Hello, friends! I’ve had another busy week — that never seems busy while I’m in the thick of it, only in retrospect — that involved a lot of games, books and related (mostly) fun experiences.
First and probably most importantly for the purposes of this newsletter was the dry run that the Silver Spring chapter of the Designed In The DMV group had for our local Indie Tabletop Day! This was ahead of the bigger event that we’ll be holding September 28 at Pure Panic Comics & Games.
Indie Tabletop Day is going to be a full day of tabletop role-playing games, vendors and panels featuring local, independently produced tabletop RPGs. There’ll be ten game slots to sign up for, two panels to attend, and loads of designers selling their awesome games. More details as they come at the link and barcode in the graphic above! Pure Panic, located very conveniently in Downtown Silver Spring, will be opening early for us, and also carries an excellent selection of games (local or otherwise) and comics. They currently have several copies of my own Honey Hex in stock; I’ll need to replenish their supply of both Equinox and Camp Elementa soon!
As part of the dry run, we rearranged the store layout to accommodate the number of gaming tables we’re planning to run, then played Grint’s Tiny Mall Wizards to test general feasibility. It was a super fun time! Grint will be running TMW during Indie Tabletop Day and will have copies available for sale then too; I think he has some in stock at Pure Panic now as well!
In other game news, my team won our third Trivia Night in a row at Edgewood Community Farm, leading our excellent hosts to ask whether there were any subjects that we’re bad at, lol. Alas or otherwise, fellow trivia buffs, it looks like our team — named KPop Dictator Hunters this month, which also won the extra point for best team name, a genuinely rare occurrence for one of my suggestions — will be skipping September. You should definitely check out what’s the best (and cheapest: not only is it free, but they ask you to take home produce, too!) trivia night in the DC area.
The next day, I went into town again to watch Arsenal beat Leeds 5-0, with the occasion of Bukayo Saka’s first goal this season causing Franklin Hall’s owner Nate to break out the Saka mini he’d ordered from London. That plus the Eze announcement right before kickoff had a (surprisingly) packed bar in celebration mode for hours. It made for a great distraction from the atmosphere of fear on our doorstep. Fortunately, I didn’t see much by way of unnecessary militarization that day (as I thankfully hadn’t the night before either, when I’d taken an angry night-time walk, complete with sandwich, around the farm’s neighborhood after trivia.) It was disconcerting tho to see all the unhoused people pushed north into Silver Spring by this administration’s cruelty. I’m glad that my state can provide a relatively safe landing for the unhoused — especially given the proximity of one of my favorite charities, Shepherd’s Table, to the main transit center — but it’s still infuriating that anyone can believe that criminalization is the best way to end homelessness.
And for all that I deeply believe in supporting commerce and the arts in DC, I wound up wavering on whether to go to the Jessie Murph concert at The Anthem last night. I ended up asking friends who live close to the venue what the area has been looking like, as I felt particularly vulnerable going as a solo woman of color to a neighborhood that I’m not all that familiar taking public transit in and out of. After a friend reported that he’d seen militia with rifles milling around that morning, I ultimately decided not to go. And that sucks. I love DC, and have spent years wandering around its streets in the wee hours of the morning, with friends or alone. I’ve dumped guys who called me “brave” for living in predominantly Black neighborhoods. And I’m not even afraid of authority, necessarily: back during the post 9/11 days, I used to joke that I lived in the biggest gated community in the world, due to the presence of armed guards around Capitol Hill whom I’d have to pass on my way home. I’ve just never in my life felt so afraid of existing in DC as I do under this current administration and its violent occupation of the city. I’m trying not to let the fascists steal all my joy, but I certainly have to be more careful and aware, when I really just want to be able to be.
Anyway, relatedly, here’s a potentially helpful resource: Megan Piontkowski’s How To Report ICE zines.
In more pleasant and dissociative news, there’s an awesome Martha Wells Humble Bundle featuring Murderbot (and more!) benefiting World Central Kitchen, another charity I very much adore. If you don’t yet own the Murderbot series, prepare to be enthralled! There’s a TV series too, which I’ve heard is really good.
Reading-wise this week, I really enjoyed Alexandra Brown Chang’s By Invitation Only, which brought back all the lovely Gossip Girl feelings I’d forgotten I missed! (These feelings apply solely to the terrific book series, btw, not the TV show which I hated.) BIO continues the literary tradition of large-hearted, ambitious teenagers — wealthy or otherwise — doing their best to be good people and achieve their dreams in glamorous settings. Piper Woo Collins and Chapin Buckingham are two teenage girls whose dreams collide at the most exclusive debutante ball in the world. Piper is smart but poor, while Chapin is rich but neglected. Can they join forces to take on Le Danse des Debutantes on their own terms?
The other book I adored this week was Chuck Tingle’s Lucky Day, which is absolutely one of the best books of 2025. After a horrifying day filled with improbable mayhem and violence stuns the world and derails statistics professor Vera Norrie’s life, she plunges into a deep depression. Only the appearance of the hope-filled Agent Jonah Layne four years later shakes her out of her funk, after he asks for her help investigating the gambling company he thinks is responsible for what happened. A powerful examination of luck, life and love, this book was spiritual nourishment for the chaos goblin in me. Bisexuals exist! Love is real! We all matter!
Alright, it’s almost midnight and, shocker, I still have a ton of work to do, so stay safe out there and see you in seven, friends!
Currently Playing (Music): Beethoven’s Symphony #2 in D Major; my Declan Rice and 2025 Energy playlists; Chappel Roan’s Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess; Stela Cole’s I Die Where You Begin; Jessie Murph’s Sex Hysteria.
Currently Playing (Games): The Light In The Mist puzzletale, The Wild Beyond The Witchlight, Metazooa by Trainwreck Labs, Learned League trivia, NYT Connections, Your Friend In Witchcraft by Kay Marlow Allen; The Wolves Of Langston by Obvious Mimic.
Currently Reading/Writing (Games): Ghosts Of Saltmarsh.
Currently Reading or Just Read (Books): Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle; The Gift Of Animals by Alison Hawthorne Deming; By Invitation Only by Alexandra Brown Chang; Tea With Jam And Dread by Vicki Delany.