My name is Tim Brannan and I blog over at The Other Side. My blog is primarily a gaming blog; I write about Role-Playing Games, the original kind, with paper, pencils and dice. I tend to focus primarily on games I have been involved with over the last 30+ years of playing, running and eventually, writing them. So my blog, originally, began as a means of me improving on and showing off my game writing. My particular interests though lie in horror games. I worked on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG and I wrote Ghosts of Albion. So I wanted to expand out in to horror as well.
I came to the A to Z blogging challenge back in 2011. I figure I was blogging everyday anyway, so the challenge for me was finding something to say that began with that day’s letter. I checked over my regular schedule and I noticed that the letters corresponded well with my regular posts. I remember that Z fell on a Saturday that year and I post about the comic character Zatanna on Saturdays. That clinched it for me! Last year I went REALLY overboard and all my posts on the Other Side had to fit my theme of reviewing a new RPG. So I reviewed 26 games, in alphabetical order. Because I am also a glutton for punishment, I participated over at my Atheism blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief, about the A to Z of Atheism.
For 2013, I am thinking of adding a couple of blogs to the challenge, these are ones I co-author with others.
The A to Z Challenge was so much fun that I have been itching to do something like that on my own. Some sort of blogging challenge that would play to my interests and maybe even give my little blog some attention. We I finally came up with something in the form of MONSTROUS MONDAY. There are five Mondays in October this year and I thought it would be great if I posted a monster every Monday. These would be game stats, something you could use in a game. But then I got to thinking, my audience is more than just gamers. I decided to expand it to include any type of monster discussion. I know a lot of authors too, so they can talk about the monster from their new book. Movie bloggers can join and talk about their favorite movie monster; I could go on for pages (and have) about Dracula for example.
So allow me to present the MONSTROUS MONDAY bloghop/blogfest (not sure what the difference is). Just go to my blog, grab the code, sign up and Monday, October 29th post your monster. I have information, banners/buttons and signup here: http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/p/bloghop.html
What I would love is to get a variety of blogs to participate. Blogging is great, but we all tend to stay in our own circles. Not that we all necessarily all agree with each other all the time, but there is a tendency for us all to talk about the same things. A bloghop or a blogfest is a great way to expand your circles a bit, to see what other bloggers are doing, what sort of things excite them and so on. I enjoy stepping outside the gaming circles because I get different perspectives. I can talk about something like vampires or witches and get totally different responses from gamers, horror authors and horror movie fans. I find that feedback essential to my growth as a blogger and as a game writer. And if I can also get some people interested in this hobby of mine, then all the better!
So let’s see your monsters! The ones you love, the ones you hate and the ones that still send you hiding under the covers or behind the sofa!
Thanks Tim! I've signed up on Tossing It Out. This is a great way to celebrate Halloween and I've always had a soft spot in my heart for monsters. How about you? Do you like monsters? Would you like to join us on Monday October 29th for this blog event?
