All Work and No Play Makes Noisms a [Insert Insult of Choice Here]

For the past six weeks, this blog has lain in quiscence. There is a simple reason for this: I had too much going on. What I learned this summer was that there is only so long that one can maintain a 'proper' career, devote time to one's kids, run in effect two micro-businesses (my various RPG ventures, and another separate unrelated one), and keep up with the dramas that can arise in one's family and personal life, before something gives. At a certain point, in the same way that one's body under hardship focuses its energies on core functions, I found that my mind was taking a ruthless approach to making distinctions between necessary and unnecessary tasks. And posting here at Monsters & Manuals, regrettably, found itself in the category of 'Unnecessary Tasks'. 

The 'Necessary Tasks' column has, however, now thankfully had a large number of entries crossed out, and I find myself, like some previously hibernating animal, emerging from darkness into sunlight. I am a bit dazed and confused. But I also feel reinvigorated and full of ideas. And this is at least in part because I have discovered - this is likely also true of you, if you are reading this - that the imaginative, escapist aspect of the tabletop roleplaying hobby is not just a nice luxury but actually meets an important need of some kind that lies deep in my character.

There is an irony, here, in other words: for all that writing this blog was for some time 'unnecessary' in terms of immediate and pressing goals, it was connected to something that is actually very necessary in managing my stress levels - i.e. neckbeard elfgames. It is Important with a capital 'I' that I have imaginative outlets. If I don't, I become grumpy, short-tempered and boring. (Okay, okay, even more grumpy, short-tempered and boring.) Worse, I feel angsty and unfulfilled, as though there is a caged animal inside me that, in its frustration at not being allowed out, is beginning to attack its own cage with teeth and claws.

I can't explain why this is or why it is that I feel this way while others may get the same feeling from watching films or TV or playing video games or watching/playing sports or knitting or whatever else it might be. But I do feel this way and recognise it as a significant feature of my personality that will not change. 

In the forthcoming days and weeks, I intend to get back to a proper pattern of regular, two-or-three-times-a-week blogging. I also intend to get back to producing actual material for future releases. And I also have exciting news about forthcoming publication(s). But in the meantime, it's nice to be back - if anybody is still reading, of course!