Entry for 24th July, 2008

In my last entry I admitted to a dangerous flirtation with Facebook.
One of the good things about Facebook is the way that little pictures of your friends' lives pop up from time to time. I was fascinated, for instance, recently to see photographs of Leigh O's dungeon and dragons' evenings. He lives hundreds of miloes from me, but his life mirrors mine.
I recognise his life.
It's not just the fact that we are playing the same game: it's not the fact that the same rule books and dice litter the table. It's more than that. I see evidence of unhealthy snacks. The odd can of lager. The total absence of women. I see the same slightly guilty smile on the face of forty-something men who realise in their heart of hearts that slaying the Cloaker Beast from the Astral Plane isn't an entirely wholesome way to be spending their lives.
Those of you who don't play don't understand. You don't know what it is like to be living and creating a little narrative out of paper and dice and imagination. Inside my head, once a fortnight, I get to inhabit another world. And not one that a novelist created. But one that me and my mates are inventing, on the hoof, in real time.
More power to you Leigh O and your mates. I hope your world is thrilling.