Greystone Valley: Sarah

On By Charlie BrooksIn FictionLeave a comment

“Sarah!”

Sarah sighed as she snapped out of her imaginary world. She was still in Doctor Goldberg’s office, and only five minutes had passed. She sat up straight in an overstuffed chair and ran her hands across the legs of her blue jeans.

“What is it, Doctor Goldberg?” She batted her eyes innocently as she spoke.

“You weren’t listening to me at all, were you?”

“Of course I was.”

“Then what did I say?”

“Um…that I have problems telling the difference between fantasy and reality?”

Doctor Goldberg’s gray mustache twitched in irritation. “That was a lucky guess.”

The story of Greystone Valley is really the story of Sarah, a twelve year old girl who finds herself trapped in a fantasy realm. In some ways, it’s the ideal situation for Sarah, who has become obsessed with fairy tales and stories about magic. On the other hand, none of the heroes Sarah has read about have ever had to fight armies and hide from cave trolls while in her pajamas.

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Facts About Lead Poisoning and What You Can Do About It

On By Charlie BrooksIn ParentingLeave a comment

Originally published on BabyCenter.com March 22, 2013

The worst day of my parenting life came about a year ago when my wife and I found out that our son had lead poisoning. All I could think of at the time was, “We just screwed up our son’s life.” Fortunately, that wasn’t true.

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Fiction: Sympathy from the Devil

On By Charlie BrooksIn FictionLeave a comment

Here I am. Standing in front of her grave, watching as she sinks into the ground. If I was still a kid then I’d probably stare wide-eyed, wondering what sort of unseen magician’s trick makes the coffin float and what was in the box. Instead I’ve grown up, so I stand around listening to feeble apologies and trying to keep myself from crying.

She’s not coming back. I keep telling that to myself, turning it over in my mind like a mantra, keeping away the disappointment that hides behind naïve hope.

There he is. When all of the mourners are gone and she’s buried deep down so I can never see her again, I look up to see the Devil standing next to me, his head bowed in what I assume is mock respect. Right now he looks like Al Pacino.

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Comics & Quests: Jammers

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, Role-Playing GamesLeave a comment

Our last adventure ended rather abruptly with Jasmine’s kidnapping. The resolution to that story doesn’t happen in the pages of the Forgotten Realms comics, though. Instead, DC tried to introduce a new line of D&D comics, bringing in the brand-new Spelljammer setting.

Released early in 2nd edition AD&D, Spelljammer served as a way to connect other settings. By using a magical form of space travel, characters could leave the Forgotten Realms to journey to Oerth, Krynn, or one of the many other settings that came out as 2nd edition got rolling. For the comic stories, this meant a chance to tie the two existing Forgotten Realms-based lines in with a new cast of characters, creating a grand crossover.

Quite honestly, I’m surprised that Hasbro hasn’t tried to duplicate this effort in the modern day. In an era where every major corporation sees its creative properties as content to iterate upon and where shared universes are all the rage, the many worlds if D&D offer a potential goldmine.

Then again, maybe I shouldn’t give Hasbro any ideas…

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Comics & Quests: Undead Love

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, Role-Playing GamesLeave a comment

In “Triangles,” the Realms Master added a new member of their crew in Jasmine…and I complained that she and Ishi were reduced to one-note romantic interests for Agrivar. But that was only her first story, so where are we now?

Well, the next tale, “Undead Love,” presents a lich seeking a bride…and selecting Jasmine as his wife-to-be. So it seems that the creative team has a very particular direction for this character.

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Introducing Your Child to Comic Books

On By Charlie BrooksIn Comics, ParentingLeave a comment

Originally posted on BabyCenter.com March 1, 2013

I’m not going to lie: part of the reason I was excited for the chance to read to my son was because I wanted a chance to share my favorite comics.

Talking about comics with adults is usually an exercise in futility. There are those adults who are way more into comics than I am, and conversations with them usually turn into gripe-fests about how the most recent issue of the Hulk failed to note the title character’s ability to adapt to underwater conditions, which was clearly indicated in The Incredible Hulk, volume 3, issue #77. Other adults tend to give me a wide-eyed stare when I mention that I read comics and start to back away slowly lest I bombard them with the minutiae about the different types of kryptonite introduced in Superman mythos (incidentally, there are 18, and this year marks the 70th anniversary of kryptonite’s introduction in comics). If I want to geek out about comics without getting too nitpicky about the details or having somebody call security on me, then kids are the way to go. And that means that I need to get my son up to speed.

As with any media, though, you need to consider carefully what comics you introduce your child to. Just as you wouldn’t want your two-year old watching an R-rated movie, you don’t want to introduce your child to something like Watchmen. Through trial and error, I have come up with a few guidelines when it comes to picking comics for kids.

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Site News: And We’re Back!

On By Charlie BrooksIn Site NewsLeave a comment

Welcome to 2025! Updates to the Screamsheet will resume next week, with the same diverse grab-bag of content that I usually do.

I am hoping to structure my updates a bit more formally starting in 2025. Ideally, I’m hoping for updates on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

If I stick to this format, Mondays will be a port of old content to the this site, such as my BabyCenter blogs, information on my books, and old content that I retrieve using the Internet Archive. Wednesdays will be new content, including digging through more Comics & Quests, ramblings about history and literature, and other eclectic thoughts. Fridays, I hope, will be a fiction update, either a short story or a segment of something longer akin to a serial. I tend to get more motivated to write when I’m putting stuff in front of the public, even if it is a rough draft.

If I stick to that schedule, that’s a total of about 150 updates in 2025 and a potential novel’s worth of new fiction. That seems ambitious, but there’s nothing wrong with aiming high.

Happy 2025! Here’s hoping I manage to keep my nose to the grindstone!

Site News: Happy Holidays!

On By Charlie BrooksIn Site NewsLeave a comment

Here we are, approaching the end of 2024. While there are many things I don’t like about this year, I am happy that I’ve found a routing of regular updates to the Screamsheet after several inconsistent years.

I’m going to take a bit of a winter hibernation for a couple weeks, returning in early January. I plan to keep site updates to the Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule I’ve established, and am hoping to make Fridays a day for new fiction, posting some rough drafts of new stories.

Whatever you celebrate, enjoy some happy holidays and have a great new year. I’ll see you in 2025!