Almost a year ago, an opportunity knocked for Café Nordo to open our own theater in the heart of old Seattle. We transformed our board of directors, started a capital campaign, and began raising money, all to bring about Nordo’s Culinarium.

Our Kickstarter to raise $35,000 to build our new kitchen has just concluded. We hit $39,000, which is fantastic. Added to our overall campaign, we’ve raised more than $200,000.

The work to build out our new theater and kitchen in part of the old Elliot Bay Bookstore in Pioneer Square is well underway. Contractors are building new bathrooms, redoing the plumbing and electricity, putting in new kitchen tile, and much more. It’s a big project.

Thanks to Kickstarter and to my many friends, family, and colleagues who contributed and spread the word. This is a major milestone in our quest and I’m thrilled by the journey.

My friends at Kobold Press are running a Kickstarter for their beautiful new project: a pulp fantasy adventure sourcebook that looks gorgeous. Please take a look!

Our Kickstarter to raise $35,000 for kitchen equipment in our new Nordo’s Culinarium space in Pioneer Square is heading for the finish line! I’m the chairman of the board for this Seattle nonprofit and I hope you’ll take a look at our project. We’re building a new theater in Seattle and launching a new season of performances, food, lectures, music, and more — kicking off next month with the debut of our new show, DON NORDO DEL MIDWEST, a scrumptious tale of a mad chef, his sidekick, and their journey of destruction and creation through some of the worst restaurants in the country. Please check out our Kickstarter and join our quest!

With the return of fall, I’m getting back onto a semi-regular writing schedule. I’ve completed the short stories I committed to many months ago, which means I’m finally resuming work on my second novel, the first draft of which I wrote last November during NaNoWriMo. It’s been on hold since January when I had to get going on those stories, but I’m picking it up again and marking off some revisions on an old checklist. I’m glad to resume work on it again, to live in that world again. It’s been too long.

This beautiful 1930s mural by Thomas Hart Benton used to be in the lobby of a skyscraper in Manhattan where Microsoft had a couple floors of offices. I made several visits there and I remember being floored the first time I saw this and realized it was by Benton. It’s gorgeous, impassioned, and epic. I’m glad it has a new home at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural at the Met

“Thomas Hart Benton’s ‘America Today’ Mural Rediscovered” offers a raucous, wide-angle look at America as it entered the Depression.

Tonight I’m making final revisions to my first new Delta Green short story in many years, “The Lucky Ones,” which will appear in the forthcoming anthology Delta Green: Extraordinary Renditions. It’s a grim New England ghost story and I’m really happy with it, happier than I’ve been with any short story in a long time.

One of the fringe benefits of marrying a fellow writer is getting terrific and very practical feedback on your drafts. Many thanks to my wife for reading this creepy tale and giving me the tools I need to finish it right.

This work calls for suitable mood music, which tonight is Leyland Kirby’s three-hour spooktacular album We Drink to Forget the Coming Storm, which is about as perfect a Delta Green album title as I can imagine.

At Microsoft, I run the Imagine Cup global student technology competition. The winners of my contest this year got a meeting with Bill Gates. I’m really thrilled for these students and Monica Guzman at Geekwire was there to write about the experience.

When your next meeting is with Bill Gates – GeekWire

Imagine Cup 2014 winners Jarrel Seah and Jennifer Tang show Bill Gates the technology behind their winning app, Eyenaemia. (Photo credit: Microsoft) What w

We’ve launched our first Cafe Nordo Kickstarter to raise funds to build out a kitchen in our new Pioneer Square location! The video is pretty great and the project is terrific. If you’re interested in the intersection of food, storytelling, visual art, literature, music, and performance then the unique institution we’re building is your next favorite place in Seattle. Please check it out!

Writing my third short story of the year. This one’s for Delta Green. And as Ken Hite likes to say, “It’s not writing, it’s just research.” To wit: this article from the Lakeside Monthly, July, 1871, about a rare case of relatively modern jurisprudence in which the convicting evidence was produced by supernatural means and duly recorded in a court of law.

The Lakeside Monthly

The new episode of the Unspeakable Podcast kicks off with Ken Hite describing the time he and I explored a derelict riverboat casino in Mississippi, which is always a good time.

Unspeakable! Episode 13: Lovecraft Meets Tradecraft – Delta Green Scenario Workshop at GenCon 2014

Featuring Dennis Detwiller, Adam Scott Glancy, Kenneth Hite, Shane Ivey, Greg Stolze. Audio produced by Ross Payton. Subscribe to the Unspeakable! podcast feed at http://theunspeakableoath.com/home/?feed=podcast Or subscribe at iTunes. We arrive in the middle of Ken Hite's story of exploring a derel…