#swept up

[hpowellsmith]

oh! it's lesbian day?

Play swept up, my tiny Twine about murderous girls in the desert:

swept up by hpowellsmith

girls on the run

And Get Seen Tonight, my scifi Texture game about a cop falling for her torch singer informant (the cover art has my old name on but it's so pretty that I don't want to change it; it works best on mobile, as the sizing of the button text goes weird on some browsers):

Get Seen Tonight by hpowellsmith

Your girlfriend messed up. Can you smuggle her out of town?

[howifeltabouthim]

At first you think that your actions are propelling your little boat along at such speed; then you realize that the speed, the propulsion, has nothing to do with you. It is something happening to you.

Joyce Carol Oates, from The Falls

[chrisabrams]

swept up | chrili | 11.4

Continued from here: @elihummelsub​

Chris knew exactly how needy Eli was for him. That was why he had no qualms about denying the boy from time to time; he’d always come crawling back for more...literally. If he was honest, though - Chris was pretty horny that afternoon himself, so playing cat and mouse with the submissive didn’t seem to be in his best interest. Dressed in nothing but a pair of gym-shorts that hung low on his hips, exposing the beginnings of the sharp ‘v’ that pointed to one of his better assets, Chris answered the door and immediately snickered at corny compliments he was immediately showered with. “Jesus, you’re cheesy.” He laughed, shaking his head at Eli. “Get in here.” The red-head stepped aside to allow Eli inside before he shut the door, falling back against it and making a point to tighten up his body for Eli’s viewing pleasure. “You were saying?”

[alienspaceshipcentral]

Got swept up in Star Wars last night, why is it every time I watch one of those films I want to set aside a weekend and do a marathon of the entire set? How much would this be handy for traffic...

[hpowellsmith]

swept up turns 10 today!

swept up is a short Twine about blood, violent girls, and the desert.

swept up by hpowellsmith

girls on the run

It takes a matter of minutes to play, but it has a couple of different endings and a number of branches and callbacks. I loved making it: I will always be an easy sell for this kind of thing* and it was fun to do it myself.

I've not written anything as stark/stylised as this since, but I did enjoy using the one-word choice sets again in Heretic Dreams: I like the effect a lot.

It was the first writing I was ever paid for - the following year, sub-Q magazine got in touch asking about reprinting Aquarium but it was too large for them to afford, so I sent swept up in the hopes that it would be accepted. And to my delight, it was! Unfortunately I've misplaced the lovely cover art they made for it, and the magazine site's sadly gone now, but the original game is still up on itch.io.

This had a massive ripple effect: knowing that people were interested in paying for my work led directly to my writing career now. swept up has even been used as teaching materials in at least one college course, which is the wildest thing I've ever heard.

I certainly didn't know any of that when I made this, though - it was very fast and fun to make, and I mostly just shared it with my friends. But it made me realise that my instinct was to do this in an interactive medium rather than a short story or poem, which I hadn't considered so much before playing around with Twine. I remain very fond of it.

*girls being murderous. Bad consequences. Bite-or-make-out feelings. Deserts.

[howifeltabouthim]

'By my life,' he said, 'you make me forget myself.'

Mary Balogh, from Thief of Dreams

[howifeltabouthim]

The trouble was that one's mind did not work quite rationally when one was being kissed by the only man one had ever loved, and the man one had loved so totally that no one had ever been able to take his place.

Mary Balogh, from The Constant Heart

[bridgetwinderart]

Swept Up.

9 inch x 12 inch, graphite and water-based oils on paper

www.bridgetwinder.com

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All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws without artist consent or a credit line: Bridget Winder Art.