I live!
It’s been a while, and there’s a reason for that. I now have two children, which is wonderful and amazing and exhausting and I’m very happy about it, but it sure is a bit hectic. At the same time, my role in my day job’s changed a bit, which has kept me even more busy on that front.
So it’s been a lot, I think I can say. And as a result, I haven’t really written very much of anything at all for at least a few months. The funny thing is that I’m actually extraordinarily happy with pretty much everything in my life; it’s just not left space for creative things, which I really would like to be doing, so that’s kind of a bummer. I try not to let it be too much of a bummer, because then it’d sort of spoil everything else that’s all good and whatnot, but still.
ANYWAY.
Although I’ve not written anything new, I have had two pieces published, both by organisations based in Devon, where I live. There’s something a bit special about having work out there with local organisations, you know? This place means a lot to me – more than I’d realised until recently – so it’s pretty cool to be doing some local bitsy-bobsies.
The first is in The Power of Place from Word Kitchen. It’s an anthology collecting experiences, prose, poetry, and anything else responding to the landscape of East Devon; my piece ‘Dragons’ is about a walk with my daughter, and how her simple questions can sometimes be just what I need to unlock parts of me I thought I’d lost.
The second is called ‘The Fuck Hamster’, and it’s just won third prize in the Exeter Writers 2026 Short Story Competition. I’m not sure I’ve ever written anything else in quite such a singular outpouring of emotion – in this case, sheer flipping rage at “generative AI”, which is a phenomenon that’s genuinely making me feel like I’m losing my mind a bit.
The other cool thing that’s just happened is that some of the good folks over at Action Fiction and QuasiReal have just done a playthrough of Moorland Scherzo, an adventure module I helped develop for the Cthulhu Dreamt role-playing game.
I believe that module should be released some time not too far from now for everyone to play for themselves, as well as the main TTRPG campaign and accompanying novel (also written by me!), but in the meantime, it’s pretty fun to watch the players suffer… I mean, have fun. I mean, both.
My involvement with this one mostly took place last year or even earlier, but it’s cool how this is another love letter to the local landscape that happens to have coincided with those other Devon-based pieces.
I am now trying to work out what to do next. If anyone has any thoughts or would like to start a fun little accountability club or something, do shout, ‘cos heaven knows I seem to need the help.
The problem seems to be that there are far too many projects I could be working on, and picking a single one is just impossible. Realising you have next to no chance of ever actually finishing all the stories you wanted to tell is a bit of a nightmare I imagine most creative folks go through at some point, but I’m sure we’ll come out the other side.
Maybe when the baby’s sleeping a bit better… although that’s never actually guaranteed to happen, like, ever, is it?
Oh, well.
Chris Durston 