Every year I publish a look back at my favorite writing, podcast and video appearances for the year. This helps me remember what I’ve done, re-up things to people who discovered me late in the year and when attempting to freelance gives me a handy spot to find work to share with editors and other hiring managers.
The most popular story in the history of Full Moon Storytelling is no longer about sports. My essay on how to use third places to amplify verisimilitude surpassed the sports and cultures essay and then lapped it, twice in just a year. This helped boost Full Moon Storytelling to have 74% more views than last year and in 2023 it had more total views and visitors than the total of either from its founding in 2014 to 2022. Federating via WordPress helped contribute to that growth as well.
D&D: Honor Among Thieves had an interesting release. Opening week was fine, but not great. The falloff was significant, and yet there are many reasons to think that there will be a sequel. It was a massive success when it came to marketing D&D and is one of the most streamed movies of 2023. My fascination with the mainstreaming of the hobby by Hollywood is one of my favorite writings.
Ended the year as the 8th most popular movie to purchase on Google, Rakuten and Amazon.
It spent 246 days in Google’s top 10 most purchased movies & shows again globally. That’s basically every day it was available.
On Paramount+, its primary streaming platform, it spent 228 days in the top 10 globally good for 9th overall. It spent the weekend in 6th worldwide and 4th in the USA on P+
On iTunes it finished 12th, with 224 days in the top 10.
In Asia it was streamed on HBO Max. It spent 83 days in the top 10 globally for HBO movies, despite only being available in limited markets.
In much of Latin America it was on Star+. It finished 11th among movies on that platform, spending 46 days in the top 10.
Backgrounds continue to be my specialty. The most popular released this year was the Weaver, working its way into the top 5 all time.
During a vacation I saw roads with funky names and decided they can inspire D&D and other fantasy settings. You too can find inspiration in normal places.
Why do I keep a d20 in my pocket? Because it gives me a sense of belonging.
I sponsored two soccer teams. Our Flag Means Offside FC and What We Do On The Sidelines FC had opposite records on the field, but they’re both #1 in my heart. I’ve already sponsored a spring 2024 team. I can’t wait to see the new jersey.
Sounders and other soccer
Back in 2008 I founded Sounder at Heart. In 2019 I left to work for Tacoma Defiance and Reign FC. This year the current Managing Editor, Jeremiah Oshan took the site independent. As part of that effort I took over the twice-weekly newsletter now called the Ship’s Log.
I also help maintain the Depth Chart and cover Defiance.
Risk Intelligence
For Factal I also help with a newsletter — Benchmarker. Similar to the SaH newsletter, the open rates are climbing, click-through rates are climbing and distribution is growing. Mostly, my job there is to help people within Global Security, Business Continuity, Resilience and Crisis find our free resources (and then our paid service). The work we do there helps keep people alive and business operating. You can read more about that in our annual recap.
People outside of security and continuity fields will enjoy things I don’t do — the Factal Forecast and The Debrief. The Forecast is our editors’ look at the planned news of the next week. The Debrief dives deep into an issue that isn’t on the front page of US media, but needs attention.