I ever heard it said was somebody told me, “Nychelle, you don't just play in the world; you create it with, like, a bucket of paint and a paintbrush. And you just paint a picture around you.”
AA: Oh, wow. I love that.
NS: And I was like: that's a perfect explanation of what I do [chuckles], because whether I'm a player, or a GM, or if I'm just writing content, I'm a very vivid, visual person.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: And so I want to have it expressed as much as possible to where it feels tangible. It feels alive.
AA: Yeah.
NS: And that's what I– I absolutely love about creation. Is you give it– you give it life; you give it breath.
AA: Right. Oh, that's a wonderful way to think about that. And you know what I think is so interesting is that you have this, kind of, arts side of you — you're talking about buckets of paint; you're talking about creating story; you talk about, “I'm a creative person and that's who I've always been” — and the first thing you went to was creating remote-operated vehicles.
NS: [chuckles]
AA: And I feel like those two things don't always go together in people's minds when we talk about creativity, you know?
NS: Yeah.
AA: So do you feel like there's some kind of natural dovetail there? Do those all fall under the same creative umbrella for you?
NS: I think it does, because mechanics, or even, like, physical mechanics — such as whether you're rebuilding a car engine, or you are building ROVs — compared to you painting or, um, crocheting something or writing something, you are in the process of creating something and you're utilizing a structure and a mechanic to make it happen
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: And so one of them just may be more physically apparent than another. And so, like, crocheting: it's very creative. It is an art form, but also sometimes you use a pattern–
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: –to go ahead and create something, and you utilize geometry and– and whatnot to– like, if you're creating like a teddy bear or a particular shape or something like that. So it's kind of similar.
AA: Yeah, they're very similar. I love that you're drawing that connection between the, you know, the pattern work and using those, uh, more mechanized skills and those more concrete skills, I guess, to– to make something that is an expression of art. So did you– have you always been a writer? Did you, like, write when you were a kid and stuff like that?
NS: No!
AA: Really!?
NS: I hated writing as a kid. Never kept a diary. Even in my undergrad, I was very much of like: ugh, I hate taking notes. I don't like this.
AA: Wow.
NS: I don't like– don't like writing things down and my grandmother, who I was very close with, came down with terminal cancer and I became her caregiver. And there was a period of time where I had to leave home to do some– some work stuff, and I knew when I would go travel home, it would be the last time, 'cause her health started declining.
AA: Mm. Mm-hmm.
NS: And so I started counseling, therapy sessions, and my therapist was very supportive and like, “Hey, you know, you started doing a regular tabletop roleplaying game on the weekends, and you're really getting into your character; maybe start doing some written RP scenes–”
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: “–as a way for you to focus the emotion, or a way for you to, kind of, grapple with what is going to happen, or what is happening right now.” And I started doing that and it just kind of sprouted from there. I only have been writing for about six years now.
AA: Wow.
NS: It's when I first started doing those RP scenes, typing them out, trying to deal with certain emotions and trauma and it just kind of blossomed from there.
AA: And what do you think it is about that version of writing, or that type of writing, that turned you from someone who said, “I hate writing; I hate taking notes” to someone who said, you know, “It's a good idea; I wanna get an MFA in creative writing.” [chuckles]
NS: [chuckles] Uh; oh. I think it goes back to the trauma. I've never had a safe outlet for self-expression.
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: Especially emotionally. I had a rough upbringing, very sheltered and whatnot, and I didn't have time to express myself–
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: –in any manner outside of what was expected of me. So having that safe space to have that self-expression and to explore different facets of that and seeing how, “Hey, this impacted me as a person and my personality, I can very much see this” has been absolutely freeing. So to me, the artistic aspect of creative writing, is a very freeing experience because I get to express a range of emotions and thought processes and perspectives. I enjoy conveying a vividness to my scenes, especially when I'm writing about characters. I really enjoy conveying a particular range of emotions. I'm pretty sure that we'll get more defined through school. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to be in a couple of years with that, but I know that I will have more tools in my toolbox, so to speak, creatively.
