Welcome

Posted on April 28, 2016 by Rawle Nyanzi

Nice of you to come! Welcome to my permanent home on the web. Feel free to read my posts.

A post’s comment section will close fourteen days (two weeks) after the post is made.

All the stories I’ve published are below, each one separated by type and series.

Novels/Novellas:

The Perils of Sasha Reed

Shining Tomorrow Volume 1: Shadow Heart (Kindle | Paperback)

Sword & Flower

Short Stories:

Pulse-Pounding Wartime Stories (Risa Yamanote | Mayu Sasaki | Ori Hyomoku)

Machine Crusher Matarobos (Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V ~Finale~)

The Teenage Girl’s Robot Army (Part I | Part II | Part III ~Finale~)

The Age of Petty States ~小国時代~
Hantei wa No Contest (PDF, M4A Audio)
For a Bowl of Rice (PDF)
How to Slay a Bandit (PDF)
The Sword That Breaks Stone (PDF)
Sword Maid (PDF)
Woman Scorned (PDF)
Enemy at Blood River (Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V ~Finale~)

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Sasha Reed Volume 2 is Out Now!

Posted on November 5, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

At long last, it is here! The Perils of Sasha Reed Volume 2 is available for purchase as an ebook! The paperback will come next week once I’ve had a chance to inspect the proof copy. Unlike the previous one, this one has six stories!

THE REVOLUTIONARY INVENTION!

Sasha Reed fears what her Compact Containment Device, or “Cocodee” could do. It’s so powerful that it could make world-ending weapons the size of smartphones. The worst scum on Earth will stop at nothing to get one for themselves, and that means Sasha’s their #1 target. Can she escape their clutches, or is the planet itself doomed to destruction by her own invention?

Order your copy now!

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A Stream with Cider

Posted on July 11, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

I recently did a livestream with a Youtuber named Cider. We talk about why anime is doing so well compared to American comics, and about specific nostalgic anime. Have a listen!

Also, get yourself a copy of The Perils of Sasha Reed while you’re at it.

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Subconscious Influence (Sasha Reed is now in paperback)

Posted on July 7, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

On Twitter, I posted a thread (archive) about the fact that The Perils of Sasha Reed has similarities to an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon called The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a show I watched when I was about eight years old.

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Bad News and Good News Regarding Upcoming Works

Posted on April 16, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

It’s been some time since my last post, and I feel I should give an update.

Let’s start with the bad news first.

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Towards a Better Damsel in Distress Story (Sasha Reed relaunch on the Kindle Store!)

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

The damsel in distress: a scenario where an attractive female is abducted by a villain, and a hero — usually male — has to save her. Once a common motif in popular culture, it has fallen out of favor in modern times because critics and creatives alike consider it limiting or objectifying. Films like the first Star Wars, Terminator, even the first Bad Boys, — situations like that have been replaced by “action girls” like Furiosa of Mad Max: Fury Road or Rey from the newer Star Wars films. This is hailed as a step forward in storytelling, a rejection of old and bigoted ideas in favor of progress and inclusion.

But in the hurry to abandon the damsel, something is lost: the sense of romance.

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My Thoughts on Ukraine, in No Uncertain Terms

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

I 100% support Ukraine in its fight with Russia.

Spare me your talk of Maidan, or NATO, or the US State Department, or whatever bee you have in your bonnet. The minute those tanks rolled in, this stopped being abstract and started being real.

Real lives being shattered. Real communities being ripped to shreds. Real death. Real destruction.

This isn’t some Red Tribe/Blue Tribe nonsense, but a people being subjugated because somebody else doesn’t like their government. They don’t deserve invasion. They don’t deserve occupation. They don’t deserve to have their government replaced by force.

I don’t want to hear about how sleazy Ukraine’s government is, or how their backers don’t line up with your ideological standards. This is for Ukrainians to decide, not Russians.

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1:1 Time Is the Key to Everything in Tabletop RPGs.

Posted on February 10, 2022 by Rawle Nyanzi

A few months back, I made a post about how poorly my tabletop role-playing campaign (a superhero scenario in OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game) went when I attempted 1:1 timekeeping, which means 1 real day equals 1 in-game day. I declared that there was no point to tabletop role-playing, and I extolled the virtues of the video game.

But not long after declaring the failure of my campaign, my players encouraged me to keep it going. I did, and we ended up with a far more enjoyable campaign.

But what made my campaign go from near-collapse to heights undreamed of was how I implemented 1:1 time. It really is the key, the essential ingredient, to any tabletop role-playing campaign.

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It’s Not About Government

Posted on November 19, 2021 by Rawle Nyanzi

Friend of the blog Alexander Hellene thought about what form of government would be able to create the sort of society seen in Star Trek. He concludes that liberal democracy cannot do so, but a more hierarchical system can.

But then I put a question to him, a question that has haunted political theorists for centuries: Who watches the watchmen? Who holds the wielders of power (the “watchmen”) accountable? I answer that liberal democracy attempts a solution despite its flaws, and that alone puts it head-and-shoulders above any system that ignores the question.

However, I thought about it some more, and I realized that I was asking the wrong question entirely.

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Nintendo Killed the Tabletop RPG

Posted on October 19, 2021 by Rawle Nyanzi

Over the past few weeks, I attempted a 1:1 time campaign using OVA: The Anime Role-Playing Game as the basis. I came up with a narrative involving a drug lord who had come with an army from another world to conquer Earth. Amid this chaos, many different characters tried to fulfill their own agendas, from small-time heroes to big CEOs and the government of the Earth Federation itself. It was ambitious and large — surely, this was how tabletop was meant to be played!

But one month later, I learned firsthand why tabletop RPGs were abandoned for video games.

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My Experience With Kindle Vella

Posted on October 1, 2021 by Rawle Nyanzi

The Perils of Sasha Reed

Recently, I posted the final chapter of The Perils of Sasha Reed; thus, there are no plans to post more stories in this series, and it has been marked as complete. and would like to reflect on how Kindle Vella has treated me as a platform. I started this experiment with high hopes; let’s see if those expectations have been met.

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