Well, that was an extended blog break.
We hibernated through the rest of 2020, and even hatched plans to start publishing Call of Cthulhu scenarios on the Miskatonic Repository, and Dungeons & Dragons Barovian scenarios on the DMs Guild. We needed an imprint, and like many others named it after our pets: behold, Milton & Marlowe Publications. Huge thanks to Delaney Gray for our logo, you should hire her.
Penny has completed three Barovian scenarios, and I’ve playtested two of them with the Monday night crew, who enjoyed them immensely; they’re now in my editing queue, which shuffles slowly because It’s Been a Year. We’ll pop back and talk about what else we got done last year, but today, let’s meet our founders.
Milton is a black schnauzer cross, so named because William Blake on reading Paradise Lost and finding (as we all do) that the Hell parts are cracking and the Heaven parts are dull, wrote that Milton was “of the devil’s party without knowing it”.
Marlowe is a grey schnauzer cross, well maybe schnauzer, we’re not sure. He’s a rescue dog that had a tough start to life, which left him worried about certain things (thunder, rain, brooms) and furious about others (cats, dogs who are not Milton, cats). He’s a work in progress but he’s better each day, and sleeping peacefully in his nook below my desk while I write this. He is named after Christopher Marlowe, specifically the line in Doctor Faustus, “For where we are is Hell, and where Hell is there must we ever be”.
So, look out for Milton & Marlowe Publications, publishing your way later in 2021. Until then, let this post be an explanation as to why our blog is no longer called “Orient Express Writers”, even though we took that train, twice, and loved it, and we do believe we can hear a whistle coming down the tracks once more from Chaosium so have your tickets and Sanitarium admission forms ready.
Happy New Year, it’s gotta be better than the last one. Until we return, for day-to-day yawps I’m usually spouting something or other on Twitter, whereas Penny prefers to hold her tweets until she’s got something really good, such as this gruel test. Mmmmmm. Gruelly.
Milton & Marlowe Publications 