AA: Right; yeah. Do you feel like that desire to, you know, convey that, uh, that vividness and those character moments; do you feel like that, kind of, is lock and key with how much you enjoy running a roleplaying game, or playing a roleplaying game, or writing for a roleplaying game, for example, which I know you do as well?
NS: I would have to say yes. To me, some aspects of it I can very much just do; like, I've got it honed down to a– to a skill, and being able to dive in, so to speak, to certain parts.
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: Whether writing or playing a session. I also really enjoy world-building and making the world come alive, and to have– to seeing the expression on my players’ — or hearing the inflection in their voice if they're over the phone, 'cause we– we do sessions on Discord, and I only have a few players that are in person; the rest are online — it's really wonderful to hear them engage in different aspects of the world. And so for me, seeing other people or hearing other people have joy from something and show interest in something, that's where I get a lot of my inspiration of like, yeah, I'm doing this for them because I want what they're experiencing to be the best expression that it can be.
AA: Yeah. We're kind of talking a little bit about– about RPGs and stuff, and– and I'm so curious about your relationship to storytelling and to story generation and creating a narrative within the context of a game. And I'm wondering if– if you can, kind of, tell us about how you go about that. Like, what is– what is your process for starting a story, and– and creating a story, or maybe it's just setting-based? I don't know. What does– what does that look like for you when you're working in story and narrative in a game context?
NS: The process is different for me, whether or not I am creating the story for a table, a group of players, or if I am just creating the world for myself. It can have some similar steps, but it's a very distinct difference. Creating a world for players, I'm very much engaging of: who are the players; what do they want to see in the world; what is, essentially, their red button? And for me, a red button is an expression of what gets them excited, what gets them curious, what gets them interested.
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: And so I craft red buttons very specifically for the group of people that I am– I'm running a game for. That's a little different than creating a setting. If I were to doing it for myself–
AA: Uh-huh
NS: –when it's just for myself, I really do love to focus on a particular aspect, so I might be like, “Hmm. I want to learn about nudibranches.”
AA: Uh-huh.
NW: Or nudi-BRONCS, depending on your pronunciation [chuckles]; what would it look like if I were to go ahead and bring those in the system? What's– what use would they have? How are they expressed, whether in the environment? Okay; now onto the human aspect, how does that change that expression? How does that impact that expression? And just essentially following a breadcrumb trail as I create stuff, and I'll just flesh it out, you know, essentially spiderwebs into other aspects of the world, and then I'll create 'em from there. I think the biggest thing that is across both of them, is I want it to feel real. I want it to feel lived in. I try not to do a very sterile expression of something. So like: “There's this city; people live in it; and you're gonna go ahead and– and start in this city; you've been there your whole life; you know everything.” And no: that doesn't– that doesn't grab your players. That doesn't express the world. You might want to change it up and say, “There's this city that initially was founded as a brickworks town, that went ahead and grew into this. But through the industrial revolution, now they've changed.” You know? And then you start expressing it from there.
AA: Right. Do you feel like you bring that perspective into the writing that you do?
NS: I try! [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Yeah!
NS: [laughs] I– I for– well, I'm laughing to myself because I have told every client so far: “You're more than welcome to cut things, because I'm going to overwrite stuff.” [chuckles]
AA: [laughs]
NS: My first clients actually, I wrote for The Wildsea, a tabletop RPG, but I created a entire region — essentially, a reach for the system — that included factions, changes in mechanics from the base game, a new class that people could utilize if they wanted to, different places and things of interest within that, some additional tools and stuff. So that's something I– I do really enjoy in my writing, is taking what's there already, especially if it's for a world or a client where something is already built, and making it even better by adding to it. I never wanna take away; I want to add to it to give more flexibility to its playability.
AA: Well, and speaking of adding to worlds and to, you know, enriching places: you– you're working on a Blades in the Dark world, uh, of the Dagger Isles.
