The Conversation

Announcer : Yes, viewers welcome back to Conversations , with your host, Guede Nibo !

<There are loud applause as Guede Nibo walks onto the spotlit stage, accompanied by the sound of a band playing somewhere off stage right. Two purple and black striped chairs sit facing one another. A small, circular, silver table sits between them. Seated upon it is a pitcher and two glasses. The camera and spotlight follows Nibo as he shakes hands with the audience who sits in the darkness outside the view of the spotlight. The music cuts as Nibo takes to center stage, while applause continue.>

GN: Thank you, thank you … and thank you !

<Smattering of laughter as Nibo points around to the audience.>

GN: Seriously, folks. I want to thank you for once again coming out to the show. It warms our hearts to think you want to let us entertain you. As for my wife, she’s just happy that I’m not doing this on ZOOM. Now I have to put pm pants now at 7 or 8 and go do my show.

<Audience laughter and clapping .Roll on snare drum.>

GN: We have a really big show for you tonight. Ed - who’s our first guest ?

Announcer: The Author of the horror books Blue Summer and Gruff Ending, it’s “S” from J.E.S. Campbell.

<The spotlight swings to the audience, not quite making it to the edge of the first row, then back to the chair on stage right. A bewildered middle-aged man, with messy greying hair, dressed in a black t-shirt and sweatpants is seated in the chair. His feet are bare. The band plays a cover of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army in a vintage New Orleans dirge.>

S: Huh, wha ? Where the f-<beep>

<Chuckles from the audience.>

GN: Now, now, none of that here. We need to abide by FCC regulations. Welcome, Mr. S, to Conversations !

S: Who are you ? Who are they ?

GN: Isn’t he a kidder folks ? He writes me in his stories, and doesn’t even recognize me. I don’t even get a kickback from the profits.

<Audience laughter>

S: Guede Nibo. Okay, okay. So, um, this is a dream is it ?

GN: Well, it is and it isn’t. It is in the sense, that these here are your loyal fans, and you get to talk to them about your books. It isn’t in the sense that, being your biggest fans that they are hungry…

<The spotlight swings to the audience, who are lit for a moment. Creatures of every ghastly nightmare come within view which is mercifully cut short as the light swings back to center stage.>

GN: … and possibly not only to hear what you have to say. Shall we begin ?

S: Uh…uh….yeah, sure.

GN: Excellent ! So, you started writing a year ago these little horror stories of yours. What was your inspiration ?

S: Well, um, well…

<A suckered tentacle from the audience brushes S’s ankle, and he quickly withdraws his legs to the chair seat with a jump.>

S: We, J , E, and I , had been listening to the podcasts from the Adventure Zone for some time. They had played an arc using Dungeons and Dragons , and had decided to branch into other games. One of which really appealed to me - Monster of the Week. So, I ordered it and the game is really easy to follow to make up your own adventures. Our first adventure…

GN: Blue Summer ?

S: Yes, well, I took it from the Legend of the Blue Dog. It was a legend I was told in elementary school. I was shocked that J had never heard of it, so I inter-weaved the tale with images and notions from Conan Doyle’s Hound of the Baskervilles. I am a Sherlock Holmes aficionado ;J and I had been been brought up on PBS’ Mystery. Some of our memories around high school were from spending our time watching Jeremy Brett play out his role as Sherlock Holmes. E had never watched any of these, so I’d like to think some of this was new to her. I mean, what if the hound was real ? And that’s where I drew parallels to the legend and Conan Doyle’s work.

GN: And what about E and J’s characters ?

S: Well, E wanted to play an emo character somehow linked to J’s monstrous character. Tome of Mysteries hadn’t come out yet, so we went initially with a Flake and Monstorous playbook for Hester and Tempy’s characters. When we got the TOM, then we shifted Hester to a Pararomantic build in time for Gruff Ending.

<A scrim has dropped behind S and Nibo. Projected on it are the forms of Hester and Tempy in her monstrous form. A few catcalls and laughter come from the audience. “Tempy” looks over to S with an accusing glance, her smile grows obscenely wide.>

GN: Yes, well, we all have a special space for Tempy, don’t we ?

S: Well, ahem, uh sure.

GN: So , how about your inspiration for Gruff Ending ?

S: Well, uh - I wanted to have something a bit “more”, you know. So I thought back to when I was a kid, and there was a couple of friend groups I’d hang with. Both agreed on one thing - that there was a Goat Man. It’d live in the woods behind the elementary school where there was a wastewater runoff and one of my groups would go biking, or it’d live in the woods behind our neighborhood, where the other group would spend their time hanging out one each other’s porches. You didn’t want to be caught alone in these areas or the Goat Man would get ya.

<Baying from the audience. S is caught off-guard and jumps. More laughter.>

S: So, yeah. E wanted to have some other characters introduced as Hester was growing up and becoming more social. She designed the Hester Circle of Friends, and I incorporated them into the mystery.

GN: What about your next book ?

S: I’ve been using the working title Angry Sun, Proper Moon. Not sure if we are going to stick with it; that was a title of two paintings by E, who did some of the illustrations for our symbol at J.E.S. Campbell, and I was going to use the paintings for the cover with her permission. It picks up where Gruff Ending leaves, hunting the remaining Wendigo and exploring the remnants of Hester and Tempy’s circle as well as the goings on with the XILED.

GN: We are very excited and can’t wait to hear more from you as it comes closer to publication !

S: Well, we have to finish playing first, and then there is this other project I’m working on…

<Grumblings from the audience. Something wet begins to slither loudly.>

GN: Well, I think it’s time for us to take a break. Join us after the commercial for …

<The spots swing out to the front row as crawling things begin to rush the stage. Seven Nation Army begins to play, and as the lights swing back to center stage, S has vanished.>