Like many, I've been prepping for our annual worldbuilding marathon since Summer Games ended. And even though I've gotten a late start on my pledge this year, I'm both excited and ready to make some serious headway on getting to know the Black Box Casino and its owner, Ruth Anne Black.

I'm delighted by this fun new bingo prep. I've decided to go for a full cover, since I'm starting with a new world. I've been daydreaming meditating obsessing on Ruth and the Black Box for weeks now and I legit think I'll be able to make 50,000 words again this year!

I'm super pleased and honored to be able to offer my time to the service of the community that has done so much to improve my skills and has driven me not just as a professional worldbuilder, but a better writer and even to co-found a publishing and media company, Television Sky!

Glad you asked! This year's winner in the ████████ template will receive:

All of these are from FanRoll, an amazing company here in Indiana that produces precision dice. (I took calipers and measured all the dice dealers at GenCon one year; my results are why I've switched permanently to FanRoll.)

I've spent the last several weeks immersed in music and visuals to grab the feeling and theme of the casino's glittering lies.

The soundtrack from Ocean's Eleven is an excellent example of the energy I'm going for. The color verdigris (oxidized copper, like the Statue of Liberty). Secrets and cigarette smoke, liquor and gambling, sex and lies. The distractions and illusions and misdirections designed to keep us trapped in our own dreams hopes wishes. The impossible offered on maybe.

My original plan was to work my way around the entire velvet abyss as the mood struck, hopping from the Hotel to the Train to the Casino and exploring the yellow along the way. But that plan was taken away from me, and so I'll be focusing on Ruth's little corner of the world.

This was just a quick tidy as I went through a few weeks ago and updated all of my socials to reflect my involvement with TelevisionSky.net and the velvet abyss.

Finding new readers who love the lore is my biggest goal at the moment. The stories that we're telling in these settings are absolute fire. But bridging the gaps between different publishing and social media sites is difficult.

I've been having a lot of fun spinning up a whole look for the Black Box and it's mysterious owner, Ruth Anne Black. Images have been a huge part of this and I had special fun making up this mood board. It is my first look at some of the other characters that will have an impact on the daily happenings in and around the casino.

Since this world is so new, these were easy.

I made sure not to overcrowd my homepage with information at the moment. I'm not making promises about what it will be, I'm going to let it grow and see what it becomes. I'm not in a rush to find these stories. I am content to let them reveal themselves to me.

My categories will grow as the world does; I'm not new to this and I know how to build a structure on the fly.

for! His guidance and feedback consistently improve my writing. For anyone who has the means, hire an editor you trust. It will take you to the next level and you'll learn things about your writing your voice your style that you never knew.

As I don't have any stubs, I've made myself a list of articles to make. I don't want to pre-make stubs and risk forgetting to reset the article creation dates, especially since we're less than 24 hours away from the official start.

Fortunately, I'm a big fan of casino and mob movies, so I've got a good handle on how this is supposed to feel. And both my editor and my husband are intimately familiar with Las Vegas and can ensure that I'm nailing the feel.

Sexy, dark, gritty, sinful. Crime noir. Neon obsidian chrome. Decadent excess. Rigged, unfair, gimmicked.

It's cold enough to see my breath, something that doesn't often happen in the Nevada desert but is common here in the Midwest at this time of year. Thanksgiving is over, my birthday is over, and I'm ready to focus my creative energy on WorldEmber. The sky is shattered by the barren trees, a gradient of blue gold peach lilac as the sun sets and the temperature drops more.

I'm already a member of the Discord so I took this opportunity to make a global post about my Homework. Also, I've been taking some time to go through my notifications before they get out of hand ahead of WE submissions.

Having a new world, I have planned what core articles to make and I've done a good deal of artwork to go with them. As soon as the challenge officially opens, I'll surround myself in a cozy fog of creativity and set to work pouring out the words to describe this amazing place.

This one's easy! The soundtracks from Ocean's Eleven and the sequels. Absolutely perfect Las Vegas vibe, and exactly the feeling that I'm going for. Timeless with a big fat nod to the Rat Pack era. If that doesn't work, then I've got a Noir Jazz playlist all worked up as well.

It's the sound of cigarette smoke, cocktails, and dames with legs for lightyears. The neon-lit bar near the casino exit where the losers stop to down a cheap drink before they go back inside to see if they can make it lucky just one last time. Anything to pay off their debt to the house. The late-night lounge where everything and everyone is for sale, if you're willing to pay the price.

Currently, this is my only unfinished article! I'm having a lot of fun going through the entire Bingo board and thinking about all of the open possibilities within this new world.

This is actually one of my favorite writing rituals! I am fortunate to have a large desk with plenty of room for my writing to be everywhere I need it to be. Notes to the left of me, notebooks to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with Ruuuuth!

I have my WorldEmber 2023 notebook for keeping track of things I don't want to put in articles. Despite being the Sovereign of Stumps, I'm horrible at resetting the dates! (See the stub section above.)

Since the Black Box Casino is already narrow as far as worldbuilding goes, I feel comfortable just letting things flow as they come to me. I want to explore the characters most of all and the stories that they have to tell. Everyone knows what a casino is, and so it's the relationships and power struggles that really make the Black Box stand out in the genre.

Why? These are words that are best reserved for the challenge. Everyone knows what a casino is, it's a pretty universal concept. Even as a metaphor for degeneracy everyone gets the idea of a casino. So this will be easy and give me an excellent gateway to suggest a lot of the tension and mystery that goes along with the Black Box.

As I said above, this is why I pay my editor. He knows how important this is to me and will do his own part to keep me on track.

Done! I've got a blank header all prepped and that will be enough for the moment. I've got a quick reference in Canva for all of the main characters I plan to focus on (seven, eight if you count the Black Box herself).

Desperate, delusional, and dangerous. Criminals of every stripe and sort. Drug dealers, sex workers, gamblers, gangsters, showgirls, con artists, runaways. Anyone addicted to excess, no matter the vice. Everyone is looking to escape something and finds themselves trapped by that hope. The bougie bitches and the classy criminals mingle with dangerous degenerates and gregarious gangsters.

Already baked in. I have several hours in the evening after work I can devote to getting words out. Even with video chats scheduled for Mondays and Thursdays.

WorldEmber has been a bright light in the waning of the year, carrying me through the depression that goes along with the light's shift into the longest nights. The winter also makes it nice to spend weekends cozy in my office, writing and reading and dreaming of new worlds full of fascinating stories.

Again, this is already done. See the section on Stubs above! But here is an incomplete list of the people and topics I want to cover:

I feel like these will give me a good start and plenty of material from which to springboard as I need new articles.

I made sure to stock up on healthy snacks at the grocery this week. Fresh fruit, dried berries, nuts, yogurt. Things like that. Knowing myself as I do, I will go for quick grab-and-eat snacks that I can have while I'm at my desk. Limiting my own access to quick junk like chips, snack cakes, and candy will help keep my disordered eating from interfering with my creative flow.