NS: Yes, I did the playbooks and crew sheets. Um, I was very humbled and– and blessed to be on that team of many wonderful writers and designers, and that was– it's such a wonderful journey and learning experience for myself in, “How– how can I help express everything that has been written?” Because the other writers did all of the setting and, um, factions and things like that. So I– bringing it alive through the playbooks and the crew sheets was something that I really wanted to do the best– to the best of my ability, and having a way to express that heritage, the richness, and the tensions that arise from– from that. I– I don't wanna give anything away [chuckles]–
AA: [chuckles]
NS: –but there's– there's some wonderful nuance that Pam wrote into it, and it was just– it's beautiful. I can't wait for– for it to get out to public. It's gonna be so good.
AA: Yeah. And this is Pam Punzalan, who is the– the primary author of the book, yes?
NS: Yes, yes. Pam is amazing.
AA: Yeah. So what I am kind of curious about is that, when we talk about your writing, it seems like you gravitate toward, uh, writing for RPGs and writing for games.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: And I'm wondering: do you– do you have other genres that you like to write in?
NS: I do have a couple of other projects. So I have a science fiction novel–
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: –that I'm in the process of writing, that's sort of an anthology of exploring one's heritage and culture when it goes through erasure. And for the listeners, I am indigenous to the Pacific Northwest, and so I am pretty heavily involved in my– my tribe and the politics, but also the community aspects of keeping that culture and expressing our voice to the world.
AA: Yeah.
NS: And so I also am in the process of putting together a book that has a lot of our old stories in it that were written down by posted individuals – posted means, um, non-indigenous. So, utilizing our stories, having them rewritten because we are an oral tradition.
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: Uh, but a lot of the nuance and everything has been lost through the years, and there is a time that we weren't allowed to express it.
AA: Yeah.
NS: So going back through all of our research documents and our audio recordings of first speakers and everything, and bringing those stories, essentially, into light for a modern reader, and then also adding new stories into that is another project that I will probably be working on for the next five plus years or so. [laughs] May or may not ever be done, but it is something that I am enjoying doing, and that has a lot of research. That's a slow process: to have all the references, and then also double-checking my utilization of my native tongue, that I am still in the process of learning.
AA: Yeah. I'm really fascinated by this idea that you're– you love world-building, obviously, through games, and you're talking about a science fiction novel, which is so reliant on world-building because you're creating something that isn't the place that we live right now.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: But you're kind of juxtaposing that with– with erasure. So you're building a world that has gone through this process of, you know, cultural erasure or– or historical erasure. And what is it about, uh, erasure specifically, and especially in a science fiction context, that interests you enough to write a novel, or to start a novel, about it?
NS: Oh, I think it's– I think it's several-fold. Science fiction as a genre, I absolutely love. To me, to utilize science fiction means that I can push the bounds of the world-building beyond what is– what we consider to be normal–
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: –and express the erasure as well as self-discovery and reclaiming of that voice in a very particular manner. Like there's, for me, a mechanical aspect; there's more control over that, compared with if I were to go at it from a different angle.
AA: What do you mean by– by a mechanical aspect?
NS: If you're not speaking, per se, of just the story, you strip everything down; it's a very analog process. There's not the human factor. There's not the emotion. There's not anything that makes it alive. For me, that's very mechanical. It's like a — oh, how is a good way to express it? Have you ever seen a minuet, or, like, those automatons the, that were created in, I think, like, the 1700s?
AA: Yeah!
NS: There's a few of them, but the more famous ones that are still alive today, I can't remember– I can't recall the– the name of them.
AA: Sure.
NS: But they're very, very mechanical. Like, some of them will even write music sheets; I think was one of– a really famous French one that would write music. It's meant to express life.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: It's meant to be an edition of; but it's very mechanical in the way it works. It has cogs, it has gears. It has to be wound; you know, has to be maintained and things. It is just like any other machine you come across. And so for me, in writing, especially when it comes to “this is the concept I want to get across to the reader”–
AA: Uh–huh.
NS: “–I want them to think about this particular perspective and how that potentially can impact them moving forward from reading this story,” At some point, you do have to break that down into, essentially, its nucleus, and decide, “Okay, how am I going to do that?” And to me, that's where I go into my mechanical aspect of, “Okay, if I'm breaking this down, essentially into its atomic parts, what is the basis of that?”
