I’m not sure I’d want to WRITE it - it sounds like a lot of work! - but I’d love to READ a choosable-path Back to the Future story. So much potential there! So, uh, Bob Gale: CALL ME.

noooooo

USUALLY it’s songs I already like and know well, because I need to ignore the lyrics. Sometimes I’ll put a song on endless loop all day, but only if nobody else is home, because other humans don’t like that.

I tried a few names and Tom worked best! Did you solve Nurse Quest on your own? I was really happy with that because it’s a puzzle in the book that you really do need to puzzle out yourself; there’s no “turn to 555 for the solution” angle to it. Free movement in a book!

Hey thanks! And GOOD NEWS, Leo: “Midsummer” is actually included as a book-within-a-book in Romeo and/or Juliet. While Juliet is faking her own death for 42 hours, she has a dream. A... midsummer night’s dream. Only of course it’s presented in choose-your-own-path book format, so it’s A Midsummer Night’s Choice. :0

Chocolate-covered almonds (NOTE: these are delicious, I dunno how good they are for you though)

CYMBALINE! It’s got a bonkers plot that sidelines its main character for the second half of the play, a literal Deus Ex at the end where Saturn (IIRC) comes down and sorts everything out, etc. In many ways its a hot mess - it’s the least-performed Shakespeare play (except the one(?) we lost, of course) - but it’s…

NOPE!! I feel like you get a pass on your first hole, like you fall in a hole and everyone’s like “man, it could happen to anyone”, but the moment you get trapped in a SECOND hole, the conversation switches to “man, what is wrong with Ryan that he keeps getting stuck in holes; I am reconsidering my friendship with…

See, that’s how they USED to be written (insanity wall style) but I use software that lets me put text in boxes and then draw lines between the boxes, so I can keep the visual structure of the story straight (and visible!)

My pleasure, thank you!

Hey, I just found out that the MacArthur Genius Grants (pardon me, the “MacArthur Fellows Program”) are for Americans only! At first I was mad, but now I’m like “oh so THAT’S why they haven’t given me one yet, Canada rules”, so it all worked out in the end.

me tbh

Doreen’s dates will maybe be successful in the future, but not in the next issue, that’s for sure! THINGS GET WORSE, in the merry Marvel fashion!!

Thanks Abi!!

Squirrel Girl would get the “Juliet as Pirate on Brewski Island” ending, because that is the ending you get if you play as Juliet and make the most sensible decisions all the way through. In To Be or Not To Be it was the “Ophelia invents indoor heating” ending, for the same reason!

Knowing when you’re done! A book like this can be played with forever, adding in paths, taking them away, and it’s a bit of an art to know when to say “there, I made this and it is good, THE END”. Because you could keep building on it, day after day, adding new characters, adventures, worlds, etc, until you’re 100…

Aw that’s really great! They are great dudes.

I can tell you that at one point we all put in minor characters based off our own trollsonas and that MINE IS THE BEST

I think interactive fiction - especially in book form - as historically been used mainly for books for children, and that’s really exciting when you sit down to write something for a more all-ages audience, because there’s stuff you can do that HASN’T BEEN DONE BEFORE. It’s bonkers! You stumble across neat ideas for…

Less resistance against hotties! THIS I DECREE