Hey hey! It’s Wednesday!
How are you all doing? I feel like this is the first week in New England where it’s officially fall. I made some yummy apple butter on Sunday, though I overpromised batches and definitely need to make more for interested parties.
My partner and I played a fun (and admittedly complicated) board game: Arkham Horror. It’s a spooky, cosmic horror game where characters have to work together to solve a mystery, but the story has branching elements depending on what happens. We’ll be playing it again on Friday (along with another game, Root) with a larger group now that we know what to do!
Are any of you board game players? Do you have favorites?
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A new romance conference is in the works and the author line up so far is pretty impressive. The Rom Con is currently raising funds to launch the conference late next year! Have y’all heard anything about this?
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I was all-in on this American Girl time-traveling theory!
https://twitter.com/klitklittredge/status/1572679295369379840
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Romance great, Sandra Kitt, is back! She has an exclusive interview with Buzzfeed, as well as a cover reveal for her next contemporary romance.
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Sarah was on the Kingdom of Thirst podcast to celebrate their two year anniversary! Happy anniversary, Abigail!
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Tess sent this link in and I think it really captures the drama of a mid-week energy slump. Thanks, Tess!
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Yay Arkham Horror! I’ve only seen that one played, not had a chance myself. And I’ve heard of Root, but haven’t played that one either. Last game we played was Excavation Earth, where humans are long gone and aliens are digging up “relics” like battered license plates and lucky-cat statues and buying/selling/trading them. Our copy of Flamecraft arrived also, but we haven’t had a chance to play yet!
Drama clip is too real, Rachel is funny. 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/07/legal-quirk-allows-gay-couples-in-china-to-get-married-online-in-conservative-utah
I saw this article in the Guardian earlier in the week — gay couples in China are making use of a legal quirk to get married via Zoom in Utah. Love it — I feel like there’s a movie idea in there somewhere.
Some my Outlandish Chicago peeps helped work out the kinks for this one:
https//boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/339875/outlander-series-board-game
Me, I like a good round of Encore. Vastly improved being played in large groups. Alcohol optional, but recommended.
I like games! Some I enjoy are Mah Jongg (National Mah Jongg League version), Bananagrams, A Little Wordy, SET, Quarto, Fluxx, and Clue to name a few.
I also enjoy Wordle daily though that is not a board game.
Ooh, I am a game player! Due to the pandemic, I’ve gone all in on games that play as well with two people as they do with four. One of my favorites in this too-small category is Illimat by Twogether Studies. It was inspired by a (fake) game in a Decemberists music video, which was then made into a real game. It’s not horror like Arkham Horror is but it does have *Halloween vibes*. It’s not hard to learn the basics and game play is a nice compact 25-35 minutes. And the box is part of the game pieces! Preorders for a second edition open on 11/1 and I am planning to order as least one as a holiday present.
https://www.twogetherstudios.com/products/illimat
I’m a board game geek! I’ll play anything pretty much. My favourite right now is Wingspan because even though I’m super competitive, I don’t really give a crap about winning in Wingspan, just getting all the cool birds in my sanctuary.
I backed the cutest game on Kickstarted called Flamecraft. It arrived a few weeks ago but I haven’t played it yet as I’ve just got back from vacation. But you’re essentially building up a town by using your artisan dragons to enchant shops. Hoping to get friends together to play it soon.
I backed Flamecraft as well! However, I added on a plushie, so I’m assuming that slows down the shipping.
Have you seen the new romance novel-themed ad campaign for Capri Sun?!
https://www.adweek.com/creativity/heres-why-capri-suns-latest-campaign-looks-like-a-steamy-romance-novel/
I’m not much of a gamer, but I have tried some cooperative games. I’ve played The Grizzled with my husband and brother. It’s set in World War I, and you play soldiers in the trenches. Obviously things can get a bit dark, but also really interesting because you can draw cards that say because of your shell shock you, for example, can’t speak, or must throw yourself into any fight, until someone has a medic card to heal you. It’s also really hard (at least for us), but it’s good and it doesn’t seem many people know about it.
@Kris Bock I’ve played The Grizzled a couple of times with friends and it’s on my “buy someday” list when I have more people to play with regularly.
I play Arkham Horror The Card Game solo (and generally lose). Also love The Bloody Inn, a humorous game where you are an innkeeper trying to rob, kill and bury your guests before the police catch you. On a bookish theme, I like Ex Libris in which you are trying to organize books in a library. Many of the titles are very funny.
Fav board game is Spirit Island in which you are a spirit or group of spirits making colonists feel very welcome on your island – can be pretty rule heavy but it’s coop and really fun.
For the pretties and much lighter on rules is Meadow which I would recommend.
I only heard about The Rom Con (Anaheim, August 2023) over the weekend and only because Adriana Herrera mentioned it on FB. Have never been to a romance convention but this one is so close I feel like I shouldn’t miss it. Put in my author interest oar but may have missed their deadline. They are framing it to favor inclusive romance and own-voices writers.