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: “What does that look like, completely stripped of everything?” and then you go up from there.
AA: Right.
NS: Very much may just be a Nychelle thing, I'm not sure. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] No; no! I don't– I don't think that you're offbase in that at all! I think that that is a way that a lot of creators go about, you know, figuring out what the — you know, maybe they're not thinking about it as “atomic parts,” but maybe they're thinking about it as, like, the core, or the beating heart, or the seed or something like that.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: And a rose by any other name, right? It’s gonna still smell as sweet, and still manifest what you need it to do.
NS: Mm-hmm. So I think it's also part of my process because I didn't come into writing, always writing.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: And I am always looking for a way to strengthen my writing, and I'm well aware that I have weaknesses, and this is probably a little bit of imposter syndrome speaking, but not feeling like I am at the same level as my peers. And part of that is my background and the way I was raised. I didn't have a traditional education growing up.
AA: Right.
NS: And so I am missing several key parts and components. And so for me to break something down into a certain way, it's a way for me to help make sure that I am not creating something that is hollow, or that is missing a very key aspect that other people would find very obvious.
AA: Right.
NS: So yeah, definitely part of my process. [chuckles]
[Music break]
AA: I always love to hear about what other creators are doing in terms of their– their process around whatever kind of expression they're– they're doing in their creative practice. But what does your creative practice look like? Do you have one? Can you tell us a little bit about that?
NS: You always come up with fantastic questions. [laughs]
AA: [laughs]
NS: I– I would say part of my process, there– there are definitely three steps. There's the brainstorming aspect of where you come up with the concept, you come up with the idea.
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: And then there is a process, what I like to call scaffolding, because you always put scaffolding together before you put a building together: you have to have a foundation; you have to have some sort of structure to work off of.
AA: Sure.
NS: And so for me, I call it scaffolding, and that is where I do the research aspect. I might figure out, “Okay, how much of the world do I need to express in this instance? What do I need to create here? What is missing?”
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: Get some basic things covered. And then I go into the full writing process of writing it out based on that scaffold. And then sometimes there'll be a little tweaks here and there as you– as you work through it, but I pretty much try to keep it to those three sections.
AA: Right. Do you draft a lot? You know, lots of different drafts of various– for various things, or are you kind of a, like: think about it for a while — a percolator — and then bleh.
NS: I'd say I'm a percolator. I'm still learning drafting. [laughs]
AA: Yeah. [laughs]
NS: How to draft.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: So I'm very much of, like, if I am putting the effort to type all of this [chuckles], and I don't want to have to redo it multiple times. [laughs] So I do definitely think that I am one of those. Just get it on the page, rearrange it. But once I get it to a certain spot, you won't find me doing revised versions of it because I am like: no. [chuckles]
AA: [chuckles] Mm-hmm; mm-hmm. So you, you feel like you have a sense of when something is done?
NS: Yes. I am still learning what that is to some extent, but yes. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] I think we're all– I think we're all kind of learning what– what “done” is as we work through our creative lives, that's for sure.
NS: Mm-hmm. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Where do you look for inspiration? Like, what– what inspires you? What's– what excites you creatively?
NS: Oh, nature is fascinating to me.
AA: Ooh, tell me about that.
NS: Well, I think the best way to explain it is through one particular character I played at a table, and she was a cultist, actually. Uh, the system was Blades in the Dark. I really wanted to play with what does blood ritual, or what does blood — because people essentially say, “Blood is the life of the body.” So what does that mean in this context?
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: What does that mean in this world? So she was essentially a blood cultist, and utilized different types of leeches for various different things. So you may collect leeches and, you know, through different preparation and things, they had different uses. So I started getting into sea cucumber, a little bit of nudibranch, and leech, as well as blood leeching in history.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: And started to pull a little bit of research from those various things to put together different types of leeches, and, like, what their function was, and how she could utilize them within the system. So I usually play off of one particular aspect: “Hey, I wanna play with blood; I wanna play with a leech. What– what does that mean here?”
