Greetings, fans! Aside from my new gaming channel, Let's Play D&D, I am continuing my YouTube series, Tales from Aenya, with bios about the people of Aenya. First up, I share my thoughts about Radia. Be sure to check it out, like, share, and subscribe! https://youtu.be/tZoxVKlPjtE
The ILMAR are a primitive human culture native to Aenya distinguished by their absence of clothing. Due to their rejection of social norms, and prehistoric ways of living, the civilized races of Aenya consider them a lesser subspecies. They are called savages, wild humans, feral children, or barbarians (despite their class). Ilmar are shunned where people gather, which forces them to live alone or in small bands of no more than a dozen individuals far from cities and villages, in forests, swamps, and grasslands. The prejudiced view towards the Ilmar is perpetuated by what little is known of their culture. Having lost their ancestral land to famine and changing climate, Ilmar who have not gone into hiding are often forced into service as soldiers and slaves, or end up as beggars on city streets. A small number of them adopt local customs, learning to wear clothes while keeping secret their…
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Who is Kalima and how does she relate to the Aenya Series? Well, she started out as my wife's D&D character, a grumpy but endearing female dwarf, and is now being featured in my daughter's YouTube animated series, 2D&D. We've been playing 5th edition for five years now, in a campaign that started out in... Continue Reading →
I felt pressured to reading the Witcher after the series was turned into a Netflix original starring Henry Cavill, and a trilogy of video games for PC, PS4 and Xbox. Even my nephew, who abhors reading anything more than a JRPG dialogue box, told me he had read the first book, so I figured I... Continue Reading →
It's probably no secret by now that I love Dungeons & Dragons. I've been playing for about thirty years, since 1985~86, and it's been like kerosene for the flame of my imagination. Before D&D exploded in popularity, I was embarrassed to tell people I played, as if no serious author could harbor so much love... Continue Reading →
I have long argued that the most important thing in storytelling is the quality and originality of its ideas. Not every book needs engaging characters or a gripping plot, so long as the ideas the author provides are interesting, insightful, or inspiring. By contrast, too many writers these days stick to the by-the-numbers guidelines for... Continue Reading →
Exciting news, everyone! I have officially started work on my next project, tentatively titled, The Feral Girl, and YOU could be the first to see it!!! As a beta reader, you will receive parts of the story as I write it, with a chance to offer feedback and influence the outcome of the story. What... Continue Reading →
My thirty-year journey toward literary greatness has been fraught with enough obstacles to wear down the hardiest of adventurers. I've struggled with apathetic friends, a disapproving family, a host of ban-hammering moderators, gangs of internet trolls, and my own demons of doubt and despair, all while clambering over mountains of indie writers competing for attention.... Continue Reading →
VALIDATION!!! That's how I am feeling today. VALIDATION! SUCCESS!! HUZZAH!!! OK, what the heck am I talking about? Well, for the past decade, I've been struggling with demons of doubt and uncertainty. Based strictly on my understanding of what makes for great storytelling, and on the number of fans who gush over my work, I... Continue Reading →
I wrote this piece in 2017, but the recent COVID-19 outbreak has me thinking about it again, specifically where, in the article, I talk about health and security. We know the coronavirus can live on surfaces, possibly even clothing, and that the CDC recommends disinfecting everything and washing your hands as often as possible. But how can you wash your clothes during the day when you have to wear them? Unless you work in a laundromat, and have a change of uniform ready, this is not feasible. But if we lived in a nudist society, we could easily wash our entire bodies any time. Just stick a shower stall in every bathroom, and we would be living in a much cleaner and healthier world.
Image courtesy of Searching4Eden
Can nudism save the world …?
Not really. No. Thanks for stopping by.
OK, wait. There’s more! But you probably guessed that, right? Nudism/Naturism won’t save the world, but it can make the world a better place. Now, I am not going to go into the usual spiel about body acceptance and freedom. Too much nudist rhetoric is hyperbole, and its end-goals arbitrary. Like I wrote in my earlier post, Why Nudism is Wrong*, we don’t need to expose our genitals to see that humans come in all shapes and sizes. Rather, I intend to examine the concrete, practical effects of a world without clothing taboos, a world where public nakedness is not only accepted, but the norm, a world where words like ‘naked’ and ‘nudist’ are superfluous. What kind of world would that look like? And what benefits could we derive from such a…
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