Laura VanArendonk Baugh's Blog, page 3

When Aliens Invaded Rural Kentucky

In 2017 I traveled to Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which was the location of longest totality for the solar eclipse. You can read about how that went over at this post. But during this season of celestial event anticipation (we have another total eclipse happening this spring, this time in my backyard),… Continue reading

Hurray! ONLY THE DEAD FACE NORTH is a go!

Thanks to all of you wonderful people, Only The Dead Face North is fully funded on Kickstarter. Actually, it’s more than fully funded. It’s over 5x funded. We additionally unlocked the stretch goals of pre-made printable character sheets for D&D 5e, for Pathfinder, and for Legend of the Five Rings,… Continue reading

My First Kickstarter Has Launched! And Funded!

I was going to write this post when my Kickstarter launched, but I delayed a bit…and then had to change the update. I launched my very first Kickstarter this week. And it funded within 2 hours. Thank you so much!! This is a somewhat new kind of project for me.… Continue reading

Giftmas 2023

Once upon a time, there was a town. It wasn’t a city, large and anonymous and impersonal. It wasn’t a tiny village, either, with only a few households of families local for generations. No, this was a town, of exactly the size you’d think of in a heart-warming holiday tale,… Continue reading

Holiday Card recap, an Advent-ure Story Calendar, and a big donation! You guys rock.

I’m going to start this by telling you, my dear readers, what you did for me. And then I share what we did for others. So every year I offer cards to anybody who wants to sign up for one. Wherever you are in the world, I will send you… Continue reading

Abe no Seimei and Seimei Jinja

I was in Kyōto. I was looking up something else on my phone and saw “Seimei Jinja” on the screen map, not too far from my ryokan. My metaphorical antennae immediately pricked, and I knew I had to make a detour. If you’ve read my Kitsune Tales stories, you might… Continue reading

Holiday Cards! 2023 Edition

🎶It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas….🎶 Well, not really. We still have Halloween and American Thanksgiving to go. But in terms of planning ahead… It’s time again! Every year, I offer to send Christmas cards to anyone who wants one. It’s been so much fun to send cards… Continue reading

Luggage Panic and Time Travel

Here’s a story with little take-home moral. :) Tuesday morning, I woke up in Tōkyō. I got up early after four hours of sleep and caught a shinkansen (often called a “bullet train” in the USA). Three days before, I’d stayed at a hotel and sent on a suitcase full… Continue reading

Best Short Story!

Just a quick update! I’ve just returned from the RealmMakers conference and awards banquet. Of the five short story finalists, two were mine! They were “Neon Green in D Minor,” a cyberpunk retelling of the Pied Piper fairy tale, and “Love My Neighbor,” a contemporary fantasy. And “Love My Neighbor”… Continue reading

That time I got stuck in England…

So you might remember we had a global pandemic which affected a lot of travel plans. One of those plans was a family transatlantic cruise from Southampton to New York–or, as my mother repeatedly described it, “the Titanic route.” That trip was eventually rescheduled for April of 2023, and so… Continue reading