AA: Yeah. So, you know, you– you strike me as a very– as a very research-based creative; as somebody who is really excited by the prospect of digging into something that they don't know about, or that they're excited to learn about — maybe they know a little bit about it, or they just have heard the word or whatever it is — and using that to fuel this, uh, this creative fire that you have. Because you're clearly so excited about expressing character and expressing setting and expressing story, but it's all– it all has this really beautiful foundation and this basis; this– this scaffolding, right?
NS: Mm-hmm. I love it. I collect vintage books, actually.
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: Very specifically, I try to have something that's earlier than, uh, 1940 for, like, textbooks or research material. And then even when I'm really trying to find something, I'll try to go back a little further, so, like, 1920s or late-1800s. But I have a book that is a bank report from a company — that is a ledger, essentially, of what the cotton stock and what the cotton market did from 1903 to 1908.
AA: Wow.
NS: So like: this is how the species of cotton interacts with the Americans; this is the contract that we've utilized with each individual farmer; these are the logs from every city, and the weight and the quality of the cotton shipments. It's a full-on ledger for an investment bank back in the day–
AA: Wow.
NS: –that put this together. And will– will I ever need a cotton banking report from 1903? No. Most likely no. [laughs] ‘
AA: [laughs] I mean, who knows?
NS: But if I want to– say I'm creating a game that is late-1800s, where the Industrial Revolution is in full swing, how would that process look for them? I may be pulling out my cotton book. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Right!
NS: Pulling that out and saying, “Hey, this is something that is gonna be very similar, so you're going to utilize– you're gonna have something like this come up in– in your world or your setting.”
AA: Yeah.
NS: Or, “This is how they would document the movement of various types of cotton.”
AA: Right; right. So you're actually incorporating it into your storycraft?
NS: Yes. I do try to have a — I wouldn't say analog — but I– I try to have a way for somebody to– to have a realism connection, whether that just be a very small little thread for them to follow that along, because every person interacts with the world differently.
AA: Yeah.
NS: And I want a way for people who see the world in very different ways to be able to interact with it in a way that they feel comfortable and excited to do so. And so I am trying to leave as many little threads and tools available for them to utilize for their self-expression.
AA: Mm-hmm; mm-hmm. So you– you're talking about, you know, storycraft and using this realism and infusing the realism to give people, you know, a– a handhold or a– or a, you know, something that they can really sink their teeth into and– and that can support their creative expression, effectively. And so I would love to know what it is about the aspect of play and incorporating that into what your creative expression is; so you– you play games, and you use that as part of your creative practice. And I– I just would love to know: what is it about play that– that makes you so willing and excited to do this as a– as a profession?
NS: I do think it comes down to a few things, one of which is self-expression. I find this a very easy avenue for me to express my interests, my talents, my emotions, my relationships, my perspective in a safe environment, and I– and I love that aspect. I think also it comes down to: you are creating a story, whether you're a player or a GM, or you're just an observer; when it comes to play, you are crafting and creating something with a chosen community, and what comes out of that is not 100% your own. You feel part of something bigger than yourself, but you also feel an aspect of accomplishment with that — which I think goes back into our individual psyche of like, “Oh, I accomplished something; I– I did something amazing.” Or “I– I did this thing that got to help somebody else.” Or– and there– there's definite psychology, and that will probably be a completely different talk on game– on game psychology. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Sure, sure.
NS: Um, and what happens during tabletop RPGs. But when you're creating something with other people, there's very much a sense of community. There is a sense of, “We're doing something bigger than ourselves.”
AA: Yeah, yeah.
NS: And I love that. I love having a community where I– I never had a community, or I love creating something with my chosen community of like, “Hey, this is my table I've been playing with for six years every single week. You know, we've created this whole world and these characters and these NPCs.” Yeah, it's a way of self-expression and community for me.
AA: There's definitely a– a profundity in collaboration, and collaborative storytelling, that just, I think, satisfies some kind of really deep human need for connection. And you're absolutely hitting that nail right on the head. I love this chosen community idea and this– this concept that we're– we're creating something together and that's bigger– bigger than us. That's beautiful.
NS: I think it's also a way for us to express empathy.
AA: Yeah.
NS: And connection with, whether that be a person, an idea, a concept, a perspective that is different than our own. It is what makes us human. We– we see, you know, we're just human.
AA: Right.
NS: And to– to have that human connection with another person on some level. Whether that be through an empathetic conversation with your characters over a bowl of soup–
AA: [chuckles]
NS: –or that could be, you are deescalating a situation in real life. I am more empathetic to people and different perspectives than I ever was or was able to acknowledge, um, in the past through playing RPGs.
AA: Wow, that's very powerful that it can have that effect.
NS: Mm-hmm.
AA: Well, and like you said earlier, you know, the– the idea of roleplay, and the idea of inhabiting a character, helped you through trauma. It's giving you these skills of empathy. It's, you know– that play has, I think, really affected you, and we're seeing that now in the incredibly empathetic and expressive player and GM that you are.
NS: Oh, thank you.
AA: So, thank you for being in the world, Nychelle. [chuckles]
NS: Oh, the world's gonna have to fight me on that one because I'm here to stay. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Oh my goodness. So, um, is there– do you have any projects that are exciting you, that are coming up that you– that you wanna share?
NS: Oh, goodness. Um…
AA: Or is it all grad school, all the time?
NS: Well, I have, I have cleared my schedule for the next couple of years for grad school. [chuckles]
AA: [chuckles] Yeah.
NS: Um, yeah; I– a few months ago, I was added to the dev team for Fallout: Cascadia–
AA: Uh-huh.
NS: –which is a video game mod for Fallout 4. Through Bethesda and so it's, it's completely volunteer basis. I am gonna essentially be digging in after residency and gonna try my best to, to write Quest lines and dialogue and things like that, and do some voice acting for some of the companions and maybe some of the NPCs.
AA: Oh, wow.
NS: So that's gonna be really exciting. Another project I can't necessarily talk about; it is Blades-related. I am excited. It's a long-term project; I'm still working on filling those segments. [laughs]
AA: [laughs] Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes, yes. [chuckles]
NS: But grad school, and– and spending time with, you know, family in my various spheres of what I do are, essentially, my entire plate for the next few years, and seeing where that takes me.
AA: Yes. I mean, I've been through the creative writing MFA too, so– it's a lot of work, and I am so excited to hear how you do with it. It's wonderful.
NS: Oh, yeah, you'll– you'll probably be getting some questions in your DMs, like: “Allison, I didn't know about this! Why didn't you ever warn me about this?!” [chuckles]
AA: [chuckles] Bring it on; bring it on. We can– we can all support each other.
NS: Oh, yes.
AA: Thank you so much for joining me for this conversation. I'm just so excited that we got this chance to sit down. But before we close, can you tell us where we can find you online and follow your wonderful work?
NS: Yes. And thank you for being such a wonderful and gracious hostess and wonderful person. It's– it was lovely to get to meet you in person and I look forward to many more chats.
AA: Aw; yeah!
NS: People can find me at Twitter at Mistletoetrex, or I have a more personal Instagram account that is more of, like, my cat, some tribal projects I'm working on–
AA: Mm-hmm.
NS: –and you might get an occasional selfie or random antique, uh, hull or something like that on there. And that is at the same tag, Mistletoetrex. And for those of you in the Blades community, Blades in the Dark community, you already know me; I'm part of the admin team for She Who Ships in Darkness, because we always ship everything. [laughs] And yeah; that's where– that's where people can find me.
AA: Wonderful. Thank you; thank you so much. You can follow Little Oracles (at) little oracles on Instagram. Check out the blog for more big book energy and creativity content at littleoracles dot com. And as always, take care, keep creating and stay divine.
[Outro music]
[Secret outtake]
NS: We've had that same table for six-plus years meeting every week.
AA: Wow.
NS: Playing Blades in the Dark. And that's actually where I met my– my partner.
AA: Blades: bringing people together. [laughs]
NS: [laughs] Exactly! I filled that relationship clock! [laughs]
AA: [laughs]